WEBVTT - The Nightclub Owner Who Fell Out a Window in Washington, DC 0:00:00.240 --> 0:00:05.080 Something strange is going on. Who is killing Russian billionaires? 0:00:05.400 --> 0:00:08.640 Another Russian oligarch has been found dead. Reports suggests that 0:00:08.680 --> 0:00:10.360 he hanged himself, fell out of. 0:00:10.280 --> 0:00:14.520 A window, slashed his wrists, was poisoned, murdered his whole family. 0:00:15.960 --> 0:00:18.799 Last year, more than a dozen Russian oligarchs died in 0:00:18.880 --> 0:00:22.239 the space of nine months. Many of the debts are 0:00:22.320 --> 0:00:27.120 suspicious with links to the Kremlin. This is sad Oligach, 0:00:27.440 --> 0:00:32.400 an investigation into these recently dead Russian billionaires. It's created 0:00:32.400 --> 0:00:37.480 by me Jake Hanrahan and my colleague Sergey Slipchenkov. Sad 0:00:37.520 --> 0:00:41.559 Oligarch is a H eleven production for Kulso Media and iHeartRadio. 0:00:49.000 --> 0:00:53.279 This case concerned someone a bit different. He died in Washington. 0:00:53.720 --> 0:00:57.160 He was anti Poutine, he had connections to both US 0:00:57.280 --> 0:01:02.200 political parties, and he's actually not e and Russian. He is, however, 0:01:02.480 --> 0:01:06.640 dead and the circumstances around his death are really strange. 0:01:10.400 --> 0:01:15.080 On August fourteenth, twenty twenty two, Latvian born Dan Rappaport, 0:01:15.400 --> 0:01:18.839 fifty two, was in his luxury apartment in Washington, DC. 0:01:20.600 --> 0:01:23.600 He lived in the city's West End, an upmarket area 0:01:23.680 --> 0:01:26.520 with the finest restaurants hotels and condos. 0:01:27.319 --> 0:01:29.280 Naturally, Rappaport was rich. 0:01:30.120 --> 0:01:32.440 He made his money in a number of different ways, 0:01:32.720 --> 0:01:37.520 including financial investments in which he oversaw large international projects 0:01:37.560 --> 0:01:43.640 concerning US Russian oil cooperation. That evening, police in DC 0:01:43.840 --> 0:01:47.039 got an alert on their patrol car radio. 0:01:46.680 --> 0:01:48.240 There's been a jumper in the West End. 0:01:51.880 --> 0:01:53.800 As they pulled up to the scene, a man was 0:01:53.840 --> 0:01:57.200 found lying in a heap on the floor. He'd fallen 0:01:57.240 --> 0:02:00.320 out of the window of his fancy apartment, plummeting nine 0:02:00.360 --> 0:02:01.600 stories onto the pavement. 0:02:02.760 --> 0:02:05.280 It was Dan Rappaport, of what was left. 0:02:05.040 --> 0:02:09.000 Of him, He'd fallen around ninety feet to the concrete. 0:02:09.360 --> 0:02:13.400 That's a serious fall. Around ninety nine percent of people 0:02:13.400 --> 0:02:18.120 who fall that distance don't survive. Dan Rappaport was no exception. 0:02:18.880 --> 0:02:22.480 He was pronounced dead on arrival at the hospital and 0:02:22.560 --> 0:02:26.000 his pockets was two six hundred and ten dollars in cash, 0:02:26.520 --> 0:02:29.440 a broken phone, and the lanyard with a key attached. 0:02:31.240 --> 0:02:35.440 An autopsy report released in November twenty twenty two stated 0:02:35.480 --> 0:02:39.160 that Rappaport died from multiple blunt force trauma injuries as 0:02:39.160 --> 0:02:42.520 a result of the fall. However, his cause of death 0:02:42.680 --> 0:02:47.160 was ruled as undetermined. His wife said he showed no 0:02:47.280 --> 0:02:50.400 signs of depression and doesn't believe it was a suicide. 0:02:51.040 --> 0:02:54.000 They'd made plans for the following day and Rappaport had 0:02:54.040 --> 0:02:58.240 several business meetings scheduled. Police closed the case, but they 0:02:58.280 --> 0:03:01.440 said they're open to further investigate if any tips come 0:03:01.480 --> 0:03:06.320 in or further evidence appears. So, who was done, Rappaport 0:03:06.760 --> 0:03:09.040 and why would you have any connection to the dead 0:03:09.200 --> 0:03:14.680 Russians mentioned throughout this series. Let's start with the Soho 0:03:14.760 --> 0:03:22.079 Rooms Rappaport nightclub. The Soho Rooms was a high end 0:03:22.240 --> 0:03:25.600 nightclub in Moscow. It was opened by Rappaport in two 0:03:25.680 --> 0:03:28.600 thousand and seven. Within a few years of its launch, 0:03:28.960 --> 0:03:31.920 the club became somewhat of a mecca for Russia's rich, 0:03:32.000 --> 0:03:37.160 cosmopolitan party scene. Situated in a trendy building that's a 0:03:37.200 --> 0:03:41.120 mix of Art Deco and Soviet brutalism, the Soho Rooms 0:03:41.200 --> 0:03:43.240 was the place to be if you wanted to flow 0:03:43.240 --> 0:03:47.240 in your money and indulge in expensive taste. Reserving a 0:03:47.320 --> 0:03:50.960 single table cost one hundred thousand rubles, which is over 0:03:51.000 --> 0:03:54.960 one thousand US dollars. That's the average monthly wage for 0:03:55.040 --> 0:04:01.040 your everyday Muscovite. International musicians performed regularly the Soho Rooms, 0:04:01.320 --> 0:04:06.080 including Johnny Depp and his awful band Hollywood Vampires. It 0:04:06.160 --> 0:04:10.200 became the go to club for it girls, politicians, and businessmen. 0:04:10.920 --> 0:04:14.480 If you like fine dining, strong drugs, and expensive liquor, 0:04:14.880 --> 0:04:17.960 the Soho Rooms was the place to be. It became 0:04:18.040 --> 0:04:21.760 synonymous with Russia's party elite. It was very well known. 0:04:22.040 --> 0:04:24.800 If you weren't there on Friday or Saturday night, he 0:04:24.920 --> 0:04:29.760 didn't matter. Rappaport himself was by no means a silent 0:04:29.839 --> 0:04:32.600 partner in all of this. He loved the nightlife, the 0:04:32.720 --> 0:04:35.839 seeing the money. By all accounts, he basked in the 0:04:35.880 --> 0:04:39.320 glory of running a club for the elite. According to 0:04:39.360 --> 0:04:42.599 a Russian journalist familiar with the culture of the Soho Rooms, 0:04:43.120 --> 0:04:47.520 Rappaport knew everyone that mattered, and everyone that mattered knew him. 0:04:47.800 --> 0:04:51.960 It was a legend in Russia's party scene. The Soho 0:04:52.040 --> 0:04:57.280 Rooms expanded with franchises across Russia and won in Dubai. Naturally, 0:04:57.320 --> 0:05:01.599 the club turned over big profits. Rappaport lived a lavish 0:05:01.720 --> 0:05:06.360 lifestyle and apparently he owned several million dollar apartments around Moscow. 0:05:07.760 --> 0:05:11.520 Clearly life was good, or at least it was until 0:05:11.600 --> 0:05:17.920 Rappaport had to flee Russia due to his anti pootin activity. However, 0:05:18.040 --> 0:05:21.120 how serious him fleeing was at the time is up 0:05:21.160 --> 0:05:25.640 for debate, as Rappaport allegedly returned to Russia several times 0:05:25.960 --> 0:05:30.239 after being apparently forced to leave. He continued to build 0:05:30.279 --> 0:05:33.320 what was considered a cult following amongst the party scene 0:05:33.560 --> 0:05:36.760 until the Soho rooms was closed down in twenty eighteen. 0:05:37.960 --> 0:05:39.880 At this time, the Russian ruble was at one of 0:05:39.880 --> 0:05:44.720 its highest values. Rappaport was making a killing four years later, 0:05:44.760 --> 0:05:49.080 though he'd wind up dead on a DC pavement. Nightclubs 0:05:49.160 --> 0:05:52.400 is not how Dan Rappaport first got rich stock. He 0:05:52.480 --> 0:05:56.320 got his start in economics, as Me and Surgery discussed. 0:05:57.920 --> 0:05:59.839 He grew up in the US and he got his 0:06:00.080 --> 0:06:03.400 really from Houston, Texas. From there he went into an 0:06:03.480 --> 0:06:08.720 investing firm, Fibro. They focused like raw materials, so any 0:06:08.920 --> 0:06:13.280 kind of oil, just mining things like that. I think 0:06:13.320 --> 0:06:17.080 he graduated somewhere in the early nineties and he started 0:06:17.080 --> 0:06:21.000 working at Fibro and they were working on a project 0:06:21.560 --> 0:06:24.400 in Russia, one of the first like oil extraction projects. 0:06:25.360 --> 0:06:29.839 The company basically got three stakes in three different oil 0:06:29.839 --> 0:06:32.240 fields and they were trying to develop those. 