Subject: Re: Privileged and Confidential
From: "Alan Apter" <[email-masked]>
To: "Toohey, Ryan" <[email-masked]>
Cc: "Vadim Pozharskyi" <[email-masked]>, <[email-masked]>, <[email-masked]>, "Heather King" <[email-masked]>, "McInerney, Jamie" <[email-masked]>, "Pacheco, Lawrence" <[email-masked]>
Date: Sat, 31 May 2014 18:06:17 +0100

never got his email

agree fully with Ryan's plan

look forward to draft response

On Sat, May 31, 2014 at 4:31 PM, Toohey, Ryan <[email-masked]
> wrote:

>      All,
>
>  I spoke late yesterday with Steve Braun, the AP reporter who called Alan
> on Thursday. He indicated he had also sent a list of questions to Alan and
> he has now passed these on in his email below. You'll see from his
> biography, also pasted below, that he is an experienced and very credible
> journalist.
>
>  Our sense is that the AP has put a good deal of resources behind their
> reporting  but are still fishing and unsure about what their final angle
> will be. To that end, where we can rebut points Braun makes in his note we
> should, while at the same time conveying some of our better messages about
> transparency, good governance and western standards.   We may have to
> ignore or not speak to some of his questions and that is fully ok.
>
>  We would suggest that we do this via a fairly detailed email to the
> reporter, followed by a call from us to clarify certain points. We can
> always come back to this team with specific questions.
>
>  We can send around a draft response this weekend and can discuss early
> Monday.
>
>  As always, we are happy to talk through this. I am at + 1 917-280-2198
>
>  Thanks,
>
>  Ryan
>
>  Stephen Braun
> <http://www.amazon.com/Stephen-Braun/e/B004G8EY04/ref=ntt_athr_dp_pel_2>is
> based in Washington for the Associated Press
> <http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/fronts/HOME?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME>, where he
> has worked as a national investigative reporter and as AP’s National
> Security Editor. Previously, he was a national correspondent based in
> Washington for the Los Angeles Times
> <http://articles.latimes.com/2004/dec/14/world/fg-bout14>. He shared in
> the Times’ 1991 Pulitzer Prize for coverage of the Los Angeles riots and a
> 2002 Overseas Press Club international reporting award for “Inside al
> Qaeda,” a series of stories about the rise of the terror group. His
> reportage has ranged from presidential politics and investigations to
> foreign and domestic terrorism, and he has covered many landmark American
> news stories of the past two decades, including the Sept. 11attacks,
> Hurricane Katrina and five national elections.
>
> As a Times national correspondent from 1993 to 2008, Braun covered
> national affairs and the Midwest from Chicago, then transferred to
> Washington, where his work included national politics, international
> investigations and national affairs. Before joining the Times national
> staff, he worked on the paper’s metropolitan desk in Los Angeles as an
> editor and staff writer. He also reported at the Detroit Free Press,
> Philadelphia Daily News and Baltimore News American, where he was a
> Pulitzer finalist in 1981. A 1975 graduate of the University of
> Pennsylvania, he has written for Foreign Policy Magazine
> <http://www.douglasfarah.com/pdfs/bout.pdf>, Men’s Vogue, Rolling Stone,
> the Washington Monthly and Los Angeles Times Magazine.
>
> Begin forwarded message:
>
>  *From:* "Braun, Stephen S." <[email-masked]>
> *Date:* May 30, 2014 at 4:18:12 PM EDT
> *To:* "[email-masked]" <[email-masked]>
> *Subject:* *Apter email*
>
>    Ryan—
>
>
>
> Here’s the email I sent to Mr. Apter, slightly modified with more recent
> details we’ve since learned. Again, thanks for taking this up.
>
>
>
> Dear Mr. Apter:
>
>
>
> I am a reporter with the Associated Press in Washington and am working
> with other AP reporters here and in several international locations on a
> story about Hunter Biden’s joining Burisma Holdings Ltd on the company’s
> board and as director of its legal unit. We are trying to obtain some more
> information about Burisma, its corporate ownership and structure, as well
> as the circumstances of Mr. Biden’s decision to join the firm, as well as
> its political and international implications, and hope you can help us by
> either talking with me by telephone or responding by email. We plan to
> publish a news story in the coming days and hope you can respond to me by
> Monday noon E.S.T. at the latest. I called you in London earlier today and
> left a message but since I did not receive a reply by the day’s end, I
> decided to send these questions by email.
>
>
>
>
>
> 1.       AP reporters have been examining U.S. Securities and Exchange
> documents and Cypriot corporation documents that reference Burisma in
> recent days. Those documents show that Burisma, organized in Limassol,
> Cyprus, is a subsidiary of another Cyprus-based firm, Brociti Investments
> Limited, registered in Nicosia. Cypriot documents we reviewed show that
> Burisma was set up and initially controlled by two Ukrainian nationals,
