var magazine_text_258356 = ''; Felix Henry Sater / setr / (born Felix Mikhailovich Sheferovsky; [4] [5] Russian: ; March 2, 1966) is a Russian-American mobster, convicted felon, [6] real estate developer and former managing director of Bayrock Group LLC, [7] a real estate conglomerate based out of New York City. Hes been a major government cooperator and was a witness in the Mueller investigation. Fisher MB LLC purchased a condo in Miami, Florida for $4.8 million. Thank you Adam Davidson for inviting me to participate on your panel at New Yorker Festival, with great guests Ruth Marcus, David Barstow, and Michael Avenatti. Celebritys Net worth, Biography, Sports, Health, Technology, & Entertainment. On this Wikipedia the language links are at the top of the page across from the article title. var params = The Russian mafia is particularly reputed to be associated with human trafficking and money laundering crimes, as well as extracting compromising information from their victims. if( magazine_button_url_258356 !='' ){ You may unsubscribe or adjust your preferences at any time. In December 2017, the Trump SoHo was renamed to The Dominick. Of all the characters caught up in Russiagate, none come close to Sater for having a decades-long record as a larger-than-life, outside-the-law, spy agency-linked wheeler-dealer from the pages of a John le Carr novel. tn_articleid: [258356], freestar.config.enabled_slots.push({ }else{ } cta_2_check_258356 = true; jQuery("#magazine_button_258356 a").attr("href",magazine_button_url_258356); Born in Russia to a mafia-boss father, Sater moved to Long Island as a boy and grew up surrounded by organized crime. }, Sorting out Saters checkered past leads into a convoluted labyrinth of crime, legal entanglements, shady deals, alleged ties to US and foreign intelligence agencies and, of course, intimate connections to Donald Trump and the Trump Organization. Tim OBrien, author of a biography of Trump, wrote about Sater in an article titled Lean, Mean Trump-Russia Machine. He was born in 1966 in the Soviet Union, and he and his family moved to Brighton Beach in Brooklyn, New York, when he was just 8. [2][26] In January 2022, Sater claimed that the barfight victim had tried to decline pressing charges, but that the U.S. government kept pressing because they wanted cooperation from Sater's father. [27] In a 2013 sworn affidavit, Trump said "If [Sater] were sitting in the room right now, I really wouldn't know what he looked like,"[53] and in 2015 he stated "Felix Sater, boy, I have to even think about it. The lawyer wrote that he believed Ray was a registered and documented informant for the FBI., Felix Sater, former business associate of U.S. President Donald Trump, arrives for testimony before the House Select Intelligence Committee July 9, 2019 in Washington, DC. Yet in 1993, Sater and several partners took over a securities firm called White Rock Partners, later called State Street Capital Markets, which portrayed itself as a legitimate brokerage firm but, in fact, ran a criminal enterprise involving stock fraud, money laundering, and a so-called pump and dump scheme that involved conspiring to inflate the apparent value of near-worthless stocks, sell them off to unsuspecting investors, and cash in. magazine_button_text_258356 = ''; and his wife Leila and . Sign up for our free daily newsletter, along with occasional offers for programs that support our journalism. In February of 2017, a week before Michael Flynn left his position as President Trump's National . } } if( inline_cta_2_url_258356 !='' ){ var is_user_logged_in = getCookie('SESSname'); VT has, for the last year, tied Trump and his closest associates, Jeffrey Epstein and Felix Sater to criminal organizations so powerful they supply ISIS with Stinger missiles and, according to FBI reports, materials to make nuclear weapons as well. By signing up, you confirm that you are over the age of 16 andagree to receive occasional promotional offers for programs that support The Nations journalism. Historical Amnesia About Slavery Is a Tool of White Supremacy. document.