The lawyer for the mysterious Maltese professor who initiated the FBI’s Russia investigation when he told Trump aide George Papadopoulos that the Russians had dirt on Hillary Clinton in the form of thousands of emails worked for a Russian government contractor from 2011-late 2016, Forensic News can reveal. The revelation about Stephan Roh is affirmed in business and court documents, statements of ownership, and government contracts in Russia and the United Kingdom.
Stephan Roh, Mifsud’s lawyer, PR person, and “money behind [Mifsud]”, according to Mrs. Papadopoulos (who worked for Mifsud in 2016) went into business with Russian businessman and government contractor Gleb Ageev in 2011. UK corporate data shows that Roh’s company “R&B Secretarial Services” began work for Ageev’s UK company “Helena Investments” in December 2011 and stayed an employee until October 2016. For the majority of the employment R&B was the only employee besides Ageev.
Though many firms purporting to offer administrative services work for dozens or hundreds of companies, Roh’s R&B Secretarial Services has served just 7 companies in its history, 6 of which are controlled by the Roh family – the other controlled by Ageev.
Finrusinvest LLC
Ageev’s connections to the Russian government are expansive. On the website for his Finrusinvest company, a self-described “financial management” firm, Ageev declares that his partners include the Russian Federal Agency for State Reserves, Russian oil giant Rosneft, and gas giant Gazprom.
The ownership of Finrusinvest was transferred from a Russian woman, believed to be associated with Ageev, to Helena Investments (where Stephan Roh worked) on December 16, 2015. That very day, the first of a series of Russian government contracts were awarded to Finrusinvest, lasting through July 2017 and totaling hundreds of millions of rubles.
Prior to these government contracts, Finrusinvest had a revenue of approximately 1.2 million rubles. It is unclear why in late 2015 the Russian government began awarding such large contracts to a relatively unknown company.
Other Stephan Roh conduct with Papadopoulos
As mentioned in Roh’s book and affirmed by Papadopoulos in his October 2018 Congressional testimony, Roh and Papadopoulos had a series of conversations in the Summer of 2017. The two differ about the content of their discussions.
Roh claims that Papadopoulos initiated a Skype session, “desperately looking for a job or a business.” Papadopoulos, according to Roh, wanted business opportunities for an unspecified energy consultancy. “He was looking for any kind of job.”
Papadopoulos, however, had a different recollection.
So we had discussed — my understanding is that he wanted to open up some sort of office in Washington, D.C. for — he’s a lawyer, but he also have an energy consultancy firm. That’s my understanding. And he was looking to open up a Washington presence, and he wanted to coordinate with me on that.
Mifsud introduced Papadopoulos to Roh, according to the ex-Trump aide’s testimony.
Roh in the news
Stephan Roh has recently been relied upon by various journalists, media figures, and even by Papadopoulos himself to push the theory that Joseph Mifsud was working for western intelligence in a plot to frame the Trump campaign. There is no evidence to support this theory.
Robert Mueller outlined, in his report, Mifsud’s connections to Russia, including a contact who previously worked at the Internet Research Agency (IRA) – the company which interfered in the 2016 election by manipulating social media. The IRA is dubbed the “troll farm”.
Mifsud is a Maltese national who worked as a professor at the London Academy of Diplomacy in London, England. Although Mifsud worked out of London and was also affiliated with LCILP, the encounter in Rome was the first time that Papadopoulos met him. Mifsud maintained various Russian contacts while living in London, as described further below. Among his contacts was [REDACTED], a one-time employee of the IRA, the entity that carried out the Russian social media campaign (see Volume I, Section II, supra). In January and February 2016, Mifsud and [REDACTED]discussed [REDACTED] possibly meeting in Russia.
Recently, U.S. Attorney John Durham, who was assigned by Attorney General Barr to investigate the origins of the FBI’s Russia investigation and US Senator Lindsey Graham received a taped deposition by Mifsud. The Washington Examiner reported “Mifsud has denied that he told Papadopoulos the Russians had Clinton’s emails, and Roh claims his client has cooperated with Western intelligence, not Russian intelligence.”
Papadopoulos has also asserted that Joseph Mifsud was a Western intelligence asset, based on claims by Mifsud’s lawyer, Stephan Roh. Papadopoulos even went as far to mention Roh’s claims in his late 2018 Congressional testimony.
A recent article by the Hill’s John Solomon relied heavily on Roh’s word alone, stating that Mifsud, “longtime cooperator of western intel.” Roh and his law firm did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The new found evidence that Roh was working for a Russian government contractor in 2016 is sure to cast doubt on the unfounded theory that Mifsud was somehow in cahoots with the FBI or another agency.
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