On a day when pathological liar and con man Donald "Rump" Trump's personal fixer pled guilty to lying about Rump's corrupt dealings with the Kremlin over Trump Tower Moscow, another development in Germany could also spell problems for him. German police raided the Frankfurt offices of Deutsche Bank (DB) to collect evidence of the bank's participation in money-laundering schemes involving false front offshore businesses.
The investigation is an offshoot of the infamous Panama Papers scandal, which revealed that hundreds of wealthy individuals (Russia's Putin apparently among them) had used DB to avoid taxes by parking funds in offshore accounts, many in Panama and the Caribbean. While Rump may have been a player in this massive money-laundering scheme, it's more interesting that DB "loaned" Rump an estimated $300 million (which has not been repaid) during a time when his multiple bankruptcies made him poison to U.S. banks and institutional lenders. Whether some of the laundered money found its way into the "loans" to Rump might be of interest to German authorities. The incoming chair of the House Financial Services Committee Maxine Waters (D-CA) has promised to look closely at DB's dealings with Rump once Dems gain control of the committee. Last year, Special Counsel Mueller subpoenaed DB's financial transaction records of Rump and his criminal organization and family, all of which will be treated in the Special Counsel's report on Russian influences over Rump.
(photo: Ouch, that'll leave a [Deutsche] mark.)