0:06:32.440 --> 0:06:33.120 They were one of the. 0:06:33.120 --> 0:06:35.320 First companies to go in and they were one of 0:06:35.320 --> 0:06:37.720 the first companies to actually set up shop like they 0:06:37.720 --> 0:06:40.400 were I think by nineteen ninety one nineteen eighty two, 0:06:40.400 --> 0:06:42.920 they were already pumping oil and selling it. 0:06:43.279 --> 0:06:47.600 And so a familiar pattern emerges. This is yet another 0:06:47.720 --> 0:06:51.039 wealthy businessman with heavy ties to the Russian oil and 0:06:51.080 --> 0:06:56.000 gas industry who's died in mysterious circumstances. This guy even 0:06:56.080 --> 0:06:59.960 fell out of a window. When Rappaport first entered this 0:07:00.080 --> 0:07:03.839 industry in the nineties, big money was made immediately, and 0:07:03.920 --> 0:07:06.680 the Russian government quickly stepped in to increase their cut. 0:07:07.400 --> 0:07:10.320 I think it was around twenty k years dr day. 0:07:10.600 --> 0:07:14.560 It did slow down. That project kind of fizzled out. 0:07:15.520 --> 0:07:17.560 It was kind of killed off by the Russian government 0:07:17.600 --> 0:07:20.320 because they were they were really getting a hang out 0:07:20.320 --> 0:07:23.240 of the whole capitalism thing, and they were putting a 0:07:23.240 --> 0:07:26.440 bunch of taxes on from what it seems like everything 0:07:26.600 --> 0:07:30.560 you know, on the transport of oil, on companies operating 0:07:30.600 --> 0:07:35.040 in it, then forcing them to pay and extremely devalued ruble, 0:07:36.040 --> 0:07:39.480 which kind of just I guess, kind of killed that obviously, 0:07:39.560 --> 0:07:42.560 other companies to cover and you know, now oil is massive, 0:07:42.600 --> 0:07:45.720 but at that time, like that project called White Knights 0:07:45.960 --> 0:07:47.040 didn't exactly work out. 0:07:47.560 --> 0:07:51.160 The White Knights project was the first joint Russian American 0:07:51.280 --> 0:07:55.120 operation designed to open up more oil fields across Siberia. 0:07:55.760 --> 0:07:58.480 White Knights was actually conceived before the collapse of the 0:07:58.520 --> 0:08:01.400 Soviet Union, when the UA SSR was opening up to 0:08:01.480 --> 0:08:05.360 foreign investment in the late eighties. As Sergey said, White 0:08:05.440 --> 0:08:08.920 Knights began turning over twenty thousand dollars a day within 0:08:09.040 --> 0:08:12.320 just a few months of its launch. By nineteen ninety two, 0:08:12.400 --> 0:08:16.760 though the project collapsed. Rappaports stayed in Russia after White 0:08:16.840 --> 0:08:20.240 Knights ended. He had experience in both the USSR and 0:08:20.320 --> 0:08:23.520 the US, having grown up in Soviet Latvia but also 0:08:23.560 --> 0:08:28.200 getting educated in America, a very useful set of credentials 0:08:28.360 --> 0:08:31.200 in the banditry period of post Soviet Russia. 0:08:32.720 --> 0:08:34.439 From then on he stayed in Russia. 0:08:35.360 --> 0:08:39.600 And you know, being from a Russian family, they escaped 0:08:39.640 --> 0:08:44.559 from Latvia like Ussar Latvia to the US. 0:08:44.760 --> 0:08:48.240 He's like a US citizen. He can be the middleman. 0:08:48.320 --> 0:08:51.720 You know, he speaks Russian, of course, and he became 0:08:51.760 --> 0:08:56.200 this middleman for investors and the New Russia. That's kind 0:08:56.200 --> 0:08:59.280 of you know how they say selling out, They're kind 0:08:59.320 --> 0:09:03.440 of everything that was once government owned is now going 0:09:03.480 --> 0:09:07.200 to private owners. And he was this middleman looking for 0:09:07.240 --> 0:09:11.960 American European investors, helping them make these deals of purchasing 0:09:12.000 --> 0:09:15.280 these massive facilities, anything that can be sold, basically that 0:09:15.559 --> 0:09:19.040 was being sold any industry that the USSR had. He 0:09:19.200 --> 0:09:20.640 was kind of making those deals. 