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===Prevezon Holding===
===Prevezon Holding===
In 2013, the US Department of Justice, represented by the US Attorney for the Southern District of New York, [[Preet Bharara]], sued Prevezon Holding, a Republic of Cyprus corporation registered in New York State as a foreign business corporation, under the Magnitsky Act for money-laundering. The lawsuit sought forfeiture of various assets and real estate holdings in the US.<ref name="Erb">{{cite web|last1=Erb|first1=Kelly Phillips|title=Lawyer With Key Evidence In Russian Corruption Scandals Falls From Building Before Testifying|url=https://www.forbes.com/sites/kellyphillipserb/2017/03/24/lawyer-with-key-evidence-in-russian-corruption-scandals-falls-from-building-before-testifying/#702e1b3d526c|website=Forbes|accessdate=July 22, 2017|date=March 24, 2017}}</ref> The sole shareholder of Prevezon, Russian citizen Denis Katsyv, whose father is Petr Katsyv, vice president of Russia's state-run rail monopoly and "reportedly a business associate of [[Vladimir Yakunin]], a confidant of [[Vladimir Putin]]", and whose Russian lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya is not licensed to practice in the US, hired the law firm of BakerHostetler to represent the corporation;<ref name="Erb"/> BakerHostetler hired Fusion GPS in 2013 to "gather and analyze evidence to disprove" the claims against Prevezon.<ref name="SchulBlum">{{cite web|last1=Schulberg|first1=Jessica|last2=Blumenthal|first2=Paul|title=A Top Republican Wants You To Believe Russia Was Behind That Famous Trump Dossier|url=http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/chuck-grassley-trump-russia-dossier_us_596e6ce8e4b0000eb19694fa|website=The Huffington Post|accessdate=July 21, 2016|date=July 20, 2016}}</ref> In May 2017, two months after President Trump had dismissed Bharara, the US Government settled the lawsuit for $6 million.<ref name="settled">{{cite web|last1=Feeley|first1=Jef|last2=Van Voris|first2=Bob|title=Laundering Suit Ends as Russian Firm, U.S. Claim Victory|url=https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-05-13/u-s-reaches-5-9-million-deal-in-russian-fraud-laundering-case|website=Bloomberg|accessdate=July 22, 2016|date=May 13, 2017}}</ref>
In 2013, the US Department of Justice sued Prevezon Holding, a Republic of Cyprus corporation registered in New York State as a foreign business corporation, under the Magnitsky Act for money-laundering. The lawsuit sought forfeiture of various assets and real estate holdings in the US.<ref name="Erb">{{cite web|last1=Erb|first1=Kelly Phillips|title=Lawyer With Key Evidence In Russian Corruption Scandals Falls From Building Before Testifying|url=https://www.forbes.com/sites/kellyphillipserb/2017/03/24/lawyer-with-key-evidence-in-russian-corruption-scandals-falls-from-building-before-testifying/#702e1b3d526c|website=Forbes|accessdate=July 22, 2017|date=March 24, 2017}}</ref> The sole shareholder of Prevezon, Russian citizen Denis Katsyv, whose father is Petr Katsyv, vice president of Russia's state-run rail monopoly and "reportedly a business associate of [[Vladimir Yakunin]], a confidant of [[Vladimir Putin]]", and whose Russian lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya is not licensed to practice in the US, hired the law firm of BakerHostetler to represent the corporation;<ref name="Erb"/> BakerHostetler hired Fusion GPS in 2013 to "gather and analyze evidence to disprove" the claims against Prevezon.<ref name="SchulBlum">{{cite web|last1=Schulberg|first1=Jessica|last2=Blumenthal|first2=Paul|title=A Top Republican Wants You To Believe Russia Was Behind That Famous Trump Dossier|url=http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/chuck-grassley-trump-russia-dossier_us_596e6ce8e4b0000eb19694fa|website=The Huffington Post|accessdate=July 21, 2016|date=July 20, 2016}}</ref> In May 2017 the US Government settled the lawsuit for $6 million.<ref name="settled">{{cite web|last1=Feeley|first1=Jef|last2=Van Voris|first2=Bob|title=Laundering Suit Ends as Russian Firm, U.S. Claim Victory|url=https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-05-13/u-s-reaches-5-9-million-deal-in-russian-fraud-laundering-case|website=Bloomberg|accessdate=July 22, 2016|date=May 13, 2017}}</ref>


