At 2:06pm on May 8th the attorney for Stephanie Clifford (aka) Stormy Daniels sent a tweet.
The Executive Summary from our first Preliminary Report on Findings may be accessed via the link below. Mr. Trump and Mr. Cohen have a lot of explaining to do.https://t.co/179WvIkRlD
— Michael Avenatti (@MichaelAvenatti) May 8, 2018
The link in the original tweet has expired, the seven page Executive Summary lists several financial transactions between varying companies and Essential Consultants, LLC.
Essential Consultants, LLC, a company started on or about October 17, 2016, is owned and controlled exclusively by the personal attorney and self proclaimed fixer for President Trump, Michael Cohen.
Page one and two of the report deal with background and the establishment of a bank account at First Republic Bank in the name of Essential Consultants, LLC, Avenatti explains that Cohen in connection with the establishment of the account was required to make certain representations to First Republic, in regards to Essential’s business as part of the banks Know Your Customer anti-money laundering protocol:
(a) Essential is a real estate consulting company that collects fees for investment consulting work;
(b) The company’s typical clients are U.S.-based high net worth individuals;
(c) The company’s primary source of funds will be derived from within the U.S. or aU.S.-based company;
(d) The company expected one (1) to twenty (20) incoming domestic only wires totaling $1,000 to $10,000 each month for consulting fees, and one (1) to twenty(20) ACH credits and electronic transfers totaling $1,000 to $10,000 each month;
(e) No outgoing wire transfers and debits related to ACH or electronic transfers were expected; and
(f) Receipts of the business would be internally transferred to Mr. Cohen’s personal account at First Republic Bank.
Payment to Stephanie Clifford (aka) Stormy Daniels (pg 3)
Cohen on October 27th, 2016 caused a wire of $130,000 from Essential Consultants account at First Republic to be sent to City National Bank located in California, to an Attorney-Client Trust Account of Keith M. Davidson.
Cohen has claimed the money for the payment came from a home equity line of credit advance conducted on October 26th, 2016.
Last week the newest member of President Trump’s legal team, Rudy Giuliani told Fox News show host, Sean Hannity, as reported by The News Blender, that no campaign finance law violation occurred and that President Trump repaid Cohen the $130,000 dollar payment.
Possible Russian Connection (pg 3)
Beginning in January 2017 and continuing until at least August 2017, Essential received eight payments totaling approximately $500,000 dollars from a company called Columbus Nova LLC, an investment firm in New York whose biggest client is Renova Group, controlled by Russian Oligarch, Viktor Vekselberg. Columbus Nova’s CEO, Andrew Intrater, is Viktor Vekselberg’s cousin.
Columbus Nova’s attorney issued a statement, via ABC News
“Reports today that Viktor Vekselberg used Columbus Nova as a conduit for payments to Michael Cohen are false. The claim that Viktor Vekselberg was involved or provided any funding for Columbus Nova’s engagement of Michael Cohen is patently untrue. Neither Viktor Vekselberg nor anyone else other than Columbus Nova’s owners, were involved in the decision to hire Cohen or provided funding for his engagement.”
May 4th The New York Times reported that investigators for Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s team, questioned Vekselberg about two months ago at a New York-area airport, he was confronted according to the Times, as he left his private plane. The Times also reports that Intrater has also been questioned by Mueller investigators.
As of April 2018, Vekselberg is subject to sanctions placed on Russia, according to multiple sources.
Novartis (pg 4)
The global pharmaceutical company paid Essential four payments of $99,980 dollars, from late 2017 to early 2018, it was reported that President Trump took a dinner meeting with the incoming CEO of Novartis before the President spoke at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.
Novartis issued a statement via CNN News
spokesman Eric Althoff said, “Any agreements with Essential Consultants were entered before our current CEO taking office in February of this year and have expired.”
Korea Aerospace Industries LTD (pg 4)
The aircraft manufacturer, Korea Aerospace reportedly paid Essential on Nov 27th, 2017, $150,000 dollars. The company according to The New York Times, has teamed up with the American defense contractor Lockheed Martin:
in competing for a multi billion-dollar contract to provide trainer jets for the United States Air Force that is expected to be awarded this year. A representative for Korea Aerospace declined to comment.
AT&T (pg 5)
AT&T paid Essential $50,000 dollars, between October 2017-January 2018. Two payments, the first, dated Oct 3rd, 2017, the second, dated November 7th, 2017, came prior to the DOJ, sued AT&T to block their merger with Time Warner.
AT&T issued a statement
BREAKING: @ATT confirms payments to Cohen LLC >>
Full Stmt: “Essential Consulting was one of several firms we engaged in early 2017 to provide insights into understanding the new administration. They did no legal or lobbying work for us, and the contract ended in December 2017”
— Christina Wilkie (@christinawilkie) May 8, 2018
City National Bank (CNB) (pg 5-6)
This section of the document covers Elliott Broidy, Keith Davidson, Real Estate Attorneys’ Group (REAG), and Essential Consultants, LLC/Michael Cohen. The below list taken from the Avenatti Summary are as follows:
- October 27th, 2016: $130,000 from Cohen to Davidson.
- November 30th, 2017: $200,000 from Broidy to REAG.
- December 5th, 2017: $200,000 internal transfer from REAG to Davidson.
- December 29th, 2017: $62,500 incoming wire from Broidy to REAG.
- January 2nd, 2018: $62,500 outgoing wire from REAG to Essential.
- January 31th, 2018 $62,500 incoming wire from Broidy to REAG.
- January 31th, 2018 $62,500 outgoing wire from REAG to Cohen.
- March 1st, 2018 $62,500 incoming wire from Broidy to REAG.
- March 1st, 2018 $62,500 outgoing wire from REAG to Cohen.
At the time of this post Elliott Broidy and Keith Davidson had not offered a statement.
The end of page 6 and all of page 7 deal with other questionable payments received by Cohen at the time of this post, the last couple of pages had little to no confirmation as such they are not included.