0:09:21.080 --> 0:09:24.280 After this, Rappaport went on to work at an investment 0:09:24.360 --> 0:09:27.960 firm Center Invest, essentially doing the same things he'd been 0:09:28.000 --> 0:09:30.960 doing before, working as a fixer or a middleman for 0:09:31.040 --> 0:09:34.360 Western companies looking to capitalize on the collapse of the 0:09:34.440 --> 0:09:52.880 Soviet Union. Bleed it dry, ignore the people profit. By 0:09:52.920 --> 0:09:56.199 the two thousands, Rappaport was the manager at sent To Invest, 0:09:56.559 --> 0:10:00.880 with offices in both Moscow and New York. Over the decade, 0:10:01.000 --> 0:10:04.240 he went from wealthy to very wealthy. This is when 0:10:04.320 --> 0:10:07.240 Rappaport made the bulk of his money, enabling him to 0:10:07.360 --> 0:10:11.240 invest in more exciting ventures like the Soho rooms in Moscow. 0:10:11.600 --> 0:10:14.679 Rappaport opened that in two thousand and seven, but then 0:10:14.760 --> 0:10:18.560 the following year he hit a roadblock. The US government 0:10:18.640 --> 0:10:20.319 puts sanctions on him. 0:10:20.559 --> 0:10:23.200 It seems like the charges were a securities fraud and 0:10:23.280 --> 0:10:26.560 even though he you know, is sanctioned, he was kind of. 0:10:28.160 --> 0:10:29.520 In trouble with the US government. 0:10:30.200 --> 0:10:33.320 Five years later, all the charges were dropped and he 0:10:33.400 --> 0:10:34.280 returned to the US. 0:10:34.840 --> 0:10:39.200 So Dan Rappaport was accused and charged with securities fraud. 0:10:39.840 --> 0:10:40.760 But what is that. 0:10:41.400 --> 0:10:45.720 Well, basically, it's high tier white collar lying. It's also 0:10:45.760 --> 0:10:49.760 referred to as stock fraud or investment fraud, and it's 0:10:49.760 --> 0:10:55.400 a serious crime. Basically, it involves misrepresenting a deal by 0:10:55.400 --> 0:10:59.400 either omitting certain details or just outright lying to urge 0:10:59.440 --> 0:11:05.319 investors to make decisions. Stockbrokers, brokerage corporations, and investment banks 0:11:05.520 --> 0:11:09.360 are often involved in securities fraud in some way, most 0:11:09.400 --> 0:11:12.360 of them get away with it. That Rapperport's charges were 0:11:12.440 --> 0:11:16.040 dropped after five years doesn't mean much in my opinion 0:11:16.559 --> 0:11:19.559 either way. He made his money capitalizing on the downfall 0:11:19.679 --> 0:11:23.400 of post Soviet Russia, skipping back and forth between New 0:11:23.480 --> 0:11:27.440 York and Moscow as your average Russian near staffed pretty 0:11:27.520 --> 0:11:29.440 much standard Oligach behavior. 0:11:29.760 --> 0:11:32.560 It seems like he has businesses all over Russia and 0:11:33.080 --> 0:11:35.640 like spread throughout the world. But there's nothing like one 0:11:35.720 --> 0:11:38.960 big business. That's kind of like pointed out, he just 0:11:39.000 --> 0:11:42.120 had multiple incomes from different things. 0:11:42.480 --> 0:11:46.120 Whilst we've seen Rappaports sometimes painted as a separate entity 0:11:46.559 --> 0:11:49.680 to the other oligachs we've looked into, probably because of 0:11:49.720 --> 0:11:52.920 his open anti Putinism, he very much came up in 0:11:52.960 --> 0:11:55.720 the same scene of the post Soviet free for all 0:11:56.040 --> 0:11:56.720 as they did. 0:11:57.120 --> 0:11:59.079 That would be the majority of his money from that 0:11:59.200 --> 0:12:03.240 ten year period, consulting and kind of directing investors into 0:12:03.320 --> 0:12:06.839 Russia and then the stock management. He was pretty much 0:12:06.840 --> 0:12:09.600 a fixer. He's I guess, like you know, he spoke Russian. 0:12:09.679 --> 0:12:12.760 He he got kind of an inn with the White 0:12:12.840 --> 0:12:16.720 Knights project. I'm assuming he built connections, kind of figured 0:12:16.760 --> 0:12:19.840 out how things work, and then he went from there 0:12:19.920 --> 0:12:23.600 and started, yeah, like being a fixer kind of finding 0:12:23.920 --> 0:12:26.440 Like somebody wants to sell something, He's like, okay, cool, 0:12:26.559 --> 0:12:29.240 I'll go find you know, a rich American, a rich 0:12:29.280 --> 0:12:31.880 European to come and buy it out. 0:12:32.559 --> 0:12:34.960 What was the story is spun that Rappaport had to 0:12:35.000 --> 0:12:38.840 flee Russia due to anti pootin activity. He first left 0:12:38.880 --> 0:12:41.400 because he owed the Russian government tax and they charged 0:12:41.480 --> 0:12:44.040 him for not paying it. It wasn't even that much money, 0:12:44.240 --> 0:12:47.439 not for him anyway. It was around forty thousand US dollars. 