As part of their litigation support, Fusion GPS investigated [[Bill Browder]], a witness central to the case.<ref>{{cite web|last1=Matthews|first1=Christopher M.| url = https://www.wsj.com/articles/hedge-fund-managers-credibility-questioned-in-russian-laundering-case-1431557601 | title = Hedge-Fund Manager's Credibility Questioned in Russian Laundering Case | publisher = The Wall Street Journal|date=May 13, 2015}}</ref> During the course of the case, Browder claimed that Fusion GPS had previously been hired to undertake a pro-Russia campaign aimed at stopping passage of the [[Magnitsky Act]],<ref name=FARA>{{cite web|last1=Arnsdorf|first1=Isaac|url = http://www.politico.com/tipsheets/politico-influence/2016/12/fara-complaint-alleges-pro-russian-lobbying-217776 | title = FARA Complaint Alleges Pro-Russian Lobbying|publisher = Politico|accessdate=July 23, 2017|date=December 16, 2016}}</ref><ref name="RFE">{{cite web|last1=Eckel|first1=Mike|title=U.S. Senator Seeks Probe Of Firm Linked To Russia Dossier|url=https://www.rferl.org/a/us-senator-magnitsky-russia-dossier-investigation/28404229.html|website=RadioFreeEurope|date=April 1, 2017|accessdate=July 23, 2017}}</ref> named after [[Sergei Magnitsky]], a lawyer and auditor who died while being held without charges in a Russian government prison after he revealed that the Kremlin had stolen hundreds of millions of dollars from [[Hermitage Capital Management]].
As part of their litigation support, Fusion GPS investigated [[Bill Browder]], a witness central to the case.<ref>{{cite web|last1=Matthews|first1=Christopher M.| url = https://www.wsj.com/articles/hedge-fund-managers-credibility-questioned-in-russian-laundering-case-1431557601 | title = Hedge-Fund Manager's Credibility Questioned in Russian Laundering Case | publisher = The Wall Street Journal|date=May 13, 2015}}</ref> During the course of the case, Browder claimed that Fusion GPS had previously been hired to undertake a pro-Russia campaign aimed at stopping passage of the [[Magnitsky Act]],<ref name=FARA>{{cite web|last1=Arnsdorf|first1=Isaac|url = http://www.politico.com/tipsheets/politico-influence/2016/12/fara-complaint-alleges-pro-russian-lobbying-217776 | title = FARA Complaint Alleges Pro-Russian Lobbying|publisher = Politico|accessdate=July 23, 2017|date=December 16, 2016}}</ref><ref name="RFE">{{cite web|last1=Eckel|first1=Mike|title=U.S. Senator Seeks Probe Of Firm Linked To Russia Dossier|url=https://www.rferl.org/a/us-senator-magnitsky-russia-dossier-investigation/28404229.html|website=RadioFreeEurope|date=April 1, 2017|accessdate=July 23, 2017}}</ref> named after [[Sergei Magnitsky]], a lawyer and auditor who died while being held without charges in a Russian government prison after he alleged the Kremlin had stolen hundreds of millions of dollars from [[Hermitage Capital Management]].


On March 30, 2017, [[Charles Grassley|Senate Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa]] called for a U.S. Department of Justice investigation into purported connections between Fusion GPS and Russia, and an inquiry as to whether Fusion GPS was acting as an unregistered foreign agent. The company denied the claims that they were engaged in lobbying or had violated the [[Foreign Agents Registration Act]].<ref name=FARA/><ref name="RFE"/>
On March 30, 2017, [[Charles Grassley|Senate Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa]] called for a U.S. Department of Justice investigation into purported connections between Fusion GPS and Russia, and an inquiry as to whether Fusion GPS was acting as an unregistered foreign agent. The company denied the claims that they were engaged in lobbying or had violated the [[Foreign Agents Registration Act]].<ref name=FARA/><ref name="RFE"/>

Revision as of 19:33, 27 July 2017

Fusion GPS
Founded2011
HeadquartersWashington D.C.
Key people
Glenn Simpson
Websitefusiongps.com

Fusion GPS is a commercial research and strategic intelligence firm based in Washington D.C. The company conducts open-source investigations, provides research and strategic advice for businesses, law firms and investors, as well as for political inquiries, such as opposition research.[1]

History

The company was co-founded in 2011 by Glenn R. Simpson, a former investigative reporter and journalist for Roll Call and The Wall Street Journal; Peter Fritsch, former Wall Street Journal senior editor and bureau chief in locations around the world; and former Wall Street Journal journalist Thomas Catan.[2]

Work

Opposition research on Mitt Romney

Fusion GPS was hired by Democrats in 2012 to do opposition research on Mitt Romney.[2] In February 2012, the magazine Mother Jones published an article on Frank VanderSloot and his company Melaleuca, who combined had given $1 million to a SuperPAC supporting Mitt Romney. After the article was published, an intern at Fusion GPS did a search of Idaho court records on VanderSloot by phone and fax. In January 2013, VanderSloot sued the magazine Mother Jones for defamation in the February article. In the course of the litigation, VanderSloot deposed Fusion GPS founder Simpson on the "theory that Mother Jones conspired with Obama’s team to defame VanderSloot".[3][4][5] The seventh Judicial District Court of the State of Idaho dismissed the lawsuit in 2015.[6]

