Page:House-Intel-Glenn-Simpson-Transcript.pdf/63

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UNCLASSIFIED, COMMITTEE SENSITIVE
63

companies and the other intermediaries that would have that kind of information.

Then I would go to the banks next. But I actually think some of the intermediary entities in a lot of these transactions are going to be where a lot of the information is.

MR. SCHIFF: And those intermediaries are going to be the real estate brokers as well as the licensing companies?

MR. SIMPSON: Yeah.

MR. SCHIFF: And the title companies?

MR. SIMPSON: Yeah. And then you would -- you know, ultimately you would find -- I mean, in the case of Florida, which is the one where we spent an enormous amount of time on, you know, I would subpoena the Diazers (ph). And I would subpoena the company that was run by Elena Baronoff, who was the true person behind a lot of those deals. And she's an Uzbek immigrant, suspected organized crime figure, who took the Trumps on various tours to Russia, brokered a lot of those deals.

She died of cancer, but -- in 2015 -- but her husband and son still run that company and I suspect they still have those records. And that would tell you a lot.

And in general, I would look at Elena Baronoff's operation. She also had a lot of curious involvement with a businessman in Sicily named Dino Papale, who we think has organized crime ties as well, and has a lot of interesting relationships with the Russians as well, and has hinted strongly that he organized secret meetings between Donald Trump and the Russians in Sicily.

We spent a lot of time looking at that particular network. And I think you would ultimately get to the financial institutions by looking at the actual real estate

UNCLASSIFIED, COMMITTEE SENSITIVE