Investigation into Corruption and Extortion by Senior Managers of Tenex

Introduction

According to court filings in the United States District Court for the District of Maryland, in 2009, the FBI began an investigation into corruption and extortion by senior managers of Tenex, a subsidiary of Rosatom, a Russian entity. Robert Mueller was FBI Director at the time the investigation into the Rosatom subsidiary began. The investigation began as an intelligence probe into Russian nuclear officials. Mueller's investigation also obtained an eyewitness account known as CS-1 — backed by documents, recordings, and emails — indicating Russian nuclear officials routed millions of dollars to the U.S. designed to benefit former President Bill Clinton’s foundation during the time Secretary of State Hillary Clinton served on the Committee on Foreign Investment, a government body that provided the approval of the sale of Uranium One to Rosatom (Smith, 2017).

Investigation into Corruption and Extortion by Senior Managers of Tenex

During the investigation, federal agents attempted to convince Mikerin to turn on his Russian colleagues by showing him evidence of relationships between “shell companies and other Russian energy officials, including President Vladimir Putin.” He refused to expose them and was subsequently arrested on charges of criminal conspiracy to extort kickbacks for lucrative contracts to transport imported uranium of dismantled Russian warheads to power plants within the United States (Johnson, 2017). TASS reported "the US authorities tried to exert pressure on Mikerin and persuade him to secretly cooperate against Russia" (TASS, 2017). Mikerin's arrest was scheduled for early summer, but later in August, the decision was overturned by prosecutors Rod Rosenstein and Adam Aik, according to the court documents.

The appeal, signed by Rosenstein and Aik, urged Judge William Connelly to cancel Mikerin's arrest order since the law enforcement agents were allegedly hoping that Mikerin would secretly collaborate with them against high-level Rosatom officials. In a statement to the press, the US Attorney's office commented, "This is a sealed document, I'm not sure how it found its way into the proceedings," in an attempt to object to the defense discussing the motion publicly. Defense attorney Dan Hurson remarked, "In my 40 years of legal practice, I haven't seen anything like that" (Hurson, 2017). The investigation found some kickbacks paid in cash and some in foreign wire transfers. From April 2009 to April 2011, the wire transfers went to Wiser Trading, registered in the Seychelles. From July 2011 to July 2013 - to the British Leila Global Limited account in a Latvian bank. And from August 2013 to May 2014 - to Ollins Development in the British Virgin Islands.

Financial Networks and Connections

The Director of British Leila Global, Denny Banger, a Latvian citizen, appeared as a nominal director in a hundred organizations. Latvian journalists, participants in the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP), found Banger. He was listed as the head of several firms related to the "Magnitsky case." On October 17, 2017, The Hill reported that the FBI had gathered substantial evidence that Russian nuclear industry officials were engaged in bribery, kickbacks, extortion, and money laundering designed to grow Vladimir Putin’s atomic energy business inside the United States, according to government documents and interviews (The Hill, 2017). Federal agents used a confidential U.S. witness working inside the Russian nuclear industry to gather extensive financial records, make secret recordings, and intercept emails as early as 2009 that showed Moscow had compromised an American uranium trucking firm with bribes and kickbacks in violation of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, FBI and court documents show.

Political Implications and Responses

They also obtained an eyewitness account — backed by documents — indicating Russian nuclear officials had routed millions of dollars to the U.S. designed to benefit former President Bill Clinton’s charitable foundation during the time Secretary of State Hillary Clinton served on a government body that provided a favorable decision to Moscow, sources told The Hill. The racketeering scheme was conducted “with the consent of higher level officials” in Russia who “shared the proceeds” from the kickbacks, one agent declared in an affidavit years later. Rather than bring immediate charges in 2010, however, the Department of Justice (DOJ) continued investigating the matter for nearly four more years, essentially leaving the American public and Congress in the dark about Russian nuclear corruption on U.S. soil during a period when the Obama administration made two major decisions benefiting Putin’s commercial nuclear ambitions (The Hill, 2017).

Attorney General Eric Holder was among the Obama administration officials joining Hillary Clinton on the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States at the time the Uranium One deal was approved. Multiple current and former government officials told The Hill they did not know whether the FBI or DOJ ever alerted committee members to the criminal activity they uncovered (The Hill, 2017). On October 18, calls for Special Prosecutor Robert Mueller's resignation mounted over evidence tampering in the Russian bribery scandal of Hillary Clinton and the Clinton Foundation.

The New York Post reported on team Obama's cover-up of Russia crimes. Obama Attorney General Loretta Lynch blocked an FBI informant from testifying to Congress about his information that the Russians wanted to gain access to former President Bill Clinton and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to influence the Obama administration's decision on the purchase of Uranium One (New York Post, 2017). The next day, Newsweek reported that before the Uranium One deal was brokered in 2009, the FBI under Robert Mueller—who is now special counsel in the Russia investigation into potential collusion with the Trump campaign—had begun an investigation into corruption and extortion by senior managers of a company owned by the Russian government’s nuclear company, Rosatom. According to court filings revealed by The Hill Tuesday, in 2009 the FBI found enough evidence to suggest Vadim Mikerin, who headed the Rosatom subsidiary Tenex, was corrupt and high-level officials at Rosatom knew about his bribery scheme (Newsweek, 2017).

Legal Outcomes and Ongoing Investigations

In 2014, he pled guilty in a U.S. court case to orchestrating more than $2 million in bribe payments through shadowy accounts in Cyprus, Latvia, and Switzerland. The House Oversight Committee also investigated Obama administration criminal activity involving Robert Mueller, Hillary Clinton, Eric Holder, et al., in relation to bribery scams and national security breaches over Mueller, Clinton, and Holder's approval of Russian oligarchs' purchase of uranium reserves while under criminal investigation for extortion and money laundering (Smith, 2017).

Conclusion

The investigation into Tenex and its connections to Russian nuclear officials not only highlighted issues of corruption and extortion but also raised significant political questions about the actions and inactions of U.S. officials during the Obama administration. The ongoing scrutiny and investigations continue to bring new details to light, challenging the integrity of several key players involved in the process.