Planned Parenthood

In August 2015, Planned Parenthood retained Fusion GPS to defensively investigate the veracity of a series of undercover videos released by pro-life activists that they claim showed Planned Parenthood officials agreeing to sell fetal tissues obtained through abortions to medical researchers. Fusion GPS hired video and transcription experts to analyze the videos and summarized the findings in a forensic report.[7] The report concluded that the "unedited" videos posted by activists had been edited. The pro-life activists attributed the gaps to "bathroom breaks and waiting periods."[8]

The report was provided to U.S. congressional leadership as evidence as they were considering funding and other issues related to Planned Parenthood operations. After a grand jury cleared Planned Parenthood of any wrongdoing, the pro-life activists behind the undercover videos were later arrested and charged with 15 felonies, including unlawfully recording people without their permission and conspiracy to invade privacy.[9]These charges were dropped 6 months later, but on March 28, 2017, Daleiden and Merritt were charged with 15 felonies in the State of California - one for each of the people whom they had filmed without consent, and one for criminal conspiracy to invade privacy. On 21 June 2017, fourteen of these charges were dismissed, with leave to amend, on the grounds that they were legally insufficient.[10]

Prevezon Holding

In 2013, the US Department of Justice sued Prevezon Holding, a Republic of Cyprus corporation registered in New York State as a foreign business corporation, under the Magnitsky Act for money-laundering. The lawsuit sought forfeiture of various assets and real estate holdings in the US.[11] The sole shareholder of Prevezon, Russian citizen Denis Katsyv, whose father is Petr Katsyv, vice president of Russia's state-run rail monopoly and "reportedly a business associate of Vladimir Yakunin, a confidant of Vladimir Putin", and whose Russian lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya is not licensed to practice in the US, hired the law firm of BakerHostetler to represent the corporation;[11] BakerHostetler hired Fusion GPS in 2013 to "gather and analyze evidence to disprove" the claims against Prevezon.[12] In May 2017 the US Government settled the lawsuit for $6 million.[13]

As part of their litigation support, Fusion GPS investigated Bill Browder, a witness central to the case.[14] During the course of the case, Browder claimed that Fusion GPS had previously been hired to undertake a pro-Russia campaign aimed at stopping passage of the Magnitsky Act,[15][16] named after Sergei Magnitsky, a lawyer and auditor who died while being held without charges in a Russian government prison after he alleged the Kremlin had stolen hundreds of millions of dollars from Hermitage Capital Management.

On March 30, 2017, Senate Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa called for a U.S. Department of Justice investigation into purported connections between Fusion GPS and Russia, and an inquiry as to whether Fusion GPS was acting as an unregistered foreign agent. The company denied the claims that they were engaged in lobbying or had violated the Foreign Agents Registration Act.[15][16]

Trump dossier and Christopher Steele

Main article: Donald Trump–Russia dossier

In September 2015, Fusion GPS was hired to do opposition research for Republicans who opposed Donald Trump's bid during the Republican primary campaign for the 2016 presidential election. When Trump had emerged as the probable Republican candidate by the spring of 2016, Republican donors stopped funding the investigation, and Democrat supporters of Hillary Clinton became Fusion GPS's new clients.[17] In June 2016, after the Democratic National Committee had been hacked and its emails began to be published online, Fusion GPS retained Christopher Steele, a private British corporate intelligence investigator and former MI-6 agent, to research any Russian connections to Trump. Steele issued a series of memos from June to December 2016, which became the document known as the Donald Trump–Russia dossier.[17][18]

In January 2017, the U.S. intelligence community briefed then-President Barack Obama and President-Elect Donald Trump on the contents of the dossier.[19] CNN reported that U.S. investigators had corroborated some parts of the dossier in February 2017, however none of the learned information relates to the salacious allegations in the dossier. Rather it relates to conversations between foreign nationals.[20] In March 2017, then-FBI director James Comey confirmed that the FBI was conducting an official investigation into one of the central allegations in the dossier, that the Trump campaign had coordinated with Russia to influence the 2016 Presidential election.[21]

Senate Judiciary Committee investigations

On July 21, 2017, Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Grassley, and ranking Democrat Dianne Feinstein issued a subpoena for Fusion GPS cofounder Glenn Simpson after he denied through his lawyers a request to voluntarily appear “due to long held vacation plans.”[22] The committee wants to question Simpson about the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) which they may now use "to press Justice Department officials on what they know about Veselnitskaya, Prevezon, Fusion GPS and their connections to both the Trump campaign or the Russian government."[23] Simpson will not testify at the July 26 public hearing as previously scheduled, but instead will be interviewed privately, under terms of an agreement.[24]

