A counter lawsuit was filed in the New York federal court last February 3 by former President Donald Trump's associate Felix Sater, alleging individuals connected to Russia and Kazakhstan were behind a "shadow operation" to ensure 2016 Democratic presidential candidate Hilary Clinton won the elections.
The Federalist reported that Sater filed the counter lawsuit three years after he was sued, along with his two businesses, his former associate, his former associate's company; by the BTA Bank and the City of Almaty in Kazakhstan in May 2019 for money laundering. Sater and his companions were also accused of conspiracy, conversion, and unjust enrichment in the lawsuit, which has been pending in New York since 2019.
Sater alleged in his counter lawsuit that "a shadow intelligence operation" was held on him and "Trump for the purpose of manufacturing information to harm Donald Trump politically." Part of that political machinery was the presentation provided to Christopher Steele and the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
Sater, who added the Kazakhstan government and the Arcanum (Asia), Ltd. into the lawsuit, claim that the City of Almaty, the Kazakhstan Republic, and the BTA Bank--referred to as the "Kazakh Parties"--have engaged in a "confidential assistance agreement" that involves the monthly payment of $100,000 to Sater's Litco company for assisting to recover the assets stolen by Mukhtar Ablyazov, who is one of the accused in the lawsuit of Sater.
The "confidential assistance agreement" is said to be a "guise" of the Kazakh Parties and Arcanum who have conspired "to leak false and defamatory information about Sater to media outlets including ABC News."
"This was part of a concerted effort to falsely (and absurdly) portray Sater, a longtime business partner of Donald Trump, as a Russian agent and Kremlin stooge," Sater's counter lawsuit said.
Sater came upon this connivance after the FBI released the 302 interview summary with Steele in January 2021. The said interview took place on September 18, 2017 where Steele admitted involvement with the Kazakstan through his Orbis company where "some of the material from that work obviously falls within the bounds of the Special Counsel."
"(Steele) was working on a Kazakh-related project involving an individual by the name of Ablyazov, embezzlement from BTA Bank, pyramid schemes, and connections to Felix Sater and Trump Soho...Steele said that they want RICO up and running in the United States," the FBI document said.
"Steele brought along a PowerPoint presentation from the company Arcanum explaining the Sater connection...This information was slated to be provided to the US Department of Justice and the FBI as it involves a corrupt American official," the document continued.
Sater raised in his counter lawsuit that the FBI document was a "real eye-opener" for it really "shocked" him "to learn that the Kazakhs (Parties) and Arcanum engaged him under the CAA in bad faith."
"From the beginning, Arcanum (a private intelligence firm staffed by former officials from the Clinton administration and their attorneys Boies Schiller (a Democratic Party law firm) intended to use the CAA as a pretext for gathering intelligence against Sater, with the intent of harming Donald Trump's presidential campaign," Sater said.
This information led Sater to further investigate on the matter such that he " learned that the Kazakh plot against Sater was coordinated by Karim Massimov, Chairman of the Kazakh KGB and his henchman Kenes Rakishav," who were both "actively seeking influence with American politicians" in 2016.
The lawsuit also cited connections of President Joe Biden's son, Hunter, with Rakishev who he called "a close friend" and whom he was "lavishing money on" as part of their "effort to curry favor with prominent American politicians."
"In 2016, they believed that they would be rewarded for helping the Hillary Clinton campaign (who was considered certain to win the election) by smearing Sater and Trump," the counter lawsuit highlighted.
