USA v. Barrack, Grimes, etc.

[raison de arizona]

Trump ally Thomas Barrack arrested on federal charge

• Thomas Barrack, who served as chairman of the 2017 inaugural fund for then-President Donald Trump, has been arrested on federal charges, several law enforcement officials told NBC News on Tuesday.
• The charges against Barrack, which apparently are not connected to the inauguration-related fund, are expected to be unsealed soon.

https://www.cnbc.com/2021/07/20/thomas- ... harge.html

[Volkonski]

Wow! They actually arrested a Trump-loving billionaire.

[Volkonski]

[Volkonski]

[Estiveo]

FARA case

Estiveoshot_20210720_115300.jpg

https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/former-a ... ts-foreign

[Volkonski]

[Volkonski]

[AndyinPA]

I'm impressed. Bring it on.

[Phoenix]

Yes!!!!

So many of his “friends” are going to be sorry they acknowledged their friendships, let alone helped him with anything. Even if they were totally aboveboard in what they did for him, if they’re at all shady they’re now under intense scrutiny.

#ETTD

[RVInit]

Imagine that. The UAE had an inside man and just happen to be the very country that bailed Kushner's ass out of a looming financial crisis.

[tek]

oh_boy.jpg (14.58 KiB) Viewed 4179 times

hopefully only just the beginning

[RTH10260]

Thomas Barrack, Trump Fund-Raiser, Indicted on Lobbying Charge
Mr. Barrack, who served as chairman of Donald Trump’s inaugural committee, was accused in the Eastern District of New York of failing to register as a lobbyist for the United Arab Emirates.

By Sharon LaFraniere and William K. Rashbaum
July 20, 2021 Updated 3:25 p.m. ET

WASHINGTON — Thomas J. Barrack Jr., a close friend of former President Donald J. Trump and one of his top 2016 campaign fund-raisers, was indicted on Tuesday morning on federal charges of violating a federal law requiring lobbyists for foreign interests to disclose their work to the Justice Department.

Federal prosecutors and the F.B.I. have been investigating Mr. Barrack for nearly three years, focusing on whether he tried to sway Mr. Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign or his administration on behalf of Persian Gulf nations with huge stakes in United States policy.

The inquiry was overseen by prosecutors in the public integrity section of United States attorney’s office for the Eastern District of New York. In an interview two years ago, a spokesman for Mr. Barrack said he had acted as an independent intermediary between Persian Gulf leaders and the Trump campaign and administration, not on behalf of foreign officials or entities.

The indictment charged Mr. Barrack and two other men with failing to register as agents of the United Arab Emirates government. The other two men charged were Matthew Grimes, a former top executive at Mr. Barrack’s company, and Rashid al-Malik Alshahhi, an Emirati businessman who is close to the U.A.E. rulers.


https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/20/us/t ... icted.html

[Gregg]

Two thought, first, this is awful close to "Vanky, even if no charges are related to the Inauguration Committee.

Second, this is the beginning of the world's first billionaire coffee boy.

[Volkonski]

[Chilidog]

I've been trolling on Facebook that "Barrack got arrested today!
He did the perp walk in handcuffs "

Lol

[Kendra]

Thread at the link.

[northland10]

I am getting a whiff of diesel fumes emanating from Bedminster.

Apuzzo, Laity, and the others keep going on about being born with allegiance and loyalty while a bunch of Trump campaign cronies are lobbying on behalf of foreign countries.

[bob]

Ob. "When I said arrest Barrack, I meant Obama!"

[filly]

Yup . Billionaire with very highly paid lawyers sits in jail for nearly a week while negotiations go on. Seems normal!

[fierceredpanda]

Yup . Billionaire with very highly paid lawyers sits in jail for nearly a week while negotiations go on. Seems normal!

Actually, it's a smart move if the alternative was having the US Attorney go into a courtroom for a bail hearing today or tomorrow and say the following: "Your Honor, we don't have a joint bail package to propose at this time, and the defendant is an obvious flight risk. He is a billionaire with practically unlimited resources and, as the court can see from the indictment, extensive overseas contacts with co-conspirators who also have means and good reasons to assist the defendant in fleeing the jurisdiction of the United States. Therefore, Your Honor, the Government takes the position, given the strength of its case and the gravity of the charges, that bail should be denied and the defendant should be detained pending trial. Thank you."

If they need a week to put a bail package together than the prosecutors are satisfied will guarantee his future appearance, then that week is time well-spent. His lawyers are from Paul Hastings. While I certainly don't ascribe to the school of thought of overly trusting Biglaw, Paul Hastings doesn't have the rep for shady dealing and shoddy lawyering that a lot of other Biglaw firms (*cough* Skadden *cough*) have.

