Ex-Trump associate loses money laundering trial

Real estate developer Felix Sater, a Moscow native and former business associate of presumptive 2024 GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump, has been facing a civil trial in which he is accused of helping a wealthy Kazakh man launder millions of dollars through real estate in the United States — including The Dominick (formerly Trump SoHo) in Lower Manhattan. And on Wednesday, June 26, Sater lost that trial.

Bloomberg News' Erik Larson reports, "A federal jury in Manhattan issued the verdict Wednesday in favor of the city of Almaty, Kazakhstan, and one of the country's biggest lenders, BTA Bank, awarding more than $32 million in damages, including interest, according to the lawyer for the plaintiffs, Matthew L. Schwartz of Boies Schiller Flexner LLP."

Sater is speaking out against the verdict, telling Bloomberg News, "I reject the verdict and will be appealing."

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But Schwartz is applauding the jury's decision.

The attorney told Bloomberg News, "We are privileged to have been able to present this evidence to a U.S. jury, and are thrilled with the verdict in favor of our clients, including the jury's imposition of punitive damages for the deliberate and particularly morally culpable conduct of Felix Sater."

Larson notes that the plaintiffs, in the lawsuit, allege that Sater "helped Ilyas Khrapunov launder a portion of the roughly $6 billion allegedly looted from the bank by his father-in-law, former BTA Chairman Mukhtar Ablyazov, in the years before the financial crisis."

"The case is part of a global effort by BTA to recover the money, which was allegedly siphoned from the bank through a web of shell companies and bogus loans," Larson explains. "Almaty alleges some of the laundered money was stolen from the city by Khrapunov's father, when he was mayor, through corrupt sales of municipal land."

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The Bloomberg News reporter adds, "Sater, who as late as 2011 was handing out business cards identifying himself as a 'senior advisor to Donald Trump,' denied the allegations. But he testified that he lied when he helped Khrapunov conceal his role in lucrative deals to dodge a worldwide freezing order that tied up his family's assets. Sater allegedly made millions in the process."

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Read Bloomberg News' full report at this link (subscription required).