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. [2][9][29] In 1998, Sater was convicted of fraud in connection to a $40 million penny stock pump and dump scheme conducted by the Russian Mafia[9][10] involving his company White Rock Partners. tn_loc:'atf' cta_2_check_258356 = true; We've received your submission. In his interview with New York magazine, he hinted ominously about the near future. var inline_cta_font_color_258356 = ''; Trump Administration concerned about law giving illegal im Canadian teacher with size-Z prosthetic breasts placed on paid leave, What's next for Buster Murdaugh after dad's murder conviction, life sentence, Murdaugh son collapsed outside court after sitting stone-faced through dad's 6-week murder trial: source, How a retired detective snared his seventh 'Torso Killer' confession, It's insane that NYers can use but not buy pepper spray for self-defense: Change this now, Harry and Meghan hold the upper hand on King Charles coronation: Source, Hated Tom Sandoval addresses Ariana Madix split amid cheating claims, Kelly Osbourne posts first photo of baby son as he hangs out with uncle Jack, Undertaker transforms coffin into barbecue grill, Kellyanne Conway and George Conway to divorce. Broke and with a young wife and child to support, Sater has said he hooked up with a boyhood friend who was operating a Mafia-linked brokerage firm. if( magazine_button_text_258356 !='' ){ At . He has not revealed his body measurements. [36], In late January 2017, Sater met with Ukrainian politician Andrey Artemenko and Donald Trump's personal lawyer, Michael Cohen, at the Loews Regency in Manhattan to discuss a plan to lift sanctions against Russia. Decades-old court records obtained by Law&Crime lay bare some of these connections. In a statement to the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence last week, Cohen did admit writing to Dmitry Peskov in connection with Saters work. var p = 'https:' == document.location.protocol ? In return for a guilty plea, Sater agreed to assist the FBI and federal prosecutors as an informant on organized crime. [19] According to the FBI, Mikhail Sheferovsky was an underboss for Russian Mafia "boss of bosses" Semion Mogilevich, and was convicted of extorting money from local restaurants, grocery stores, and a medical clinic. (Saters first office suite, with his criminal enterprise called State Street Capital, had its offices in a Trump-owned building, 40 Wall Street, in the mid-1990s. var cta_2_check_258356 = false; Every time someone asks Donald Trump if he knows Felix Sater, his Russian-born, Brooklyn-bred former business associate, Trump draws a blank. } jQuery("#magazine_button_258356").html(magazine_button_text_258356); According to a recent Guardian profile, Saters relationship with Cohenand to organized crimegoes way back: Saters links to Trumps circle can be traced back to not long after he came to the US as a child. jQuery("#inline_cta_2_module_258356").addClass("tn-inline-cta-module"); Sater Regency Capital 1998; According to the Times, the Artemenko plandelivered to Sater and Cohen, and then to Michael Flynn, the short-lived White House national security adviser who was forced to resign in Februaryinvolved using unflattering or compromising information (kompromat) to help oust Poroshenko and then winning the support of a new Ukrainian government for a 50- to 100-year lease of Crimea to Russiawhich in 2014 occupied and annexed Crimea, which for many decades had been part of Ukraine. Felix Sater - the Trump Organization contact who pushed for a Moscow development project and Mueller investigation witness - was a decade ago a federal government informant to "a depth and. Moreover, the couple is also blessed with three daughters. jQuery("#inline_cta_2_btn_258356").html(inline_cta_2_button_text_258356); } Though Sater claimed that he cooperated and provided information about the Trump Tower project, Patrick Boland, spokesman for House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff, denied this and stated that Sater only partially cooperated and showed defiance by withholding requested testimony and documents concerning a real estate project which Sater acknowledged was falsely presented as a joint defense agreement between Trump and Russia and the telephone conversations pertaining to this agreement. Sater developed real estate deals with Trump in New York most notably the former Trump Soho Phoenix, Fort Lauderdale, Fla., and planned deals in Europe. top of page. In the groundbreaking story Larry Ray and