The Greatest Heist: Chapter 2 - Infecting Capitalism

Jeffrey Epstein and Donald Trump were the frontmen for the Kremlin's war on American capitalism.

In 1976, as America reeled from Watergate and the Soviet Union neared collapse, KGB foreign intelligence chief Viktor Chebrikov issued an extraordinary directive to British media mogul Robert Maxwell. The mission was audacious in its simplicity: infect capitalism itself with our money.

Forty-nine years later, the infection has reached an advanced stage.

Maxwell’s FBI Files

Maxwell's ties to the KGB had been the subject of intense scrutiny by the FBI since the 1950s, so his allegiance to the Kremlin is really uncontested these days. Classified files show Maxwell under "Internal Security" investigation, with agents documenting his systematic attempts to recruit nuclear scientists from Argonne National Laboratory for his "Journal of Nuclear Energy" publication.

The FBI surveillance captured Maxwell's operational pattern: using legitimate business fronts to access high-value intelligence targets. More damaging, page 6 of the files documents Maxwell's travel to Moscow "presumably at Soviet invitation," where agents noted "Maxwell speaks Russian" and was conducting business with British intelligence assets who had clear Soviet connections.

These files prove Maxwell wasn't simply recruited by Chebrikov in 1976—he had been operating within Soviet intelligence frameworks since the 1950s. The FBI files also reveal an operational symmetry with Jeffrey Epstein's core interests: Israel, corporate financing, and physics. Maxwell attempted to recruit nuclear scientists in the 1950s in much the same way that Epstein attempted to recruit nuclear physicists from Harvard until his death.

Maxwell FBI Files

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KGB War on American Capitalism Began in 1982

The Chebrikov directive came with precise directions. He needed Maxwell to "help get money into Western financial institutions and into Wall Street." But this wasn't mere money laundering—it was economic warfare disguised as investment. "If we can learn the machinery of it and have a grip on the machinery of it," Chebrikov explained, "then we can also bring about its downfall."

In 1982, Chebrikov created the KGB Sixth Directorate for Economic Counterintelligence. Along with the GRU's Tenth Directorate, the Soviets launched a massive multi-billion-dollar war against capitalism that persisted long after the USSR's demise. Billions were pumped through the global financial system to exploit capitalism's financial interconnections in order to gain a foothold inside and the capability to trigger financial crises from within.

Maxwell's access to global leaders was unprecedented. He was friends with Gorbachev, close to Margaret Thatcher, and operated as a backchannel for George Bush Sr. when he was the Director of the CIA. He was very close to Israeli Prime Minister Shamir from their World War II days.

The FBI files reveal the sophistication of this multi-service operation. Page 4 documents how Maxwell gave British authorities "the impression that he is working for the British authorities and is supposed to report to them officially." Meanwhile, he maintained separate relationships with Soviet handlers while building his media empire as cover for increasingly complex financial operations.

The Soviet Money Extraction Machine (1980s-1991)

Maxwell's network became the primary vehicle for looting the dying Soviet Union. As documented in intelligence reports, he systematically positioned himself to capture the massive wealth hemorrhaging from the Communist system:

Personal Account Operations: Maxwell "insistently proposed bank accounts in Lichtenstein to high-level Soviet Party figures." For establishing these accounts for "KGB officers and Communist Party representatives, Maxwell received commissions" of 15-20% on all transactions.

The Bulgarian Network: Working with Bulgarian President Todor Zhivkov in the "Neva Project," Maxwell laundered millions through KGB boss Vladimir Kryuchkov's appointed handler Andrei Lukanov. $2 million in Bulgarian drug trafficking money alone "disappeared in Western banks" through Maxwell's networks.

Corporate Money Laundering: "From the end of the 1980s, with Maxwell's help, operations to launder CPSU money abroad began." Maxwell helped establish joint enterprises that systematically "plundered Western technology" while charging massive fees for moving Communist Party assets to Western institutions.

Maxwell and Iran Contra

No scandal exemplifies how the Soviets were able to infect capitalism better than Iran Contra. Maxwell was the operational center of the arms transfer operation, but he also created the supply chain through his partnership with Semion Mogilevich, the "brainy don" who would become the FBI's most wanted Russian crime boss. Together, they systematically looted Warsaw Pact arsenals as the Soviet Union collapsed.

Mogilevich's network extracted $20 million worth of ground-to-air missiles, armored troop carriers, and sophisticated weapons systems from East Germany alone. The buyer was Iran, creating a direct pipeline from Soviet collapse to Middle Eastern destabilization.

Maxwell provided the financial architecture. Through Douglas Leese's MI6-connected offshore companies, the weapons proceeds moved seamlessly into Western banking systems. This was the same network that trained Jeffrey Epstein in arms dealing operations, with Adnan Khashoggi providing the Iran-Contra expertise that made it all possible.

A Failed Coup

In 1991, Chebrikov's allies attempted to overthrow Gorbachev in a failed coup attempt by KGB hardliners. When the coup failed, it signaled the end of the USSR and accelerated the outflow of Russian assets into the West.

Maxwell died just ten weeks later on November 5, 1991, found floating near his yacht while attempting to blackmail Israel for £400 million to cover his massive pension fund thefts. The timing was precisely one month before the USSR's formal dissolution.

The Network Handoff

Maxwell's death wasn't the end—it was the network handoff. Nineteen days later, Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell reunited at Robert Maxwell's memorial dinner, inheriting an infrastructure that had successfully "infected" Western capitalism with Soviet collapse money.

Epstein had spent years training and planning for this role under the tutelage of Sir Douglas Leese, who had devised the takeover plan that was supported by Israeli intelligence.

Maxwell had died, but the operation outlived him. As the 1990s began, Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell made a splash in New York City. The financial structures and the relationships with Western financial institutions that had been built through decades of Soviet money laundering were transferred wholesale to the new American operation.

Paid subscribers can learn the true scope of this 49-year operation when we examine how Soviet collapse money was systematically transferred into American markets—and which prominent figures inherited this network.