0:12:47.800 --> 0:12:50.960 But for whatever reasons he was charged, he left the country. 0:12:51.360 --> 0:12:53.480 It's pretty well documented that, first of all, in the 0:12:53.559 --> 0:12:58.240 nineties it was very like shady dealings anything that was 0:12:58.280 --> 0:13:01.880 being sold off. You know, we've covered previously how everything 0:13:01.960 --> 0:13:06.640 was being privatized and people kind of used different, maybe legal, 0:13:06.880 --> 0:13:11.800 but kind of underhanded ways of getting wealthy. I mean, 0:13:11.920 --> 0:13:14.920 some things are anecdotal, somethings are recorded where you know, 0:13:14.960 --> 0:13:18.400 a lot of crime organizations were in charge. And my 0:13:18.520 --> 0:13:20.679 guess would be as if he was doing any kind 0:13:20.720 --> 0:13:24.560 of like consulting that we talked about as finding businesses 0:13:24.600 --> 0:13:27.840 to sell to rich investors, I would assume he had 0:13:27.880 --> 0:13:31.760 to deal with the government and with people who were 0:13:31.800 --> 0:13:35.120 in this organized crime kind of figuring out who to 0:13:35.160 --> 0:13:37.400 talk to, who's selling, and where to find you know. 0:13:37.440 --> 0:13:39.960 So I'm guessing he was involved in this. I just 0:13:40.000 --> 0:13:43.640 think you can't avoid it. At that time period, it 0:13:43.800 --> 0:13:45.800 just so involved, you know, the government is kind of 0:13:47.000 --> 0:13:49.040 especially I mean maybe not at the time, it wasn't 0:13:49.080 --> 0:13:52.319 as involved with everything, but it all kind of led 0:13:52.440 --> 0:13:56.199 to the government taking over and they were still in charge, 0:13:56.480 --> 0:13:59.240 so like he absolutely had to be involved with the 0:13:59.280 --> 0:14:03.400 States too, for Saul work on oil and then from 0:14:03.440 --> 0:14:09.440 them to you know, sell off essentially state industry, like 0:14:10.000 --> 0:14:12.199 he'd have to be at least to some degree. 0:14:12.480 --> 0:14:15.640 It's clear that at one point Rappaport was cozied up 0:14:15.640 --> 0:14:18.080 to the Russian government enough to at least do business 0:14:18.080 --> 0:14:21.360 with them back and forth between the US, which would 0:14:21.400 --> 0:14:25.280 make both parties a lot of money. At some point 0:14:25.600 --> 0:14:29.040 he hit a snagdough, as we mentioned, with the tax problems. 0:14:29.360 --> 0:14:33.400 Before this, Rappaport had several companies in Russia, though his 0:14:33.480 --> 0:14:37.400 fingers were in many different pies. He was a human piroshki. 0:14:37.880 --> 0:14:40.920 He owned the Russian company selling and trading raw materials 0:14:41.160 --> 0:14:44.800 such as precious metals. He owned the Russian real estate company. 0:14:45.040 --> 0:14:48.160 He owned the Russian catering business. He was into all 0:14:48.200 --> 0:14:52.800 sorts until the Russian government shut him down citing various 0:14:52.880 --> 0:14:56.520 legal violations. They then took control of all his companies 0:14:56.560 --> 0:15:01.280 and liquidated them. The money was theirs. To suspect that 0:15:01.360 --> 0:15:04.960 this is what made Rappaport anti Putin as opposed to 0:15:05.000 --> 0:15:09.680 any specific humanitarian issues, but that's just a personal hunch. 0:15:10.120 --> 0:15:14.440 Sergio andmy tried to find more specific information on Rappaport's 0:15:14.520 --> 0:15:18.240 anti Putin activity, but there wasn't actually that much, not 0:15:18.280 --> 0:15:19.880 from the time when it apparently happened. 0:15:20.440 --> 0:15:24.640 I tried to look back at like more like articles 0:15:24.840 --> 0:15:27.000 at the time, you know, kind of what was going 0:15:27.040 --> 0:15:29.760 on at that time, instead of him saying recently, like 0:15:29.800 --> 0:15:32.360 in the last year, that he was a huge anti 0:15:32.400 --> 0:15:33.240 Putine critic. 