the Stolen Kids of Sarah Lawrence, New York Magazine reported that Ray claimed that the FBI sent him to Russia to lure Sater back to the United States. After dating for a long time period, the couple exchanged their vows in a private marriage ceremony. The report describes Sater as a "New York-based real estate advisor," which is technically accurate but a bit like calling O.J. His information, it seems didnt pan outbut after 9/11, Sater did cooperate in some fashion with the US government. Boy, I have to even think about it.. Ray ultimately pleaded guilty in that case, and he said in a court papers that he cooperated extensively with the government. A known bootlegger linked to bombings, corruption, torture and killings, Capone was famously brought down during prosecution on a more mundane crime: tax evasion, leading to convictions that put him away in Alcatraz for several years. Besides, he even worked for the various real estate projects includingConrad Fort Lauderdale, Midtown Miami, Cornwall Terrace in different countries. Other counts against Raysuch as sex trafficking, money laundering, and extortionare also commonly charged against criminal rackets. [27][disputed discuss]. However, the couple has not yet disclosed any information about how they met for the first time. Bagli was the first to uncover and report in depth on Saters criminal past. if( inline_cta_2_button_text_258356 !='' ){ Because he saw how many I put on the table at Bayrock., Sater and Bayrock sought to extend the Trump brand to Ukraine, Poland, and elsewhereincluding Moscow. [38], Felix Sater has been described as a career criminal due to his links to organized crime. . A trove of document released today by federal authorities revealed how convicted stock fraudster Felix Sater provided a wealth of information on everything from the Mafia to al Qaeda to. However, he has not yet disclosed his actual salary to the media. tn_pos: 'rectangle_1', In 2006 there was a lawsuit that alleged that Sater made a death threat against a Bayrock investor named Ernie Menez. Home. var magazine_button_bg_color_258356 = ''; Overseeing the Sater case back then was none other than Loretta Lynch, then US Attorney for the Eastern District of New York (Brooklyn). This project was facilitated by Michael Cohen, then an attorney for the Trump Organization, and from January 2016 to May 2017 Trump's personal attorney. if( magazine_button_bg_color_258356 !='' ){ He stabbed the man's cheek and neck with the stem of a cocktail glass, breaking his jaw, lacerating his face, and severing nerves, creating a wound that would require 110 stitches to treat. There are also two different Fisher Island properties noted in these records: both 7436 Fisher Island Dr and 5311 Fisher Island Dr. [12] On June 21, 2019, Sater was issued a subpoena by the House Intelligence Committee after he refused a request to testify voluntarily. Our boy can become president of the USA and we can engineer it, he wrote. var inline_cta_button_text_258356 = ''; According to New York, following his separation from Bayrock he went to work for the Trump Organization, even carrying a business card listing his title as Senior Advisor to Donald Trump. Despite that, Trump denies ever employing Sater directly. tn_keyword: ['criminal-r', 'donald-tru', 'ivanka-tru', 'russia', 'trump-and-', 'us-intelli', 'vladimir-p'], [15][16] Boland also stated that Sater will remain under subpoena until he cooperates with this request. He has kept his family far from the media and limelight. Cohen will soon go to prison for lying to Congress about it, and Sater will testify publicly Wednesday before the House Intelligence Committee then behind closed doors with the House Judiciary Committee Thursday. var s = d.createElement('script'); s.type='text/javascript';s.async=true; However, Trump has distanced himself from Sater, stating that he barely knew him. Felix Sater provided information crucial to National Security and the conviction of over 20 individuals - including those responsible for committing massive financial fraud and members of La Cosa . [17][18], Sater was born in Moscow into a Russian Jewish family, the son of Mikhail Sheferovsky and Rachel Sheferovskaya. Thanks for contacting us. The woman who called herself the wife of accused Sarah Lawrence sex cult leader Larry