Since the beginning of the illegal invasion of Ukraine by Russia, the US and
other countries have put together a wide set of economic sanctions against Russia,
and in particular against individual Russian oligarchs including
Vladimir Putin.
And that has really clamped down on a lot of the public accumulation of
international wealth by those oligarchs that said, they're a savvy bunch.
And so a lot of their wealth is actually not easy to track down,
a lot of it is hidden.
And that is where you possibly enter the picture, because there's a new program
where the US is gonna be offering rewards of the $5 million dollars for
help hunting down ill gotten wealth linked to the Russian government in a program
that was officially launched just two days ago.
No word yet on expanding it to include getting back some of the wealth that our
own domestic oligarchs have stolen from us over the decades.
But I'll take a precedent when I can get one, that said,
this framework was set in motion when Russia did the invasion.
But it's building on moves that have been being worked on for
a number of different years.
The rewards suggests that for now,
private citizens with the right kind of intel and access potentially have a way to
profit by getting in on the ongoing sanctions activity in a program called
the kleptocracy asset recovery rewards program.
That was officially approved as part of a defense spending bill by Congress back
at the end of the Trump administration.
Now, he vetoed that broader defense bill that was included in,
because he didn't like that.
We were gonna rename some US military bases that were named after
racist confederate leaders.
Anyway, they overruled his veto, and so now,
that program is ready to be rolled rolled out.
And to qualify for it, what you need to do is provide information that
leads the restraint, seizure, or forfeiture of assets linked to
corruption involving the government of the Russian Federation.
All of this is of course exciting and dramatic,
it's got an air of like international spy craft to it.
There's also some aspects of this that are a little bit worrisome,
I think we can possibly get into that discussion too, what do you think?
>> Yeah, so Trump mainly of course, vetoed it because of the basis John is right.
Having said that when he saw kleptocracy asset recovery,
he probably thought, [LAUGH] Yeah, first of all,
Trump doesn't even know what that means, you're right idea.
So if somebody explained it to him and said,
they would get back the things that bad guys stole, but whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa,
whoa, no, no no veto right away, right away we veto that's not even close.
But not just for his love of Putin and Russia, but because of love of the things
he has stolen from people, and that he would not like to give back.
Okay, I find this to be a super interesting program,
the most interesting part is not what you're gonna hear most in the press,
the yachts, and all that stuff, and seizing it.
And remember this is just for stuff in America, so we can't go to France, and be
like, I think that's a Russian oligarchs car, I'm taking that Bentley, right?
No, we have to have jurisdiction over it, et cetera.
Getting the prize is not easy, you're gonna have to
do a bunch of loopholes is a little vague, but it is possible.
But the most important part is that theoretically,
people that have information about where they have hid their money through
American hedge funds could turn them in.
That's where it gets really interesting, because that's
probably a lot of the donors are probably not at all happy about that,
because a lot of the donors are in hedge funds or have hedge funds, and
so that one could be controversial.
So I mean, it's passed, and let's see if they actually put it into motion, but
Joe Manchin could be very, very upset about that.
I'm not kidding, like when you talk about secret money, and the Americans,
remember the Americans hedge funds are the ones that are hiding the Russian assets.
If we wanted, we could look at those right now, but we're choosing not to,
because rich Americans would be pissed.
>> Yeah, and you saw what got past the day where there were only what
less than five Republicans that voted against it with regards to Russia?
But when you said that, I immediately thought government,
like I didn't even think people.
I thought like Congress, like you see some of the corrupt things that
they've done already in pulling out of stuff during COVID.
And all this stuff that all the controversy that we've had with this
government of ours.
Which so many of us have chosen to pick a side as if they're the red sox and
the Yankees without realizing that they're all in one team together, and
that's team rich, rich, rich, rich rich.
And it's so funny, because I know that a lot of people are probably nervous,
because they don't wanna be outed.
And two, rich people who do dirty stuff, and
not to say all rich people are bad, because I know a couple of good ones, but
I'm talking about those rich, rich rich people that do corrupt stuff.
They've made their money off of the backs of others, so
to them, this is just Friday.
>> [LAUGH] Exactly, by the way, that the be roll that was beside the right now,
like that had the yacht had a fancy car, but it also had a house.
And that made me think, how many times have we talked about oligarchs in Russia,
but in Saudi Arabia, US, all that?
They parked huge amounts of money by buying incredibly expensive real estate.
Like if you wanted to identify some property can't you just go to Trump tower,
and go to the penthouse, and point at the door.
Isn't that a great way to identify some money that's being hidden in the US for
Russian oligarchs?
I'm not saying I want the money for it, but I can give you the keys,
I'll take that.
>> No, but by the way, I mean,
John makes a great point, so I don't know what they're gonna do.
Wait, Russian oligarchs have bought a tremendous amount of Trump properties.
>> And non Trump properties of course.
>> Yes, but
specifically Trump properties they bought a third of Trump tower at one point, and
then they rescued Donald Trump from bank potential bankruptcy when they did.
That's among the reasons why Trump has had an affinity towards Russian oligarchs and
leaders.
And so can I get the $5 million bucks for saying?
Yeah, there it is, [LAUGH] It's right there,
one of the oligarchs bought 100 of it.
Trump bought a house for I forget the exact numbers, but like 20 million and
sold it to a Russian oligarch for 100 million or whatever,
it was obvious money laundering, right?
Whether you can get Trump on that is a different question, but here,
federal authorities go get that house and give me the $5 million.
>> That's right,
[LAUGH] There's amazing all the things they can do when they really try.
Some of the most amazing things our government is able to do when
they wanna do something.
Yet, and still some of the simple problems that are happening happening right here in
this country that affect the American people every day is just a formula
that mean with the formula that's out of this world.