of normal real estate deals. it s a puzzling portrait of the way he was dealing with large amounts of cash and expensive new york real estate. some experts say the pattern seems to fit the pattern that s used in typical money laundering schemes. now mr. manafort has responded to these reports saying that these were ordinary business transactions that it is common practice to purchase real estate in this manner and he says his transactions were executed in a transparent fashion. that s his response. i should also tell you one of the wnyc reporters on this story will be on with lawrence o donnell right after this show and you ll want to see that. on that same day that we got that reporting, nbc s chief foreign correspondent richard engel got a whole different news story on paul manafort and his money. and it s a story richard had to go halfway around the world to get, as is his want. and richard is here next. stay with us.
mortgages against the properties, against these properties that were already paid for. why would you do that? it s a weird sort of intricate story but not that complicated a story but it s puzzling in terms of normal real estate deals. it s a puzzling portrait of the way he was dealing with large amounts of cash and expensive new york real estate. some experts say the pattern seems to fit the pattern that s used in typical money laundering schemes. now mr. manafort has responded to these reports saying that these were ordinary business transactions that it is common practice to purchase real estate in this manner and he says his transactions were executed in a transparent fashion. that s his response. i should also tell you one of the wnyc reporters on this story will be on with lawrence o donnell right after this show and you ll want to see that. on that same day that we got that reporting, nbc s chief foreign correspondent richard engel got a whole different news
have to learn this much about russian money laundering in order to follow the american presidency. but these are the times we live in and i m an old dog learning a new trick. but it is kind of amazing when you learn money laundering schemes. it s exotic stuff and happens all over the world and there is a ton of it. i mean, russia s a big country. russia s got 140 something million people. but their economy, their gdp is like half of france. they ve got more just turn the flag on its side. russia has more than doubled the population of france. they ve gotten an economy half the size of france. why is that? part of that is because russia is governed by thieves. you keep hearing about russia oligarchs.
the trump administration tries to turn the page off of the subject of, for instance, russia, they have managed to turn the page right back onto it, right? if you look at some of the specific cases that preet bharara was looking at, he had charged russian spies in january of 2015. he announced charges against three men, one of whom he managed to convict, he had gone into this question of money laundering, of the sort of russian money laundering schemes, some of which lead little paths back to trump tower based on where some of these people were locating their businesses. and he is somebody who himself is personally banned from russia because of his investigations back in 2013. so the trump administration by ousting this guy has managed to put the spotlight right back on some of the things that he was working on, russia and turkey. exactly. and there was an interesting moment in i think it was harry s story where trump s office actually calls bharara and asks that he call the president
trade, they have money laundering schemes. the daily beast josh rogan reports isis has been funded for years by wealthy private donors living in countries the u.s. considers allies countries like kuwait, qatar and and that governments know it s happen bug choose to look away. the government could have plausible deniability and say they weren t funding them directly. now back to the numbers. if you do the math, isis may be worth at least $500 million after la last attack on that bank in mosul. in 2011, the taliban was said to be worth an estimated $70 million to $400 million. even al qaeda can t compete. al qaeda had an operating budget of about $30 million a year before the 9/11 attacks. and all of this cash on hand only allows isis to attract more extremist fighters who are drawn