Ray told a federal jury that she was frightened to leave him in part because of a remark he made about his family. According to the Times, Sater gave Cohen the proposal in a sealed envelope, who reportedly said he left it in Flynns office. Previously a reporter for Courthouse News, he has appeared as a guest on NewsNation, NBC, MSNBC, CBS's "Inside Edition," BBC, NPR, PBS, Sky News, and other networks. But that doesnt quite jibe with the Timess original report, which noted that when Flynn resigned (because of his own still unexplained conversations with then-Russian Ambassador Sergei Kislyak during the transition), Cohen was still waiting for a response, hoping a new national security adviser will take up their cause. So far, as far as we know, current National Security Adviser H.R. Sater has denied the allegations and has attempted to settle the suit but was not successful. Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Laura Drager made the interim award to his ex Viktoria Sater who filed for divorce in March after reviewing his 2018 tax returns. Prosecutors say that Ray subjected Drury to a long night of torture, allegedly stripping her naked, handcuffing her to a chair, suffocating her with a plastic bag, and choking her with a leash. In an effort to play down this association, Rays defense attorney Allegra Glashauser said during opening statements: This was not a criminal enterprise. jQuery("#inline_cta_258356").html(inline_cta_text_258356); Current Issue The man suffered nerve damage and required 110 stitches to close the laceration on his face. And The New York Times reported him as saying, If he were sitting in the room right now, I really wouldnt know what he looked like. As late as 2015, when asked about Sater, Trump hemmed and hawed. (Photo of Ray via DOJ; image of Capone credited to FBI), Have a tip we should know? pic.twitter.com/rzpbjY7LVx. Trump has long gotten heat for his association with Felix Sater, a managing director at a firm called Bayrock Group, which worked with the eventual president on potential projects in . var inline_cta_bg_color_258356 = ''; Sater claimed, I arranged for Ivanka to sit in Putins [sic] private chair at his desk and office in the Kremlin., Sater claimed, I arranged for Ivanka to sit in Putins [sic] private chair at his desk and office in the Kremlin.. Saters links to Trump in recent years are obscure. Nearly two months after the $25 million hit the granola company's accounts, the bank wrote in a SAR, Sater's wife went to a branch on Long Island and tried to deposit a $20 million check into an account belonging to Moses & Singer, a Manhattan law firm. [23][24][25] He subsequently worked at brokerages Ladenburg Thalmann, Broadchild Securities, Rooney Pace, Shearson, Moseley Securities, Gruntal & Co., and Lehman Brothers. Felix Sater a channel to Russia, convicted felon, and associate of Donald Trump provides the perfect window into Trump's suspect business practices and network. } (Manafort, of course, is under intense scrutiny in the Russiagate investigation from Mueller and two committees of Congress over his possible role as a go-between in collusion between Russias spy network and the Trump campaign. var is_user_logged_in = getCookie('SESSname'); Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. They met in Brighton Beach when Cohen started dating his future wife, Shusterman's daughter, Laura, who Sater says he knew. His birth sign is Pisces. @NewYorkerFest @adamdavidson @RuthMarcus @DavidBarstow @MichaelAvenatti pic.twitter.com/l5QBJSqNLA, Felix Sater (@felixsater) October 7, 2018. wid: "428986", Also, FBI reported his conviction of extorting money from local restaurants, grocery stores, and medical clinic. How did I get to Donald? Give the cow a break, and let's ask Coke about their plans with their virtue signaling. [2][27] For this, Sater was convicted of first-degree assault in 1993;[28] spent 15 months in prison,[29] and was barred by the National Association of Securities Dealers from acting as a broker or otherwise associating with a broker-dealer firm. Thank you Lowell Bergman for inviting me to speak and meet your wonderful class and amazing students at University of California Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism @UCBerkeley @UCBerkeleyNews @UCBerkeleyIRP pic.twitter.com/8FRudqMerN, Felix Sater (@felixsater) September 29, 2018. inline_cta_text_258356 = '