0:15:33.800 --> 0:15:34.880 I couldn't find too much. 0:15:34.960 --> 0:15:37.080 I mean, I guess the biggest thing is that he 0:15:37.240 --> 0:15:39.840 was working with Navalney, not the Valny, but like the 0:15:39.880 --> 0:15:44.240 opposition and then eventually Navalny, and that kind of that's 0:15:44.320 --> 0:15:48.800 pointed as the biggest like he was anti Putin, he 0:15:48.880 --> 0:15:52.200 was working with like the opposition, But I can't exactly 0:15:52.200 --> 0:15:55.560 find that he was such a huge, like outspoken person 0:15:55.600 --> 0:16:00.600 against Russia or Putin again until until he went back 0:16:00.640 --> 0:16:01.200 to the US. 0:16:01.320 --> 0:16:05.000 Then he was more kind of active, I guess in that. 0:16:06.200 --> 0:16:07.960 But at the time that he left, you know, the 0:16:08.000 --> 0:16:11.440 government was saying that it's because of the taxes. He 0:16:12.120 --> 0:16:15.800 claimed there was because he was being threatened for supporting 0:16:15.840 --> 0:16:18.600 the opposition. I mean, you can see both sides, like 0:16:18.760 --> 0:16:21.000 maybe he doesn't want to admit to you know, wrongdoing 0:16:21.400 --> 0:16:25.400 in terms of taxes, and the government doesn't want people 0:16:25.440 --> 0:16:28.040 to think that it's because they're, you know, threatening someone. 0:16:28.400 --> 0:16:31.000 But that said, it is actually a tried and tested 0:16:31.080 --> 0:16:35.320 method of Putin to create wrongdoing around political opponents in 0:16:35.360 --> 0:16:38.560 a bid to crush any opposition. I think it's likely 0:16:38.600 --> 0:16:41.760 this happened to Rappaport. Sure he did all the Kremlin 0:16:41.840 --> 0:16:45.560 tax but to a multimillionaire the equivalent of forty thousand 0:16:45.600 --> 0:16:49.320 dollars is hardly something he couldn't resolve. Maybe it's a 0:16:49.360 --> 0:16:53.400 case of two birds one stone. Rappaport is rich and influential, 0:16:53.680 --> 0:16:55.920 with strong ties to the US, and he's helping the 0:16:55.960 --> 0:16:58.880 Russian opposition parties. So let's get rid of him and 0:16:58.920 --> 0:17:00.920 just say it was because of this loose end of 0:17:01.000 --> 0:17:20.160 oad taxes. Let's not look too crazy, not yet anyway. Now, 0:17:20.240 --> 0:17:23.800 I'm not saying Rappaport didn't genuinely want a new Russia 0:17:23.920 --> 0:17:26.720 one without the iron fist of Putin and his squad, 0:17:27.280 --> 0:17:30.240 but he did also make a lot of money under 0:17:30.280 --> 0:17:32.440 it until the heat got too close. 0:17:33.160 --> 0:17:35.720 He was more than happy to work and Russia Putting 0:17:35.840 --> 0:17:38.600 was ready in power for at least a decade at 0:17:38.600 --> 0:17:41.880 that point. He was more than happy to be there 0:17:42.240 --> 0:17:46.200 throughout everything, you know, when they were kind of when 0:17:46.240 --> 0:17:48.480 all these aligars were making their money in the nineties, 0:17:48.800 --> 0:17:50.800 it wasn't through the most I don't know, not in 0:17:50.760 --> 0:17:54.920 the most honorable ways, not the most not the cleanest way, 0:17:55.080 --> 0:17:57.400 you know, So like he knew what he was doing. 0:17:57.400 --> 0:18:00.359 I think he was more than happy to profit while 0:18:00.600 --> 0:18:03.040 you know, while he was making money, while he wasn't 0:18:03.119 --> 0:18:06.680 kind of threatening anyway. I think it's like, I think 0:18:06.720 --> 0:18:10.440 maybe he definitely supported the opposition, you know, but I 0:18:10.520 --> 0:18:14.480 highly doubt he would have risked his wealth and his 0:18:14.560 --> 0:18:18.800 happy life for like to create a putting kind of thing. 0:18:18.840 --> 0:18:21.320 I think maybe he truly, you know, he did support 0:18:21.560 --> 0:18:24.000 like the opposition and stuff. But at the minute the 0:18:24.160 --> 0:18:27.520 US raised their sanctions from two thousand and eight, he 0:18:27.640 --> 0:18:30.439 was gone. He was back in the US, back in 0:18:30.480 --> 0:18:35.200 the US. Rappaport continued his pursuit of political influence. In 0:18:35.280 --> 0:18:39.800 twenty twelve, just as his US sanctions evaporated, Dan Rappaport 0:18:39.840 --> 0:18:44.000 began working with Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney was running 0:18:44.040 --> 0:18:49.440 against Obama. Rapperport was an advisor, specifically working on parts 0:18:49.480 --> 0:18:52.400 of the campaign that focused on putting more US political 0:18:52.440 --> 0:18:57.760 pressure on Putin and Russia. Romney lost Obama one, and 0:18:57.800 --> 0:19:01.440 then fast forward to twenty sixteen, Donald Trump. 