FBI uncovered Russian bribery plot before Obama admin approved nuclear deal with Moscow

a reply to: butcherguy

What's interesting is the FBI Director is handing over this sample, while simultaneously in that year investigating the kickback scheme.

There is way more in this story we are not seeing yet.

originally posted by: theantediluvian
a reply to: pavil

It only makes sense that the sample would be given to the Russians for analysis so they could determine from isotope ratios or whatever, where it had originated, etc.

Yes but doesn't the IAEA or another international organization already have that catalog of isotopes to trace things?

a reply to: Grambler

POLITIFACT did not dispute the fact of the payments, only their significance.

Link.

Has anybody other than the Hill reported on this yet? Especially if much of the material is in the public domain.

a reply to: Grambler

Nobody sold Mikerin anything. Mikerin was the general director of TENAM USA, a subsidiary of TENEX which is a subsidiary of Rosatom. What does TENAM USA actually do? It doesn't actually process uranium. TENEX is the export arm of Rosatom essentially. TENAM is the US import arm of TENEX.

In a nutshell, what TENAM does is transport Russian uranium to American nuclear plants. What Mikerin actually did was to conspire with TLI and others to defraud TENEX.

Maybe start here:

FBI.gov - Russian National and Three Others Charged in Kickback Scheme to Obtain Contracts to Transport Russian Nuclear Fuel to the U.S.

GREENBELT, MD—A criminal complaint was unsealed late yesterday charging Vadim Mikerin, age 55, a Russian national residing in Chevy Chase, Maryland, with conspiring to commit extortion in connection with a scheme to obtain contracts from a Russian company without having to compete for the contracts. A separate criminal complaint charges Daren Condrey and his wife Carol Condrey, both age 49, of Glenwood, Maryland, and Boris Rubizhevsky, age 63, of Closter, New Jersey, with conspiring to commit wire fraud in connection with the scheme.

The criminal complaints were announced by United States Attorney for the District of Maryland Rod J. Rosenstein; John R. Hartman, Deputy Inspector General for Investigations, Office of Inspector General at the U.S. Department of Energy; and Assistant Director in Charge Andrew G. McCabe of the Federal Bureau of Investigation—Washington Field Office.

“Kickbacks deprive honest competitors of the opportunity to compete for business, and they cheat a company of its right to faithful decisions by its employee,” said U.S. Attorney Rod J. Rosenstein.

In1992, the U.S. and Russia executed an agreement to dispose of Russian highly enriched uranium from disassembled nuclear warheads and for the sale of the material, once down-blended, to U.S. nuclear utility providers. JSC Techsnabexport (TENEX), based in Moscow, Russia, was responsible for the sale and transportation of this material to the United States.

Vadim Mikerin is the general director of TENAM USA, based in Bethesda, Maryland. TENAM is a subsidiary of TENEX. TENEX is a subsidiary of ROSATOM, the Russian State-owned Nuclear Corporation, which is the Russian counterpart organization of the U.S. Department of Energy.

Daren Condrey and Carol Condrey are principals of Transport Logistics International (TLI), based in Fulton, Maryland. Since 1996, TLI has contracted with TENEX to transport uranium from Russia to the U.S. Boris Rubizhevsky is the president of NEXGEN Security (NEXGEN), a New Jersey corporation. From 2011 through 2012, Rubizhevsky served as a consultant to TENAM and to Mikerin.

Beginning in 2006, Mikerin allegedly conspired with the Condreys, Rubizhevsky and others to defraud TENEX by causing contracts for the shipment of uranium from Russia to the U.S. to be awarded to the U.S. defendants and their companies without having to compete for the contracts.

According to the complaints and supporting affidavits, the Condreys and TLI bribed Mikerin to receive lucrative, non-compete contracts from TENEX. TLI has also pursued other business ventures with TENEX for transportation under separate contracts. From at least 1996 to about 2013, the Condreys and others allegedly caused TLI to pay at least $1,692,995 in kickback payments to Mikerin in exchange for receiving over $33 million in noncompetitive contracts from TENEX.

According to the affidavits, in November 2011, Mikerin required a middle man to accept kickback payments. Mikerin used Rubizhevsky and his company, NEXGEN Security, to serve as this middleman.

Again, the crime here is that Mikerin was giving no bid contracts in exchange for kick backs. That's it. The actual business being done by TENAM was completely legit. Russian uranium from decommissioned warheads being imported and used in American nuclear reactors.

