How a scheme to help Russians secretly funnel money offshore unravelled.
Because the Russian company and the offshore company both belonged to the same owner, these ordinary-seeming trades had an alchemical purpose: to turn rubles that were stuck in Russia into dollars stashed outside Russia. On the Moscow markets, this sleight of hand had a nickname: konvert, which means “envelope” and echoes the English verb “convert.” In the English-language media, the scheme has become known as “mirror trading.”
.. Deutsche Bank has admitted that, until April, 2015, when three members of its Russian equities desk were suspended for their role in the mirror trades, about ten billion dollars was spirited out of Russia through the scheme. The lingering question is whose money was moved, and why.
Donald Trump’s Pick for Fund-Raiser Is Rife With Contradictions
Wall Street has been agog since last Thursday, when Donald Trump announced that Steven Mnuchin — who made his fortune at Goldman Sachs, worked for a firm funded by George Soros, and donated to Hillary Clinton — would be responsible for helping him raise $1 billion for Republicans and his own campaign.
.. Despite what Mr. Mnuchin said was a personal friendship of 15 years, Mr. Trump has attacked both Mr. Mnuchin’s investment company — suing it in 2008 over a building deal — as well as Goldman Sachs, the Democratic Party and other institutions Mr. Mnuchin has supported.
.. Mr. Mnuchin’s new job with Mr. Trump is filled with seeming contradictions. Mr. Trump spent much of his campaign attacking Goldman Sachs, using the bank to malign Ted Cruz’s wife, Heidi, who is an investment manager there, and Mrs. Clinton, who famously received rich honorariums for giving speeches there. “I know the guys at Goldman Sachs,” Mr. Trump said during one debate, poking at Mr. Cruz. “They have total, total control over him. Just like they have total control over Hillary Clinton,” he declared.
.. Indeed, many of the nation’s largest banks — including Goldman Sachs — haven’t done business with Mr. Trump in years. Among the lenders on Mr. Trump’s disclosure form, only Merrill Lynch, among the country’s largest lenders, is listed for a loan made in 1993 and 1994. Since then, smaller banks or foreign institutions like UBS and Deutsche Bank are listed as his biggest lenders.
.. Mr. Trump sued the lenders, including Dune, in 2008 to extend the terms of the loan on the basis of “unprecedented financial crisis in the credit markets.” The suit was later settled.