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'; "[54] Trump has been photographed several times with Sater, including while speaking privately with him. In language that Cohen himself described to the Times as colorful, Sater seemed nearly beside himself as he reported on his work in Moscow on behalf of Trump: Good show Rachel. During his time in Moscow eastern Europe, Sater cultivated ties to arms dealers, officials in US law enforcement and national security agencies, and even meeting with the Russian military intelligence agency. Click here to log inor subscribe. tn_ptype: 'article', var inline_cta_2_font_color_258356 = ''; They are. During the 2016 presidential campaign, Donald Trump wanted to reveal years of secret work that his one-time real estate adviser Felix Sater did for the CIA and FBI because he thought it would result in "mildly positive" press stories that would make him look "patriotic," Sater said in a new interview.. Trump had previously sought to distance himself from Sater even insisting in a . Also charged with multiple counts of that same crime, Ray now stands accused of running a very different kind of criminal enterprise: one that prosecutors say ran partly from his daughter Talia Rays communal dorm in Sarah Lawrence College. We've received your submission. The footage of the beating was entered into evidence at Rays trial. A federal judge in Brooklyn ordered on Monday the unsealing of previously secret portions of the court record involving the criminal case of Felix Sater, a former associate of President Donald. This was a group of storytellers.. As a senior advisor, he assisted with several projects, including executive decisions in the Trump SoHo project. var magazine_button_text_258356 = ''; Sater was born in Russia and grew up in the Russian enclave of Brighton Beach as a Mobster's son. Even allowing for Saters long-established record as a liar and self-promoter, theres plenty here for Mueller and other investigators to dig into. Following his prosecution in a Russian mafia-linked fraud scheme, Sater became a prolific government cooperator. He has a sister, Regina. Sater has a decades-long record as a larger-than-life, outside-the-law, spy agency-linked wheeler-dealer from the pages of a John le Carr novel. Former President Trump associate Felix Sater must pay $14,000 a month in temporary alimony to his estranged wife, a judge ruled Thursday after finding he had been splashing cash on restaurants and Ubers. Furthermore, Felix is living a happy life along with his family and children. Using Saters testimony, the feds eventually convicted 19 of Saters cronies, including half a dozen who had mob connections. Felix Sater, a real estate developer who has worked with the Trump Organization, discussed the Fusion GPS founder, Glenn Simpson, while . [11], Sater received multiple subpoenas to produce documents and be deposed in the case against Mukhtar Ablyazov who is alleged to have defrauded BTA Bank of up to $5 billion as chairman. Rays alleged victim at the heart of the sex-trafficking claim, Claudia Drury, told a jury that he forced her into prostitution and took $2.5 million of her earnings. Felix Sater, a Russian-born real estate developer who allegedly helped President Donald Trump pursue a Trump Tower project in Moscow, is no stranger to legal battles. tn_ptype: 'article', Felix Sater has been cast as a Russian mafioso, a career criminal, and a key business associate of President Donald Trump's but he spent more than two decades as an intelligence asset who helped the US government track terrorists and mobsters. Felix Sater, an American entrepreneurial financier and real estate developer, was employed as managing director of Bayrock Group from 2003 to 2008. jQuery("#magazine_button_258356 a input").css("background",magazine_button_bg_color_258356); Learn how your comment data is processed. He also asserted that he had secured financing for the project through the Russian state-owned VTB Bank, which was under sanctions by the United States government. Speaking of cow farts & CO2 Carbon dioxide is thoroughly mixed in soda. Mr. [Felix] Sater's first brush with the law came in 1991. An unindicted co-conspirator in that indictment was Felix Sater, a