Deripaska VS Associated Press

Oleg Deripaska. Photo: Commonswikimedia.org

* Paul Manafort worked for the Trump election campaign from May to August 2016. He was forced to leave the team of the current president after many publications appeared in the media indicating that he received an illegal cache from the Ukrainian Party of Regions at a time when he was an adviser to the ex-president of Ukraine Viktor Yanukovych.

Preliminary hearings on the lawsuit of Oleg Deripaska against the Associated Press (AP) may begin, according to informed sources in court, already next month. Recall that the basis for the lawsuit was an article in AR, published on March 22, which states that Paul Manafort, the American (Republican) lobbyist and political strategist, who managed to work as the chief strategist and head of the election headquarters Donald Trump*long before he went to his service, secretly worked for Oleg Diripaska. Moreover, 67-year-old Manafort was allegedly hired in order to improve the international image of Vladimir Putin. Deripaska believes that the publication of AP caught his honor and dignity and caused damage to his business reputation.

The lawsuit was filed in mid -May and so far lies almost immovable. The defendant, in the person of AR, received a notice of him on May 18, and at the end of the same month, the altitude asked for permission to answer the lawsuit on July 10. Prior to this, the legal adviser, AR Karen Kaiser, said that the agency does not accept claims to the article and intends to vigorously defend itself in court.

Paul Manafort. Photo: Conservatives4palin.com

"Wallpaper"

Unlike the UK, in the USA, the evidence -based bar of claims for the protection of honor and dignity is set very high. This means that the Boies Schiller Flexner LLP lawyer, representing the interests of Deripaska, believes that his claims to the AR are sufficiently justified and can be safely applied to the court.

As stated in a 12-page statement of claim, the authors of the article in the AP Jeff Horvitz and CED Day, working in the Washington Council of the Agency, "baldly accused Deripaska of complicity of crime and other unworthy behavior."

The Boies Office Boies Schiller Flexner LLP, representing the interests of Deripaska, believes that his claims to the Ar is sufficiently substantiated and can be safely applied to the court

According to Deripaska’s lawyers, “by publishing an article, the AR acted with a pre -thoughtful intention, since it knew before the publication that the relevant statements were false, or at least felt doubts about the veracity of the slanderous statements contained in the article”.

The article in AP, we also read in the claims of the statement, is built in such a way as to create a permissible idea, “as if the commercial activity of Deripaska between 2005 and 2009 was somehow connected with the alleged criminal actions and violations during the election campaign of presidential candidate Donald Trump and the 2016 presidential election.”

$ 10 million contract

On March 31, Deripaska’s lawyers demanded that the Ar “publicly recognize their mistakes and refutes the article, recognizing that he had no evidence for the statement that Deripaska and Manafort had a contractual relationship with the aim of pushing the interests of the Russian government or Putin.”

AR refused to fulfill this requirement.

The AP article, in particular, states that in 2005 Manafort wrote a deripaska memorandum with a statement of action plan that will be “very useful for the Putin government”. And the very next year, the Horvitz and Day, Deripaska, the “Close Ally of Putin” write, signed an annual contract with the American for $ 10 million.

Deripaska lawyers deny that their client paid Manafort for making a plan stated in the 2005 memorandum. According to them, the oligarch never concluded a contract with the American to perform work that served the interests of the Russian authorities.

According to the lawyers of the oligarch, the Ardid knew that these statements were not true, and nevertheless published them. At the same time, from the words of lawyers, the AR has a copy of the 2006 contract, but the agency deliberately does not quote it, because it would immediately disavow the statements contained in the publication that the contract was based on the 2005 Manifa -Memorandum.

The AP article, in particular, states that in 2005 Manafort wrote a deripaska memorandum with a statement of action plan that will be “very useful for the Putin government”. And the very next year, the Horvits and Day, Deripaska, the “close ally of Putin” write, signed the annual contract with the American for $ 10 million

By the way, the representative of the oligarch Vera Kurochkin in March 2017 clarified that in the Deripaska and Manafort contract, it was about the provision of advisory services related to the investment of the Russian, and not at all about the payment of an American for the image of Russia.

From the publication, AP turns out that Manafort lobbying Russia's interests in the United States. However, in this case, Deripaska’s lawyers resemble, according to American law, he had to register with the Ministry of Justice as a foreign agent. Violation of this law is a criminal offense.

COMIC ASSOCIETED PRESS. Photo: Politics4206.rsSing.com

In the article, the authors of the statement of claim are developing their thought, in fact, it is argued that Deripaska paid Manafort for working in the United States an unregistered foreign agent. In other words, the article implies that the Russian was an accomplice in criminal activity. This is harmful to the plaintiff’s professional and public reputation, Deripaska lawyers write. They demand that the defendant compensate him with reputation damage in the amount of it will be determined by the court.

Oligarch without business visa

Oleg Deripaska, according to Bloomberg, occupies the 127th line in the ranking of the richest people in Russia with a fortune of $ 6.9 billion. Forbes estimates it a little lower-at $ 5.3 billion.

Over the past decade, according to The NEW York Times, Deripaska through offshore companies has acquired for $ 4.5 million Townhaus in the New York quarter Greenwich Villij (Nizhny Manhattan) and the same house in the northern part of the Manhattan East Sayd for $ 42.5 million.

And in 2014, he bought 50% of the shares of the weekly “in the New World”, which the NEW York Times calls the largest Russian -language newspaper in the United States.

In 2014, Oleg Deripaska bought 50% of the shares of the weekly “in the New World”, which the NEW York Times calls the largest Russian -speaking newspaper in the United States

At the end of May, the media reported that Deripaska proposed in exchange for immunity to testify to the US Congress committees, investigating Russia's intervention in the 2016 American elections, but was refused. As the New York Times wrote, the State Department of CC refuses to give Deripaska a business visa, referring to its alleged ties with organized crime. The oligarch himself decisively denies such statements.

Nevertheless, from 2011 to 2014, the oligarch entered the United States eight times with a diplomatic visa. As Deripaska showed in a written statement to the Manhattan court, where in 2015-2016 another lawsuit was obeyed, excited against him by Russian businessman Alexander Gliklade, his visits in the United States did not last long and were connected with meetings within the G-20 and UN meetings. (By the way, the hearing in the Glyclav claim ended in nothing: in April 2017, the judge of the Supreme Court of New York rejected the argument of the claim that the jurisdiction of the Manhattan court applies to Deripaska).

In 2008, the FBI, contrary to the objections of the State Department, straightened Deripaska with a special entry visa, after he proposed to counterintelligence assistance in the wanted list of the former FBI investigator Robert Levinson, with whom the author of these lines is associated with friendly relations.

In 2008, the FBI, contrary to the objections of the State Department, straightened Deripaska with a special entry visa, after he offered counterintelligence assistance in the wanted list of the former FBI investigator Robert Levinson, stolen a year before in Iran

A year later, the FBI abandoned the agreement with Deripaska, considering it unauthorized.

In 2015, the aluminum tycoon wanted to come to the United States again to give in court a testimony in connection with the claim of the glyklade, but the State Department refused his visa.

By the way, personally, Vladimir Putin, for many years, complained about the refusal of the US State Department to issue Mr. Deripaska a visa. “They give us nothing, they don’t explain anything, but they forbid him a visa!” -Mr. Putin said in an interview with the French newspaper Le Monde in 2008. However, despite many years of trouble, Putin was not successful in this field.