0:19:01.200 --> 0:19:05.280 Arrived Gidbriyan jail. What was There are. 0:19:05.400 --> 0:19:10.360 Various nonsense conspiracy theories about Trump being a literal Russian agent. 0:19:11.000 --> 0:19:14.360 It's no secret that he often spoke fondly of Putin. 0:19:15.480 --> 0:19:19.679 Trump complimented Putin dozens of times before and after he 0:19:19.760 --> 0:19:24.720 was elected president in twenty sixteen. Who was particularly excited 0:19:24.760 --> 0:19:28.520 that Putin had said he was great and smart, going 0:19:28.560 --> 0:19:30.080 on about it several times. 0:19:30.680 --> 0:19:31.359 It got weird. 0:19:31.680 --> 0:19:34.359 It was like a child impressed that the teacher complimented 0:19:34.400 --> 0:19:34.919 its drawing. 0:19:35.440 --> 0:19:38.040 I think when it calls me brilliant, I'll take the compliment, Okay. 0:19:38.640 --> 0:19:42.399 Then it got really dark. After Putin launched the Russian 0:19:42.400 --> 0:19:45.720 invasion of Ukraine in twenty twenty two, which has so 0:19:45.800 --> 0:19:49.600 far led to the deaths of ten thousand civilians, including 0:19:49.680 --> 0:19:54.160 over five hundred children. Trump said Putin was a genius 0:19:54.200 --> 0:19:54.800 for doing this. 0:19:55.680 --> 0:20:01.119 I said, this is genius. Putin declares a big portion 0:20:01.680 --> 0:20:07.040 of Ukraine. Putin declares it as independent. Oh that's wonderful. 0:20:07.320 --> 0:20:11.359 So Putin is now saying it's independent a large section 0:20:11.520 --> 0:20:15.160 of Ukraine. I said, how smart is that? And he's 0:20:15.160 --> 0:20:17.919 going to go in and be a peacekeeper. That's the 0:20:17.960 --> 0:20:21.000 strongest peace force we could use that on our southern border. 0:20:21.480 --> 0:20:23.960 That's the strongest peace force I've ever seen. There were 0:20:24.000 --> 0:20:26.000 more army tanks that I've ever seen. They going to 0:20:26.080 --> 0:20:26.840 keep peace? All right? 0:20:28.119 --> 0:20:31.480 But what does this all have to do with Dan Rappaport, 0:20:31.680 --> 0:20:35.720 the now dead American Russian citizen businessman who made his 0:20:35.840 --> 0:20:40.720 fortune jumping back and forth between New York and Moscow. Well, 0:20:40.760 --> 0:20:43.720 as you can probably guess, Rappaport was not a fan 0:20:43.760 --> 0:20:47.600 of Trump. With all the Putin PDA, Rappaport came out 0:20:47.600 --> 0:20:51.240 in criticism of Trump and his presidency. He didn't like 0:20:51.280 --> 0:20:53.800 that Trump was friendly with Putin, and he made that 0:20:53.960 --> 0:20:58.800 very clear publicly. Around this time, in twenty seventeen, Rappaport 0:20:58.960 --> 0:21:02.720 was living very nicely with his then wife. He owned 0:21:02.760 --> 0:21:06.560 a six bedroom mansion in Washington, DC. And guess who 0:21:06.640 --> 0:21:11.760 his neighbors happened to be? The Obamas. Yeah, Rappaport lived 0:21:11.800 --> 0:21:15.080 next door to the Obama family, or released as close 0:21:15.119 --> 0:21:17.879 as you can get to next door in such an area. 0:21:18.840 --> 0:21:22.360 The Obama house was eighty two hundred square foot. You're 0:21:22.400 --> 0:21:27.720 hardly sharing a war. Like Russian politicians, American politicians make 0:21:27.800 --> 0:21:33.800 themselves filthy rich throughout their careers. Take US Representative Nancy Pelosi, 0:21:33.880 --> 0:21:34.520 for example. 0:21:34.640 --> 0:21:38.760 Let us remember what President Reagan said, don't bother me 0:21:38.840 --> 0:21:39.960 with a question like that. 0:21:40.760 --> 0:21:44.920 She's worth an estimated one hundred and fourteen million dollars. 