former business associate of Donald Trump, who helped broker the never-realized plan to build a Trump Tower Moscow. Moreover, the duo is blessed with their three daughters. inline_cta_bg_color_258356 = '#ffcf0d'; Significantly, the prosecutor who oversaw Saters cooperation agreement in the 1998 indictment, now sealed, was Andrew Weissmannwho is currently one of 16 prosecutors and criminal justice officials on the staff of special counsel Robert Mueller, whos leading the Russiagate inquiry. var inline_cta_text_258356 = ''; FinCEN Files: Banks Flagged Felix Sater for $100 Million In Suspicious Activity. Felix Mikhailovich Sheferovsky or Haim Felix Sater, Criminal convictions and federal cooperation, Involvement with Trump Organization during presidential campaign, Donald Trump's 2016 presidential campaign, National Association of Securities Dealers, United States Attorney for the Eastern District of New York, Business projects of Donald Trump in Russia, Links between Trump associates and Russian officials, Russian interference in the 2016 United States elections, "Secret Money: How Trump Made Millions Selling Condos To Unknown Buyers", "How A Player In The Trump-Russia Scandal Led A Double Life As An American Spy", " : , ", "Real Estate Executive With Hand in Trump Projects Rose From Tangled Past", "Meet the ex-con who ties himself to Trump", " : ", "Trump lawyer 'paid by Ukraine' to arrange White House talks", "Who Is Felix Sater? [49], In 2020 there was a lawsuit accusing Felix Sater and his partner Daniel Ridloff of using Trump properties such as Bayrock to launder millions of dollars in stolen funds. In 2014, a popular revolt toppled Ukraines pro-Russian president, Viktor Yanukovych, who was replaced by another oligarch, the pro-Western Petro Poroshenko. }; In 2015 emails Sater boasted to Cohen about his ties to Vladimir Putin and how Trump would win. This past February the Times published a blockbuster story by Megan Twohey and Scott Shane recounting an effort by Sater, Cohen, Gen. Mike Flynn, and a Ukrainian politician to put forward a half-cocked Ukrainian peace plan and deliver it, freelance fashion, to the White House. Could Paul Manafort Bring Down the Whole Trump Family? The firm later set up its headquarters on the 24th floor of Trump Tower on Fifth Avenue, just below Trumps own suite of offices. + qs; Stay tuned with us. [62][63] Felix Sater was a member of the Chabad of Port Washington and was named their Man of the Year in 2010 and 2014.[64][65]. Paul Manafort, the GOP operative who would later sign on as Donald Trumps campaign manager, was on Yanukovychs payroll for years, and when Yanukovych fled Ukraine for Russia, Manafort contracted with opposition politicians in Kiev to help build an anti-Poroshenko blocand Artemenko joined in. } Amongst other things in 1991 he got into an . In this piece, I draw on all of these sources and more. Ex-Sarah Lawrence student Isabella Pollok, who was initially viewed as a victim of Ray's alleged crimes, was indicted as an accused co-conspirator earlier this year. I will manage this process." In 2017, Sater agreed to cooperate with investigators into international money laundering schemes. Mr. Sater and Mr. Klotsman were at El Rio Grande, a Midtown watering hole, celebrating with a friend and eventual co-conspirator . His father, Mikhail Sheferovsky (who changed the family name after arriving in New York) became a local crime boss in Brighton Beach and Sater grew up on that side of Brooklyn, where he got to know another teenager in the neighbourhood, Michael Cohen, a Long Island boy who would go on to become Trumps personal lawyer and vice-president of the Trump Organization. Also Read:Rahm Emanuel Bio, Salary, Net Worth, Married, Wife & Children. As we previously mentioned, Felix Sater is a married man. Well, Sater also enjoys a massive net worth. He was at Iliyas' wedding party. [50][51], The Trump Organization pursued a luxury hotel and condominium project in Moscowdubbed the Trump Tower Moscowduring the Trump presidential campaign. [34][35], In addition to real estate development endeavors, Sater also has started businesses in the fields of philanthropy, investment, retail, and energy. He allegedly washed enormous sums of that money through GoDaddy.com, where he reportedly bought thousands of domain names.