See also

References

  1. ^ "Fusion GPS - Investigative reporting approach to investment research • Integrity Research". Integrity Research. 7 April 2011. Retrieved 17 January 2017.
  2. ^ a b McBride, Jessica (March 30, 2017). "Fusion GPS: 5 Fast Facts You Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved July 22, 2016. {{cite web}}: no-break space character in |title= at position 37 (help)
  3. ^ Jeffery, Clara; Bauerlein, Monika (October 8, 2015). "We Were Sued by a Billionaire Political Donor. We won. Here's What Happened". Mother Jones. Retrieved July 23, 2016.
  4. ^ "Motion to Squash Subpoena" (PDF). D.C. Anti-SLAPP Law. Retrieved July 23, 2016.
  5. ^ Strassel, Kim (May 10, 2012). "Strassel: Trolling for Dirt on the President's List". FrankVanderslootResponse. Retrieved July 23, 2016.
  6. ^ "Case Analysis". Global Freedom of Expression, Columbia University. October 6, 2015. Retrieved July 23, 2016.Case Number CV-2013-532
  7. ^ Hemingway, Mark (27 August 2015). "Politico & NYT Fail to Mention Report Exonerating Planned Parenthood Produced By Democratic Opposition Research Firm". Weekly Standard. Retrieved 17 January 2017.
  8. ^ Haberkorn, Jennifer (27 August 2015). "Report for Planned Parenthood finds sting videos manipulated". POLITICO. Retrieved 17 January 2017.
  9. ^ Hamilton, Matt (March 28, 2017). "Two Antiabortion Activists behind Undercover Planned Parenthood Videos Charged with 15 Felonies". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved July 23, 2017.
  10. ^ Bob Egelko (June 21, 2017). "SF judge deals setback to prosecutors in abortion sting videos". Retrieved July 12, 2017.
  11. ^ a b Erb, Kelly Phillips (March 24, 2017). "Lawyer With Key Evidence In Russian Corruption Scandals Falls From Building Before Testifying". Forbes. Retrieved July 22, 2017.
  12. ^ Schulberg, Jessica; Blumenthal, Paul (July 20, 2016). "A Top Republican Wants You To Believe Russia Was Behind That Famous Trump Dossier". The Huffington Post. Retrieved July 21, 2016.
  13. ^ Feeley, Jef; Van Voris, Bob (May 13, 2017). "Laundering Suit Ends as Russian Firm, U.S. Claim Victory". Bloomberg. Retrieved July 22, 2016.
  14. ^ Matthews, Christopher M. (May 13, 2015). "Hedge-Fund Manager's Credibility Questioned in Russian Laundering Case". The Wall Street Journal.
  15. ^ a b Arnsdorf, Isaac (December 16, 2016). "FARA Complaint Alleges Pro-Russian Lobbying". Politico. Retrieved July 23, 2017.
  16. ^ a b Eckel, Mike (April 1, 2017). "U.S. Senator Seeks Probe Of Firm Linked To Russia Dossier". RadioFreeEurope. Retrieved July 23, 2017.
  17. ^ a b Confessore, Scott Shane, Nicholas; Rosenberg, Matthew (11 January 2017). "How a Sensational, Unverified Dossier Became a Crisis for Donald Trump". The New York Times. Retrieved 17 January 2017.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  18. ^ Blum, Howard (March 30, 2017). "How ex-spy Christopher Steele compiled his explosive dossier". Vanity Fair. Retrieved July 22, 2016.
  19. ^ "Intel Chiefs Presented Trump With Claims of Russian Efforts to Compromise Him". CNN.
  20. ^ "US Investigators Corroborate Some Aspects of the Russia Dossier". CNN.
  21. ^ Apuzzo, Matt; Rosenberg, Matthew; Huetteman, Emmarie (March 20, 2017). "F.B.I. Is Investigating Trump's Russia Ties, Comey Confirms". The New York Times. Retrieved July 23, 2017.
  22. ^ Demirjian, Karoun (July 21, 2017). "Kushner To Testify At Both Intel Committees Next Week; Manafort, Trump Jr. To Turn Over Documents To Senate Judiciary Panel". The Washington Post. Retrieved July 24, 2017. {{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  23. ^ Logan, Bryan (July 21, 2017). "Senate Intel Committee Subpoenas The Research Firm Tied To The Bombshell Trump-Russia Dossier". Business Insider. Retrieved July 24, 2017.
  24. ^ "The Latest: Senate Panel Subpoenas Manafort to Testify". U.S. News and World Report. July 25, 2017. Retrieved 25 July 2017.
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