I'm guessing the down-blending was being done in Russia at that so the uranium was no longer weapons grade before it even arrived in the US.

There's no evidence of anything but some pretty run-of-the-mill white collar crime but somehow The Hill managed to conflate that with Uranium One/Rosatom and UrAsia Energy/Clintons and sell this as some grand conspiracy by Mueller and the entire Obama administration to suppress information that would have changed the outcome of the CFIUS vote over the Rosatom acquisition of a controlling interest in Uranium One.

It's like taking pieces from different puzzles and trying to cram them together and hoping nobody notices that the resulting picture is a bird-truck-farmhouse-landscape-portrait monstrosity that makes no sense.

a reply to: theantediluvian

There's no evidence of anything but some pretty run-of-the-mill white collar crime but somehow The Hill managed to conflate that with Uranium One/Rosatom and UrAsia Energy/Clintons and sell this as some grand conspiracy by Mueller and the entire Obama administration to suppress information that would have changed the outcome of the CFIUS vote over the Rosatom acquisition of a controlling interest in Uranium One.

Sounds like the plan is to call it 'Fake News Lite'.

originally posted by: theantediluvian
a reply to: Grambler
It's like taking pieces from different puzzles and trying to cram them together and hoping nobody notices that the resulting picture is a bird-truck-farmhouse-landscape-portrait monstrosity that makes no sense.

Sort of like the Trump/Russia collusion narrative, huh?

a reply to: pavil

You'd think but I honestly don't know. It was a 10 gram sample. This is what 1 gram of uranium looks like:



It's not like he was smuggling uranium to Russia. This is from the cable that WikiLeaks tried to blow up into a conspiracy:

2. (S/NF) Background: Over two years ago Russia requested a ten-gram sample of highly enriched uranium (HEU) seized in early 2006 in Georgia during a nuclear smuggling sting operation involving one Russian national and several Georgian accomplices. The seized HEU was transferred to U.S. custody and is being held at a secure DOE facility. In response to the Russian request, the Georgian Government authorized the United States to share a sample of the material with the Russians for forensic analysis. Director Mueller previously planned to deliver the sample in April (Ref A), but due to a scheduling conflict the trip was canceled. Embassy Moscow LegAtt informed the FSB prior to Mueller’s intended April delivery and received confirmation that the FSB would take custody of the sample after the Director’s plane landed. EST Moscow also informed Rosatom of the planned transfer and that the U.S. placed a high priority on completing this transfer (Ref B). Once the LegAtt told FSB counterparts the April trip had been canceled, Ambassador Beyrle informed Igor Neverov (Ref C), who said that he understood but was disappointed the trip was postponed. The September 21 visit provides again an opportunity to deliver the requested ten-gram sample from the seized HEU in order to obtain cooperation from the GOR on this nuclear smuggling case and to eventually establish a more productive mechanism of U.S.-Russian cooperation on nuclear forensics.

There's nothing nefarious about it.

a reply to: theantediluvian
Not buying it.

The fbi knew of this prrsons criminal connections and behaviors, and knew he worked for a company that was about to be involved in the buying of a huge amount of uranium.

This is definitely something the fbi should have alerted the president to, and something that should have paused the sale until it was vetted.

How is it that wvery little thing into trump and russia must be looked into, but hillary getting money and her signing off on this deal, and Obama's allowing it to happen is no big deal.

We are not talking about mere influence peddling, but URANIUM sales, to a criminal involved with the country that we are told by the dems is such a huge threat that is trying to bring down the U.S..

So again, surely you would support an investigation into all of those involved.

a reply to: theantediluvian

I don't think the Mueller Uranium transfer is anything. It is weird that he felt the need to bring it there himself. Other than that, it's just proper info sharing. Imagine the reprecussions of that HEU being used in a detonated bomb somewhere.....fingers would be pointing.

a reply to: Grambler

It conflicted with their public 'Russia reset' strategy...and who knows whatever 'private' strategy.

I can't keep their public/private positions straight...

In March 2009:


In 2012, Russia is still an ally...

originally posted by: loam
a reply to: Grambler

It conflicted with their public 'Russia reset' strategy...and who knows whatever 'private' strategy.

In March 2009:

In 2012, Russia is still an ally...

Russia invaded the Ukraine in 2014.

To anyone wondering where the naysayers are, hold tight. Soros has transferred $18 billion to Open Society Foundation.

