Registration forms indicate that the Podesta Group signed up to lobby for the Sberbank of Russia in Washington about a month ago, in early March. (AP Photo)
Clinton campaign chief linked to Russian bank listed in Panama Papers
The head of Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign is linked to a Russian bank involved with an emerging international scandal, according to documents reported on Tuesday.
Registration forms indicate that the Podesta Group signed up to lobby for the Sberbank of Russia in Washington about a month ago, in early March. The bank has been implicated in a scheme unearthed on Sunday in which leaders worldwide illegally stashed their assets overseas.
The Podesta Group was founded by John Podesta, the chairman of Clinton's 2016 campaign for president and a chief of staff to former president Bill Clinton. His brother, Anthony Podesta, is listed as a lobbyist for the account on the March filing.
The form, which was first discovered by the Washington Free Beacon, also lists three affiliated companies. Those include the Luxembourg-based SB International, Cyprus-based SBGB and Troika Dialogue Group, located in the Cayman Islands.
The Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project, the collection of journalists responsible for initially reporting on the papers, have indicated that Troika Dialogue and Sberbank are tied to Russian President Vladimir Putin and his associates. Troika reportedly signed away assets to another company, Avto Holdings, owned by Sergei Roldugin, a godfather to Putin's daughter.
The Panama Papers, comprised of 11.5 million pages leaked from Panamanian law firm Mossack Fonseca, were first revealed on Sunday.
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Obama goodbye: The US must forge a 'new social compact'
President Barack Obama patted himself on the back and thanked his supporters in his final address to the nation Tuesday night, while calling on the country to "forge a new social contract" in the era of his Republican successor.
"Every day I have learned from you," the outgoing president told Americans from crowded auditorium in the Windy City. "You made me a better president. You made me a better man."
Standing before his wife Michelle and two teenage daughters, Obama urged Americans to "pay attention and listen" to each other.
"For white Americans, this means acknowledging that the effects of slavery and Jim Crow didn't suddenly vanish in the 1960s," he said, noting that race "remains a potent and often divisive force
