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Lawsuit: Sater looked to launder cash through Trump projects

FILE - In this Sept. 14, 2005, file photo, businessman Donald Trump, left, talks on his cellphone with Felix Sater, right, outside after speaking at the Bixpo 2005 business convention at the Budweiser Events Center in Loveland, Colo. Sater, a Soviet emigre who befriended Trump over a series of development deals in the 2000s and pushed the Trump Tower Moscow project before and during the 2016 presidential campaign, has emerged as a key figure in House Democrats' investigations into Trump's Russia connections. (Cyrus McCrimmon/The Denver Post via AP)
FILE - In this Sept. 14, 2005, file photo, businessman Donald Trump, left, talks on his cellphone with Felix Sater, right, outside after speaking at the Bixpo 2005 business convention at the Budweiser Events Center in Loveland, Colo. Sater, a Soviet emigre who befriended Trump over a series of development deals in the 2000s and pushed the Trump Tower Moscow project before and during the 2016 presidential campaign, has emerged as a key figure in House Democrats' investigations into Trump's Russia connections. (Cyrus McCrimmon/The Denver Post via AP) FILE - In this Sept. 14, 2005, file photo, businessman Donald Trump, left, talks on his cellphone with Felix Sater, right, outside after speaking at the Bixpo 2005 business convention at the Budweiser Events Center in Loveland, Colo. Sater, a Soviet emigre who befriended Trump over a series of development deals in the 2000s and pushed the Trump Tower Moscow project before and during the 2016 presidential campaign, has emerged as a key figure in House Democrats' investigations into Trump's Russia connections. (Cyrus McCrimmon/The Denver Post via AP)

By Associated Press 4 min read

NEW YORK (AP) – A Soviet-born convicted felon who worked on real estate deals with President Donald Trump was accused in a lawsuit Monday of plotting to use Trump-branded skyscrapers to launder money allegedly stolen from a Kazakhstan bank.

BTA Bank and the city of Almaty, Kazakhstan, allege Felix Sater conspired with the son of the city’s former mayor to use some of the $440 million to develop a Trump Tower in Moscow.

Sater, who was due to testify before Congress this week about his work with Trump, started pushing the Moscow project in 2005 and tried to kick-start it during Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign, but it was never built.

The bank also alleges Sater helped the mayor’s son, Ilyas Khrapunov, mask $3 million as down payments on three condominiums in Trump SoHo, a New York City hotel Sater helped develop as an executive at Bayrock Group LLC.

Sater arranged for Trump and Khrapunov to meet and discuss potential investments, the lawsuit said, avoiding any suggestion that Trump engaged in impropriety or that he was aware Sater and Khrapunov allegedly stole money.