We still don't know about the money laundering

Monday's lawsuit alleges that Sater traveled to Russia around 2013 at Ilyas Khrapunov's request in order to look for potential locations to invest the money stolen by Ablyazov. "Sater conspired with Ilyas to invest the stolen funds to develop a Trump Tower project in Russia," the court documents read.

That same year, Sater’s former development company Bayrock helped Ilyas Khrapunov purchase three condos in Trump Tower SoHo and quickly resell the properties. It is unclear whether Trump knew about the origin of the funds at the time, but financial experts have long claimed that the money was likely laundered through Trump Tower.

Sater told Newsweek that he was not involved in Khrapunov’s purchase of Trump Tower condos, and that he had already left Bayrock before the purchase was complete.

Monday’s lawsuit, however, argued that Sater conspired with his former clients to launder money through a variety of real estate projects, including five in the U.S., and avoid asset freezing orders against Ablyazov and the Khrapunov family.

“Felix Sater is a notorious New York ‘businessman’ and two-time felon who, along with wanted criminals Mukhtar Ablyazov and Ilyas Khrapunov, and others known and unknown, participated in an international criminal conspiracy to launder and conceal at least $440 million that was stolen from the Plaintiffs in Kazakhstan, and to evade lawful asset freezing and receivership orders issued by the courts of the United Kingdom,” the lawsuit filed Monday reads.

“Sater helped Ablyazov, Khrapunov, and others launder tens of millions of dollars in those stolen funds into the United States, where they were invested in real estate and used to procure immigration status for Khrapunov’s sister,” the court documents continue. “Sater also tried to help them stash some of the stolen money overseas, including in real estate in Moscow. Sater then turned on his criminal confederates and stole at least $40 million of the money he had laundered into the United States for his own personal benefit and the benefit of his associate, Daniel Ridloff.”

Sater's attorney Robert Wolf, however, argued that there was more to the story. He said the lawsuit against his client is revenge for ongoing arbitration between BTA and a company owned by Sater. Like Michael Cohen, Sater's company Litco was hired by BTA to recuperate the funds stolen by Ablyazov.

"This is a cheap and desperate retaliation lawsuit by BTA and Almaty based on false allegations," Wolf told Newsweek in an email. "Mr. Sater’s asset recovery company, Litco, sued them last October for failing to pay $10 million owed for assistance recovering over $50 million in assets. Their concealment from the court of that lawsuit against them and their concealment of their prior agreement with Litco will result in a prompt dismissal of this case."

Sater told Newsweek that his company Litco was set up to assist BTA with asset recovery. The bank has been accused of paying Sater, a witness in their case against the Khrapunovs, $2.5 million. BTA's lawyer, meanwhile, claims that Litco never disclosed that it was controlled by Sater.

“As usual, Mukhtar Ablyazov, Ilyas Khrapunov and the other defendants are now trying to distract attention from their own crimes with sideshows," Schwartz told Newsweek. "The fact remains that they have no defense to the fraud and money laundering charges that have been leveled against them. But to be crystal clear, neither BTA Bank nor the City of Almaty did anything remotely wrong, and neither of them had any idea about Litco’s true owner.”

Documents viewed by Newsweek demonstrate that the arbitration case between the two parties is ongoing.

Another Trump ally, the president’s current lawyer and former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani, has also been accused of helping the Khrapunov family launder the money stolen from Kazakhstan. Giuliani’s former law firm had an office in the Central Asian country. It also helped set up a subsidiary of Bayrock in the Netherlands through which Ablyazov and the Khrapunovs allegedly funneled some of the stolen funds.

Both Giuliani and Sater were named in a criminal complaint filed in the Netherlands in October last year asking the government to investigate the company for money laundering.

Sater was set to testify before the House Intelligence Committee on Wednesday about his role pursuing the Trump Tower Moscow deal, but the hearing was canceled suddenly on Monday.

House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff said that the testimony was postponed so that Congress can focus on obtaining information about the report issued Friday by special counsel Robert Mueller, who was investigating potential collusion between the Trump campaign and the Russian government to influence the 2016 presidential election. The report has not been made public or been given to Congress, but Attorney General William Barr sent Congress a short letter summarizing its findings.