Eighth person in Trump Tower meeting is identified

[kentuck]

12. Wow! From the link! No wonder he didn't like the sanctions!

A Congressional inquiry has found that it is ''relatively easy'' for foreigners to hide their identities and form shell companies here that can launder money through American banks.

In a a nine-month inquiry that subpoenaed bank records, the investigators found that an unknown number of Russians and other East Europeans moved more than $1.4 billion through accounts at Citibank of New York and the Commercial Bank of San Francisco.

The accounts had been opened by Irakly Kaveladze, who immigrated to the United States from Russia in 1991, according to Citibank and Mr. Kaveladze. He set up more than 2,000 corporations in Delaware for Russian brokers and then opened the bank accounts for them, without knowing who owned the corporations, according to the report by the General Accounting Office, which has not been made public.

The report said the banks had failed to conduct any ''due diligence'' into identifying the owners of the accounts.