> Mykola Zlochevsky and Mykola Lisin (each man held 500 shares according to
> these filings). The two men transferred their shares to Bayardia Trading
> Ltd in April, 2011, and Bayardia then transferred ownership to Raven
> Financial Services Corp, based in the British Virgin Islands, in May, 2011.
> In July 2011, Raven then transferred the shares to Brociti. Documents
> reviewed by AP show that the controlling interest in Brociti _ about 1
> million shares -- is owned by Mykola Zlochevsky, the same man who had owned
> Burisma with Lisin in early 2011 (our understanding is that Lisin is now
> deceased). A May 14, 2013 Burisma filing (which came after the transfer of
> Burisma Holding’s 1000 shares to Brociti) names you as one of two directors
> of Burisma, along with Riginos Charalampous of Cyprus. *As chairman of
> the board of Burisma Holdings, do you report to Mr. Zlochevsky? Does Mr.
> Zlochevsky exercise authority over Burisma’s decision-making, hiring and
> legal operations? If so, did Mr. Zlochevsky approve or was he consulted in
> Mr. Biden’s hiring? If so, can you provide an explanation of why Mr.
> Zlochevsky wanted Mr. Biden to join Burisma? Did Burisma first approach Mr.
> Biden prior to his hiring, and if so, what brought him to the company’s
> attention? Will Mr. Biden report to Mr. Zlochevsky and/or does Mr.
> Zlochevsky have oversight in Mr. Biden’s work due to his controlling
> interest in Burisma? *
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> 2.       Corporate documents and media and official Ukrainian government
> reports from the past decade show that Mr. Zlochevsky was a prominent
> Ukrainian political and government figure. He was a ranking member of the
> Party of Regions, the political party once run by Viktor Yanukovych, who
> was ousted by pro-democracy protests earlier this year in Ukraine. And from
> 2004 until Mr. Yanukovych’s exile, Mr. Zlochevsky worked as a government
> minister _ overseeing natural resources, the environment and defense during
> the span of three Ukrainian administrations. Ukrainian reform critics also
> named Mr. Zlochevsky as one of the several ministers who built up extensive
> private holdings during their tenures in government and cited several
> subsidiaries of Mr. Zlochevsky’s firm, Burisma, for obtaining lucrative oil
> and natural gas leases during the period he worked as a government minister
> under Mr. Yanukovych. As you likely know as well, Mr. Yanukovych was openly
> trying to draw Ukraine closer economically to Russia and turned up in
> Russia after his ouster. *What is Burisma’s attitude toward the change of
> government in Ukraine? Does Mr. Zlochevsky still live and work in Ukraine
> or has he also fled to Russia or Crimea? Has Burisma approached the current
> Ukraine government about continuing to operate its leases in
> Dnieper-Donets, the Carpathian and the Azov-Kuban basins? Will Mr. Biden be
> involved in any consultations or legal discussions with the current
> government about those leases? As a subsidiary of Brociti, does Burisma
> have any concerns about doing business both with Ukraine and with the
> United States while it is controlled by a former minister in a now-exiled
> government that was criticized as pro-Russia?*
>
>
>
>
>
> 3.       *U*nder U.S. law, any lobbyist for foreign governments or
> political parties are required to disclose to the U.S. Justice Department
> detailed information about their activities on behalf of their clients _
> including all contacts with U.S. officials, campaign contributions, fees
> received from clients and expenses incurred in lobbying. However, lawyers
> engaged in legal representation of foreign principals in courts or similar
> legal proceedings are exempt from those rules as long as those lawyers do
> not try to influence U.S. policy at the behest of their client. *Since
> your company was well aware that Mr. Biden is the son of the current U.S.
> vice president, Joe Biden, (as was made clear in your press release
> announcing his hiring) do you plan on restricting his legal work from any
> U.S. lobbying? Since the current U.S. foreign policy regarding Ukraine is
> to support the current government, do you see any conflict of interest in
> your firm being run by a member of Ukraine’s former pro-Russian government?
> Would you expect Mr. Biden to support the company’s position if it
> conflicted in any way with U.S. diplomatic policy in Ukraine? Does Mr.
> Zlochevsky’s history as a top official in the Party of Regions and with
> former pro-Russian president Yanukovych conflict with Burisma’s stated
> preference for an independent gas and oil industry in Ukraine (as cited in
> Devon Archer’s April 28 release about “3 Steps Towards Energu
> Independence”)?*
>
>
>
>
>
> Thanks much,
>
>
>
> Steve Braun, AP Washington
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> Stephen Braun
>
> Associated Press, Washington Bureau
>
> 1100 13th St. NW    Suite 700
>
> Washington, DC    20005-4076
>
> (O): 202-641-9405
>
> (C): 202-365-2667
>
> [email-masked]
>
>
>
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