[somerset]

Thomas Barrack, Trump Fund-Raiser, Indicted on Lobbying Charge
Mr. Barrack, who served as chairman of Donald Trump’s inaugural committee, was accused in the Eastern District of New York of failing to register as a lobbyist for the United Arab Emirates.

By Sharon LaFraniere and William K. Rashbaum
July 20, 2021 Updated 3:25 p.m. ET

WASHINGTON — Thomas J. Barrack Jr., a close friend of former President Donald J. Trump and one of his top 2016 campaign fund-raisers, was indicted on Tuesday morning on federal charges of violating a federal law requiring lobbyists for foreign interests to disclose their work to the Justice Department.

Federal prosecutors and the F.B.I. have been investigating Mr. Barrack for nearly three years, focusing on whether he tried to sway Mr. Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign or his administration on behalf of Persian Gulf nations with huge stakes in United States policy.

The inquiry was overseen by prosecutors in the public integrity section of United States attorney’s office for the Eastern District of New York. In an interview two years ago, a spokesman for Mr. Barrack said he had acted as an independent intermediary between Persian Gulf leaders and the Trump campaign and administration, not on behalf of foreign officials or entities.

The indictment charged Mr. Barrack and two other men with failing to register as agents of the United Arab Emirates government. The other two men charged were Matthew Grimes, a former top executive at Mr. Barrack’s company, and Rashid al-Malik Alshahhi, an Emirati businessman who is close to the U.A.E. rulers.


https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/20/us/t ... icted.html

Some "money quotes" from this article that answer a question or two:

My first question was, "Why is Barrack involved in all of this? What's in it for him?"

Mr. Barrack’s real estate and private equity firm, Colony Capital, profited from substantial investments from the Emirates and Saudi Arabia, countries that are closely aligned. In the three years after Mr. Trump became the Republican Party’s nominee for president in July 2016, Colony Capital received about $1.5 billion from those two Persian Gulf countries through investments or other transactions. Of that, about $474 million came from sovereign wealth funds controlled by their governments.

This made me smile:

The federal inquiry into Mr. Barrack’s ties with foreign leaders was an outgrowth of the investigation led by Robert S. Mueller III, the special counsel, into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election.

The special counsel’s work put a spotlight on violations of the Foreign Agents Registration Act, known as FARA, and led to a greater effort by the Justice Department to enforce it. The law requires those who work for foreign governments, political parties or other entities to influence American policy or public opinion to disclose their activities to the department.

It also wouldn't surprise me if more indictments come out of Mueller's investigation later on.

Another question I had was, "how real are these charges? Is the government stretching things to make this all sound worse than it really is?" I'm still not convinced that there isn't some embellishment going on, but this paragraph suggests Barrack was being more than "not being fully truthful:"

According to the indictment, Mr. al-Malik was a key intermediary between Mr. Barrack and the Emirati leadership. In court papers, prosecutors said Mr. Barrack told State Department officials in 2017 that he did not know where Mr. al-Malik was from or whether he was affiliated with any foreign government. But privately, prosecutors said, Mr. Barrack repeatedly referred to Mr. al-Malik as the Emirates’ “secret weapon” to advance its foreign policy agenda with the Trump campaign and administration.

Finally, when you have citizenship outside the US, a long-range private jet and billions at your disposal, yeah, you're a real flight risk:

Late Tuesday, a federal magistrate detained Mr. Barrack and Mr. Grimes, pending a bail hearing on Monday. Prosecutors had described Mr. Barrack as a flight risk, citing his wealth, Lebanese citizenship, private jet and deep ties to the Emirates and other Persian Gulf countries.

[AndyinPA]

There is just never enough money in the world for these filthy-rich psychopaths. They just have to have more, more, more...

[somerset]

I found this piece on Tom Barrack from a 2005 Fortune Magazine article:

https://archive.fortune.com/magazines/f ... /index.htm
(limited by the four paragraph rule, but there's lots more at the link)

Barrack is a man of immense charm, a swashbuckler who moves at a furious gallop yet exudes an aura of calm. At 6-foot-3, he has the lanky build of a wide receiver--and the velocity: He's constantly circling the globe in his Gulfstream IV. "He goes crazy if he has to stay in the same place three nights in a row," says Mark Hedstrom, Colony's CFO. In the summer Barrack ostensibly lives in Sardinia, but he jets off every few days to New York, London, or Tokyo and spends weekends with his family in the South of France at a medieval chateau, once summer home to the bishop of Grasse. (Barrack has a 9-year-old son plus three adult children from a previous marriage.) He sleeps no more than four hours a night and doesn't wear a watch. "In his world there is no day and no night," says Tom Harrison, a chief lieutenant. "He acknowledges no changes in time zone. His time is totally fluid." For relaxation he plays polo at tournaments in California--his teammates are three Argentine professionals he's hired--or surfs in Hawaii with a free-spirited bunch of fiftysomething locals who've dubbed themselves the Beach Boys.

