Headline Jan 19, 2018/ ''' CURRY FAVOR CA$H '''

''' CURRY FAVOR CA$H '''

MILLIONS IN FACEBOOK SHARES -rooted in Russian cash.............
GAZPROM INVESTHOLDING called the loans ''prudent,'' saying they were ''provided for general corporate purposes'' at above market rates.

The company did not answer a question about what role, if any, Mr. Usmanov played in the loans.

To complete the Facebook deal, DST used a pair of lawyers based in Cyprus and  Britain who have also set up off-shore entities for Russian oligarchs close to Mr. Putin-

According to the Panama Papers, United States securities filings and records from Appleby,  DST  did not answer questions about how it came to use the two lawyers.

After the Facebook deal, Mr. Milner became a fixture in Silicon Valley, spending about $100 million on a 25,000 square-foot house in Los Altos Hills and-

Investing $7 billion in more than 30 companies, including Spotify, Airbnb and Groupon.

OBSCURE FINANCIAL MANEUVERS

Mr. Milner's roughly $380 million investment in Twitter was directly backed by another instrument  of Kremlin power:

Russia's second largest bank, VTB

SIXTY ONE PERCENT of the bank is owned by the Russian government, VTB's president, AndreyI. Kostin, is a former Soviet diplomat ;  Matthias Waring, on the  Bank's supervisory council is a  former East German spy who served in Dresden while Mr. Putin was stationed there with the K.G.B.

VTB has operations across the world, including in the United States. In recent years, it has been involved in a number of politically sensitive deals.

LAST YEAR, Panama Papers revealed that a Cyprus bank owned by VTB was used to transfer hundreds of millions of dollars to accounts connected to Sergei Roddugin, a cellist and a close friend of Mr. Putin.

It was unknown what the money was for, but some speculated that he was working as a frontman for  Kremlin insiders.

Mr. Roldugin did not respond to messages for this article, but said at the time that his wealth came through donations from rich businessmen for the purchase of musical instruments. VTB called the account in the Panama Papers ''unsubstantiated''.

''VTB is really a slush fund for Putin,'' said Anders Aslund, a resident senior fellow at the Atlantic Council in Washington, and an early economic adviser to the post-Soviet Russian government.

The bank, he added is 'the black cashier of the Putin crowd.''

Mr. Milner's Twitter deal is a complex web of share transfers and offshore financial entities. But its details may offer clues that there was a strategic motive behind VTB involvement.

In July 2011, VTB invested at least  $191 million in exchange for shares of an Isle of Man company called DST Investments 3, corporate records show. That offshore vehicle was used to buy roughly half  DST Global's stake in Twitter that month.

DST Investments 3 also issued shares to Kanton, the company linked to Mr. Usmanov that was at the center of the Facebook deal.

The Twitter deal had a notable feature : VTB put virtually all of the cash into DST Investments 3, filings show. Kanton contributed almost none. It is highly unusual for investors in DST funds to get stakes without contributing cash, according to a person familiar with the matter.

On May 7, 2014, VTB transferred the bulk of its stake in DST Investments 3 to Kanton, DST also cashed out its Twitter investment.

DST had one other investment from VTB. which Mr. Milner compared to a sovereign wealth fund.

VTB was an  investor in the Chinese Internet company JD.com as recently as February 2015, when it transferred its stake to Kanton, Isle of  Man records shows.

In a statement, VTB said its involvement with Twitter was ''solely a financial investment,'' sold for a profit, one of the several successful deals in the high-tech industry.

Twitter declined to answer a series of questions about VTB.

BEYOND SOCIAL MEDIA

Mr. Milner has also been active beyond Silicon Valley. 

He is a founder of the Breakthrough Prize, a series of lucrative scientific awards.

And in July 2015, he was one of several high-profile investors in Cadre. a New York based real estate technology company founded by Mr. Kushner and his brother Joshua.

[Other partners and investors include Golman Sachs, George Soros, and Peter thiel's Founders Fund].

Mr. Milner said he invested $850,000 in Cadre through a trust, which  in turn controls DST Global Advisers, DST Global's mangement firm.

He said he was introduced to the company through an early investor whose name he did not remember.  He said he met Jared Kushner only once, at a conference in Aspen, Colo.

Mr Kushner and Cadre declined to comment.

In his interview with The Times, Mr. Milner shied away from the controversy now enveloping Facebook and Twitter, his former major investments.

GROWING up in the Soviet Union, he said, ''If you are a father and you have a conversation with your son, it's easy to say,  ''Please, don't get involved with politics.''

That ''was my principle back then and still now,'' he said, adding :
''I prefer to just focus on business and  philanthropy. And this is plenty for me.''

With respectful dedication to all the Journalists and researchers, who contributed reporting, Social Media platforms,  Students, Professors and Teachers of the  world. See Ya all register on !WOW!  -the World Students Society and  Twitter- !E-WOW!  -the Ecosystem 2011:

''' Morning Star '''

Good Night and God Bless

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