General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsAT&T likely paid $600,000 to Cohen LLC
Much more than reported last night.
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-trump-daniels-at-t/att-payments-to-trump-lawyer-more-than-reported-source-idUSKBN1IA2KK
AT&T confirmed the $200,000 payment late on Tuesday, saying it hoped to gain insights into the new administration at a time when the telecommunications company sought approval for a major merger, among other issues.
Payments by AT&T, which could total as much as $600,000, were revealed by porn actress Stormy Daniels lawyer, Michael Avenatti, who also said a company owned by Russian oligarch Viktor Vekselberg and other corporations had paid Essential Consultants for certain services.
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democratisphere
(17,235 posts)So much corruption with this administration.
wasupaloopa
(4,516 posts)press
sunonmars
(8,656 posts)snowybirdie
(5,219 posts)a huge public company like AT&T was able to find a brand new LLC, with no employees or advertising or media outlets to pay for "consulting"?
fescuerescue
(4,448 posts)I'm a consultant. I have an LLC. Only one employee and that's me. I don't advertise, nor do I even have a website.
I however, have a contract with a large automotive company, and a multi-state hospital system. My revenues are in the same range as those in question between ATT and whats his name.
In my case, how did that happen? Through my personal network. People that knew me and knew people at these two companies connected us. US. Not the LLC.
When we negotiated my fees and agreed to move forward, I requested that they make payments to my LLC and use the taxid of my LLC...NOT me personally. Why? tax purposes and liability limitations (i.e. the L and L part of LLC)
This is a pretty common in the consulting world.
(Note: I do cyber security consulting. Not political nor legal stuff. but consulting, if its really consulting is usually done this way)
Cognitive_Resonance
(1,546 posts)AT&T alluded to engaging other entities for similar purposes. That's fertile ground for uncovering additional chicanery. Hopefully the prosecutors in SDNY are on that, and using all available leverage for AT&T to come clean.
Avenatti has obviously has insight into the account that was also used to payoff Ms. Clifford (aka Stormy), but there were undoubtedly others. Assuming the money was wired to Ms. Clifford's account, I'm guessing Avenatti engaged an investigative resource with access to the transfer records for Cohen's Essential Consultants account based on the source routing and account numbers. If he has access to similar information for other Cohen payees through separate shell companies and accounts it could lead to new disclosures of corporate and Russian origin payments.