....

The grandson of Lebanese immigrants, Barrack grew up in the Los Angeles suburbs in a tiny stucco house, where his mother hung out the wash. His father worked 18 hours a day at the family grocery store. After school Tom stamped prices on cans and manned the register. He went on to the University of Southern California, where he was a star on a national-championship rugby team, worked on campaigns for California Republicans, and in 1972 got a law degree. His first job was at the firm of Herb Kalmbach, President Nixon's personal attorney, but he didn't stay long. One of the firm's biggest clients, construction giant Fluor Corp., needed a volunteer to live in Saudi Arabia for a few months to negotiate a contract. Saudi Arabia was hardly a posh posting, but with oil dollars rolling in, it was deal central. Barrack leaped at the chance.

He found himself sleeping on a filthy cot in a Riyadh dormitory without indoor plumbing. But he soon learned that an American lawyer who could connect swaggering Texas contractors with berobed Saudi sheikhs could be a hot commodity. When his Fluor assignment ended, Barrack stayed on and went to work reviewing deals for two young Saudi princes. (Foreign suitors needed a sponsor in the royal family to win government contracts.) Barrack learned Arabic and immersed himself in the local folkways. "When I'd go back to California for a visit, my friends couldn't understand what I was doing," he recalls. But he knew: By going down the road less traveled, he was positioning himself to jump ahead. And jump he did. Barrack became a powerful middleman, and over 4½ years did tens of millions in deals for the princes, who collected rich commissions. Barrack himself made just $200,000 during his stint in the desert kingdom. "It was indentured servitude," he jokes. "A great education, and highly unprofitable."

....

THE SAUDI ADVENTURE was the first in a series of crafty career moves. Barrack returned to the States in 1976, when Dunn hired him to run his California-based company, a large builder of industrial and office parks. Barrack learned all about reading blueprints, parsing construction costs for office vs. warehouse space, and calculating what price per square foot to pay for land. When Dunn sold the company in 1980, Barrack stayed to run it for two years. After his unhappy stint with Watt in D.C. and a brief run as an investment banker, he was recruited by billionaire Bob Bass to work on real estate deals. A classic Barrack moment came on Oct. 19, 1987, the infamous Black Monday, when the stock market crashed. Barrack and David Bonderman, a Bass recruit who would become Barrack's partner on many deals, had been planning a bid for the Westin hotel chain owned by Allegis. In that day's trading, Allegis stock fell 30%. Though Westin bids weren't due for a week, Barrack offered a one-day-only price of $1.3 billion. If the board fiddled, he warned, the offer would drop by $25 million a day. Desperate to secure a decent price amid the market meltdown, Allegis said yes. Barrack and Bonderman passed off most of the hotels to their Japanese partners. But they kept the Plaza for the Bass group at a cost of $250 million, and they quickly flipped it to Trump for $410 million.

[filly]

Yup . Billionaire with very highly paid lawyers sits in jail for nearly a week while negotiations go on. Seems normal!

Actually, it's a smart move if the alternative was having the US Attorney go into a courtroom for a bail hearing today or tomorrow and say the following: "Your Honor, we don't have a joint bail package to propose at this time, and the defendant is an obvious flight risk. He is a billionaire with practically unlimited resources and, as the court can see from the indictment, extensive overseas contacts with co-conspirators who also have means and good reasons to assist the defendant in fleeing the jurisdiction of the United States. Therefore, Your Honor, the Government takes the position, given the strength of its case and the gravity of the charges, that bail should be denied and the defendant should be detained pending trial. Thank you."

If they need a week to put a bail package together than the prosecutors are satisfied will guarantee his future appearance, then that week is time well-spent. His lawyers are from Paul Hastings. While I certainly don't ascribe to the school of thought of overly trusting Biglaw, Paul Hastings doesn't have the rep for shady dealing and shoddy lawyering that a lot of other Biglaw firms (*cough* Skadden *cough*) have.

How many other billionaires have spent a week in jail after an initial arrest by the feds for a non-violent felony?

[Domenico]

How many other billionaires have spent a week in jail after an initial arrest by the feds for a non-violent felony?

Let's hope he isn't 'Epsteined' before he spills the beans on Vanky and the gang.