New reports suggest Trump Tower was indeed wiretapped, but the wiretapping was not ordered by the man suggested in President Donald Trump's recent tweets.
According to ABC News, the FBI spent two years, ending in 2013, executing a court-approved warrant to eavesdrop on a money-laundering network that allegedly was being operated by a Russian mafia boss from a unit in Trump Tower in New York. The investigation did not implicate Trump.
The investigation into the network, which involved intercepts of phone conversations and text messages, led to an April 2013 federal grand jury indictment of more than 30 people, including Alimzhan “Little Taiwanese” Tokhtakhouvov, an alleged Russian mob boss who remains on the run from American authorities.
Five months after the indictment, Tokhtakhouvov, whose alleged Russian mob ring is accused of moving $50 million of illegal money into the U.S., sat near Trump in the VIP section of the Moscow Miss Universe pageant, according to ABC News. Trump had sold the Russian rights to the event to a Russian mall developer, ABC News reported.
Prosecutors said an “international money laundering, sports gambling and extortion ring” was allegedly run within three floors of Trump’s penthouse residence, though Trump himself was not implicated in the investigation.
Trump Tower also served as the residence of Vadim Trincher, who is due to be released from prison in July following a five-year sentence after pleading guilty to racketeering, ABC News reported.
Credit: Seth Wenig
Credit: Seth Wenig
“He would have people come in and meet with them. He would use the phones. He would also communicate, whether it was through e-mail or other communications through there,” former FBI official Rich Frankel told ABC News of Trincher. “His base of operations was in the Trump Tower.”
ABC News reports that federal agents confiscated four units, two in New York and two in Sunny Isles, Florida, in connection with the ring.
Read more at ABC News.
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