On topic: Not surprising in the least. I find it funny how often we were told Uranium One was "debunked".
Time to get the wheels of justice rolling.

originally posted by: Wardaddy454
To anyone wondering where the naysayers are, hold tight. Soros has transferred $18 billion to Open Society Foundation.

On topic: Not surprising in the least. I find it funny how often we were told Uranium One was "debunked".
Time to get the wheels of justice rolling.

I saw that.....wonder what he is up to with that kinda bankroll. He's a good guy, right?

a reply to: Grambler

ruh rhoh !

Hey left...hypocrisy much?

a reply to: Grambler

The fbi knew of this prrsons criminal connections and behaviors, and knew he worked for a company that was about to be involved in the buying of a huge amount of uranium.

This only works for you because you want it to. Mikerin worked for a subsidiary of a subsidiary of Rosatom. In fact, I'm not even sure it's quite that cut-and-dry, I think it's technically a subsidiary of a subsidiary of the same parent company of Rosatom.

His crime was defrauding his employer by giving no bid contracts in exchange for a kickback. The victim here was ultimately the Russian people.

As of 2010, when the CFIUS vote took place, from what I'm gleaned from the affidavits, the only crimes of Mikerin's that they were aware of were taking kickbacks from CS-1 for what is in the grand scheme of things, a rather small value public relations contract. $150k?

Even if the FBI had personally briefed every member of CFIUS on the investigation, what's the actual likelihood that it would have changed a single vote? Probably so close to 0 as to be statistically insignificant and yet, you're willing to passionately argue that it formed the motivation for a conspiracy that stretched from the FBI field office to the FBI director to the DOJ, the Secretary of State and the POTUS.

That doesn't seem reasonable to me.

How do you imagine it worked? The alarmed FBI agents contacted their superior who contact the deputy director, who told Mueller about this mundane white collar crime and then what? Mueller personally briefed Obama about it? And then Obama decided to sit on it, told Mueller to sit it on it and he told the agents to backburner the investigation for a couple years?

What was Obama's motivation? To do Clinton a solid because she'd gotten in his ear and told him to make sure nothing rocked the boat because the Clinton Foundation stood to make an additional 1%-2% from its involvements with UrAsia/Uranium One?

Really? The more I mull this over, the more preposterous it becomes. I think you're willing to overlook the multitude of plot holes because you like the narrative so much. Hell, we all do it. I think if you sat down to compose a new thread where you try to connect the dots without relying on partisan and anti-Clinton bias, you'd see how the dots aren't connectable.

originally posted by: Wardaddy454
To anyone wondering where the naysayers are, hold tight. Soros has transferred $18 billion to Open Society Foundation.

On topic: Not surprising in the least. I find it funny how often we were told Uranium One was "debunked".
Time to get the wheels of justice rolling.

"If you don't agree with me, you're a Soros shill"

The hallmark of objective, reasoned thinking.

originally posted by: Grambler
a reply to: theantediluvian

How is it that wvery little thing into trump and russia must be looked into, but hillary getting money and her signing off on this deal, and Obama's allowing it to happen is no big deal.

We are not talking about mere influence peddling, but URANIUM sales, to a criminal involved with the country that we are told by the dems is such a huge threat that is trying to bring down the U.S..

So again, surely you would support an investigation into all of those involved.

Dammit Grambler. STOP WITH THE LOGICAL-CLEAR-AS-DAY ARGUMENTS!!!

It's driving me MAD!!!

originally posted by: theantediluvian
a reply to: Grambler

...Hell, we all do it...

I feel like this should be embossed in granite somewhere. First time I've seen you make that admission.

Don't suppose you'd like to share a few of your own examples?



In any event, it will be interesting to see where this Hill article goes. Time will tell.

Between Mexican drug cartels, ISIS, Al Qaeda, Iran, and the Russians, it seems the left is hell bent on arming our enemies ...No wonder they're all pi**ed off at the hard line stance Trump is taking against North Korea and Kim Jong Un's pursuit of an intercontinental nuclear missile cache. It flies directly in the face of their agenda.

But "enemies" is a relative term when it comes to these weapons and uranium deals. It appears that our real enemies are these type of domestic sell outs we have in Washington taking bribes, enacting legislation, sowing divide, and generally undermining the very American constituency they were elected and sworn in to represent and uphold the laws and ideals of. Screw 'em ...

They all belong in jail.