0:21:45.119 --> 0:21:45.639 When is this? 0:21:45.920 --> 0:21:46.399 When is this? 0:21:46.600 --> 0:21:51.119 Strangely enough, her husband, Paul Pelosi, has made several lucrative 0:21:51.160 --> 0:21:55.080 stock trades that coincide with the US government legislation in 0:21:55.119 --> 0:21:59.159 the technology sector, coincidentally, a sector Rappaport had a business in. 0:22:00.119 --> 0:22:03.040 Nancy says, all the lucky stocks of her husband is 0:22:03.080 --> 0:22:05.800 all just a coincidence. It's nothing to do with her. 0:22:06.320 --> 0:22:09.400 It's definitely not insider trading. 0:22:09.720 --> 0:22:12.240 Really really, okay. 0:22:12.240 --> 0:22:17.159 Politicians are politicians. They used their positions to do business 0:22:17.359 --> 0:22:21.280 to benefit themselves. Dan Rappaport knew this better than anyone. 0:22:21.600 --> 0:22:24.199 He'd been moving and shaking within the ven diagram of 0:22:24.320 --> 0:22:28.840 international politics and corporate profit for decades. Let's be honest, 0:22:29.000 --> 0:22:30.960 this is how we ended up with a six bedroom 0:22:31.000 --> 0:22:35.439 mansion in DC. The mansion in question was sold later 0:22:35.520 --> 0:22:39.000 in twenty seventeen, when Rappaport and his wife got a divorce. 0:22:39.720 --> 0:22:44.360 It sold for five point five million dollars and who 0:22:44.440 --> 0:22:48.679 was it sold to? The Trump family. Dan Rappaport, an 0:22:48.720 --> 0:22:52.560 outspoken critic of Trump and his friendliness towards Putin, sold 0:22:52.600 --> 0:22:56.080 his house to Donald Trump's daughter and her husband, Ivanka 0:22:56.119 --> 0:23:01.680 Trump and Jared Kushner. Whilst this is notable, I don't 0:23:01.680 --> 0:23:05.760 think it's that unusual. People working in politics, in my 0:23:05.880 --> 0:23:10.280 experience as a journalist, often focused on international affairs at least, 0:23:10.880 --> 0:23:14.119 generally will fall down in the wind. That is, once 0:23:14.200 --> 0:23:18.400 money and power are involved, all bets are off. In politics, 0:23:18.440 --> 0:23:22.600 profits almost always comes above integrity. Now, to be fair 0:23:22.640 --> 0:23:25.280 to Dan Rapperport, he told a journalist at the time 0:23:25.720 --> 0:23:27.919 that the sale of the house was actually nothing to 0:23:27.960 --> 0:23:30.280 do with him. He said the money was split between 0:23:30.320 --> 0:23:32.400 him and his ex wife and she was the one 0:23:32.440 --> 0:23:35.719 selling it personally, though I find out hard to believe. 0:23:36.400 --> 0:23:39.639 They also owned a one point five million dollar apartment, 0:23:40.000 --> 0:23:43.680 a second three point five million dollar home, and Rappaport's 0:23:43.760 --> 0:23:46.679 parents live in a one million dollar Florida beach house. 0:23:47.480 --> 0:23:50.000 That Rappaport would just pay no attention to the sale 0:23:50.040 --> 0:23:53.320 of his most expensive property seems highly unlikely. 0:23:54.400 --> 0:23:54.840 Anyway. 0:23:54.920 --> 0:23:59.200 After the divorce, Dan Rapperport moved to Ukraine. He lived 0:23:59.240 --> 0:24:02.920 in a fancy in Kiev. Now remember this was five 0:24:03.000 --> 0:24:06.480 years before the full scale invasion. I myself was in 0:24:06.560 --> 0:24:09.919 Kiev around this time, as was Sergy. The war was 0:24:09.960 --> 0:24:12.119 only in the east of the country then, which was 0:24:12.320 --> 0:24:15.760 very far away from Kiev. Everything was completely normal in 0:24:15.800 --> 0:24:19.399 the capitol. It's not unusual that someone might move to Kiev, 0:24:19.560 --> 0:24:22.479 not then, especially if they have a lot of money. 0:24:22.880 --> 0:24:25.520 You could live comfortably there on a normal Western wage, 0:24:25.760 --> 0:24:30.000 and if you were rich, you could live like a king. Rapaport, though, 0:24:30.080 --> 0:24:32.760 as we know, could live like a king anywhere. He 0:24:32.880 --> 0:24:36.280 was worth a fortune. So why are Ukraine well? It 0:24:36.359 --> 0:24:39.560 seems this was all part of another business venture. He 0:24:39.600 --> 0:24:42.920 set up a residential investment firm, putting money into new 0:24:42.960 --> 0:24:46.679 apartments in Kiev. You also got remarried and had a 0:24:46.720 --> 0:24:51.280