Last Thursday night I did something I’ve never done before.
For the first time publicly, I sat down with investigative journalist Patrick Lovell — who executive produced The Con about the 2008 crash which you can watch here — to discuss the core findings from the first ten chapters of The Greatest Heist investigation. This wasn’t a regular show—it was a 60-minute paid subscriber event where I could finally speak openly about what the evidence reveals.
Patrick brought the perfect combination of skepticism and insight. As he put it during our conversation: “When I started to read it, I couldn’t stop. I felt like I was, I don’t know, like a teenager reading some of my favorite CIA or intelligence books by authors like Robert Ludlum.”
The Olympic Tower Moment
The whole thing crystallized for me around 1981. That’s when I discovered that Adnan Khashoggi—this high-flying arms trader connected to Iran-Contra—had relationships with both Jeffrey Epstein and Donald Trump at around the same time.
As I explained to Patrick: “The more I explored the connections between Khashoggi and Trump and Khashoggi and Epstein, it became clear that they were basically being recruited by a network.”
Trump was influenced by Khashoggi in building Trump Tower and his lavish penthouse, based on Khashoggi’s setup at Olympic Towers. Just below them in that same building? The future offices of the Jeffrey Epstein Foundation.
“Not only were they co-located, they also happened at the same amount of time, same period of time, but also connected to these extraordinary networks, which we’ll find out later, turned out to be a giant criminal syndicate.”
The David Bogatin Connection
Patrick asked what first made me realize this was operational, not social. The answer: David Bogatin.
In 1984, Bogatin walks into Trump Tower with $6 million in cash to buy five condos. Trump was there to see the suitcase of cash come in. Three years later, FBI identifies Bogatin as a lieutenant of Semion Mogilevich—the Russian mobster who was also Robert Maxwell’s business partner.
“The fact that you had this name, Semion Mogilevich, show up in both the histories of Trump and the Russian mob and the history of Robert Maxwell and the Russian mob, that to me was a big indicator that there was something much bigger here.”
Maxwell’s Directive
Robert Maxwell is central to understanding how this works. As I revealed last night, Maxwell was working for KGB, MI6, and Mossad simultaneously. He was a triple agent.
And Epstein? He got hired by Douglas Leese—an MI6 operative—for training specifically in “money laundering, investment banking, and financial fraud.” Leese was working with Maxwell on Iran-Contra arms deals.
When Patrick asked how Epstein transformed from math teacher to financial operative, I explained: “Maxwell had met Epstein in the 1980s, much earlier than previously anticipated, and Epstein was learning how to be an international arms trader from Leese and from Maxwell.”
The Extraction Model
What makes this operation so effective? The extraction model they perfected.
“In 1987, when the market crashed, I have it in the book that it was a controlled crash,” I explained. “These network of men who had interests related to Russia or other countries like the Saudis or the UAE or Qatar, they all work together at least to benefit from the crash of 1987.”
The pattern repeats: create crisis, position beforehand, profit from collapse, let taxpayers fund the bailout. Tom Barrack gets the Plaza Hotel at fire-sale prices in 1987 and flips it to Trump. Leon Black scoops up distressed S&L assets into Apollo. Jamie Dimon and JPMorgan get Bear Stearns in 2008.
“You can imagine that goes on over and over and over again. You can start controlling a large amount of the American economy from a fairly small first investment by the Russians.”
The 1996 Rescue
Trump goes bankrupt in the early 90s. As I told Patrick: “He was $100 million in debt. They had monitors looking at how much money he spent every month for lunches. It was a very, very controlled bankruptcy.”
Then in 1996, he goes to Moscow with Leon Black. He comes back almost completely whole—$450 million and back on the Forbes 400 list.
“How Trump became owned by Russia is that they basically bailed him out of these bankruptcies where no one else would pay him any money. No one else would loan him any money. And he was like, well, I’m going to take this deal. I’m going to sell my soul to the devil. And he did.”
When people ask what Russia has on Trump? “It’s everything. It’s everything. They own him. It’s lock, stock, and barrel everything.”
The Concorde Transfer
When Robert Maxwell dies in November 1991, the media portrays it as the end. But the evidence tells a different story.
“November 24, 1991: Ghislaine boards a Concorde to New York carrying Maxwell’s operational files—’truck by truck, file by file,’ according to Steven Hoffenberg’s testimony.”
The official story is that Epstein and Ghislaine met at Maxwell’s memorial and fell in love. “The evidence shows they’d been working together for a decade. Maxwell’s death wasn’t the end—it was the transfer of command.”
Why It Matters Today
Patrick made a crucial observation: “Could it bear out that we could elect a president who’s the stupid whisperer that could literally sabotage and destroy the American economy? Yeah, we did.”
As I emphasized throughout our conversation: “The thing that people need to remember is that this crime didn’t end yet. We’re still in the throes of it. There’s a crime going on right now in the United States out of the executive, out of the White House, and it’s going to steal all our money.”
The tariffs aren’t incompetence. They’re designed to tank the dollar through stagflation. When it collapses, cryptocurrency will be positioned as the “solution”—another extraction waiting to happen.
The Russian Long Game
This is what Americans struggle to understand. As I explained to Patrick: “Imagine having the continuity of mission to know that you’re going to have to pass this through generations to get it done and how brilliant that is. In America, we don’t think like that. We tend to think in much shorter periods of times.”
They planted an asset at Olympic Tower in 1981. Made him president 35 years later. That’s the patience we’re facing.
What Comes Next
This conversation covered chapters 1-10—the foundation. Chapters 11-20 arrive in January. The gripping conclusion follows in Spring.
Last night’s event was for paid subscribers as a thank you - without your support this story would never be told. Thank you for fueling Narativ and our driving mission “Where Truth Lives.” You’ve understood the value of real investigative journalism enough to invest in it. Your support gives me hope for the future of independent media and faith that we can count on you to get the word out, get this truth out.
If you missed the live event, the full 60-minute recording is available above
The crime is still in progress. The question is whether we’ll act before the house is completely robbed.
Chapters 11-20 of The Greatest Heist arrive in January. The final chapters come in Spring. Paid subscribers get early access to each chapter plus exclusive events like last night’s conversation.
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