Page:House-Intel-Glenn-Simpson-Transcript.pdf/140

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140

the use by Russian oligarchs of that bank to launder money through it and the role Wilbur Ross played in that. Do you have any information on that?

MR. SIMPSON: Not really. I mean Rybolovlev was also, you know, a figure at the Bank of Cyprus. And some Paul Manafort shell company accounts wound up I think at the Bank of Cyprus. So there is definitely some overlap. But I couldn't tell you whether -- I don't have an opinion on whether it's significant.

MS. SPEIER: Okay. There was a report that -- you referenced earlier about how Donald Trump worked with the Italian Mafia in the 90s I think, and then in the 2000s it appears he was working with the Russian Mafia. That was what you testified to earlier today.

MR. SIMPSON: That's correct.

MS. SPEIER: At Trump Tower in New York City, the New York Police arrested 29 suspects who were allegedly running gambling rings and money laundering out of two condos, one of which occupied an entire floor in Trump Tower. One of the bosses that I think you mentioned earlier, Tokhtakhovno was the only target that slipped away, and then was seen later with Donald Trump in a VIP section of the Miss Universe Pageant in Moscow. Do you know anything more about that Mafia organization operating out of Trump Tower?

MR. SIMPSON: I mean I am trying to summon it from my memory. We spent a lot of time looking at this. I mean there was another guy -- I don't remember anything that I think is notable that would be useful for you.

MS. SPEIER: The investment in the Trump International Hotel and Tower in Toronto. It appears that Mr. Trump's original partner was Leib Waldman, who was a fugitive who fled to Toronto from the United States after pleading guilty to bankruptcy fraud and embezzlement in 1995. The Ritz Carlton, which had

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