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https://forensicnews.net/...in-on-california-businessman-ray-akhavan/
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DOJ Meeting and US Contacts
German media reported that in April 2016, Akhavan made contact with former CIA official Gary Berntsen in order to potentially provide assistance to Akhavan and Marsalek after Wirecard’s offices were raided at the behest of the US Department of Justice.
Contacted by phone, Bernsten confirmed that he had discussions with Akhavan and Marsalek. “Ray made contact with me,” he said, “and asked to set up a meeting between Ray, Jan, and the US government.”
When asked to provide more information on his relationship with Akhavan, Bernsten declined, citing a Non-Disclosure-Agreement.
He did, however, confirm to Forensic News that a meeting took place between Akhavan, Marsalek, and DOJ officials. Berntsen also suggested that other agencies also had meetings with the two businessmen. The ex-CIA official stressed that he never attended any meetings, but simply used his contacts to facilitate discussions between Marsalek, Akhavan, and U.S. government officials.
The meetings, according to Berntsen, took place “many months” after the April 2016 emails. It is unclear if these meetings happened under the Obama Administration or the Trump Administration, though Marsalek and Berntsen both supported Trump and, at one point, Berntsen was labeled a surrogate for the Trump campaign. “I’m a surrogate for the campaign on this, and I’m working with their policy shop,” he said in July 2016.
One email from May 2018 that was quoted by Stern, said that Akhavan called Marsalek and Gary Berntsen, “my Dear Uncles,” before mentioning an attempt to move the Austrian Embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, shortly after President Trump had done so for the American outpost. Akhavan noted that this should be explored within the context of “business opportunities.”
Berntsen was allegedly not the only U.S. intelligence-connected contact of Marsalek’s. German outlet Capital reported that Marsalek met at least one time with then-US Ambassador to Germany, Richard ‘Ric’ Grenell. Telegram chat logs and emails obtained by the outlet show that “in mid-February 2020, [Marsalek] allegedly had a coffee meeting with the then US ambassador to Germany, Richard Grenell, who was appointed by Trump.”
Die Zeit, another German outlet reporting on the Wirecard scandal, obtained more contemporaneous messages from Marsalek’s telegram channel: “when a member of the supervisory board asked [Marsalek] for a phone appointment in January 2020, he had better things to do,” Die Zeit reported. “I’m having coffee with the American ambassador [at] Bayerischer Hof [a Munich hotel]. “This is Richard Grenell, Donald Trump’s envoy in Berlin.”
Chat logs from February 20, 2020, in Marsalek’s confidential Telegram channel shared with Forensic News by Stern and Capital prove that Marsalek told a senior Wirecard executive that he met Grenell. Forensic News is redacting the name of the Wirecard executive as he/she is not the focus of this investigation.
The chat log also shows that the Wirecard executive speculated that Grenell’s alleged meeting with Marsalek was somehow connected to Grenell’s appointment by President Trump to Acting Director of National Intelligence on February 19.
“As soon as he meets you he is recalled [from Ambassador to Germany]…” the senior Wirecard executive wrote, “and now [he] coordinates secret services…”
Left: Original Marsalek Telegram chat logs mentioning Ric Grenell. Right: English translation
Capital reported on further contacts between Wirecard executives and Grenell: “Wirecard board members were indeed invited to exclusive rounds with Grenell again and again – for example in September 2018 via the lobby association Deutsches Aktieninstitut, in March 2019 at a conference at Tegernsee or in June 2020 for a zoom call from investor Christian Angermayer.”
Though it cannot be confirmed that Grenell had direct contact with Wirecard executives at those events, there is some evidence that supports the reporting. At the 2019 conference, where Wirecard was a key sponsor, Grenell was featured as a key speaker.
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