I don’t think he got the $9 million. I think some of that money is filtering into other pockets. Like, some of the people whose names are in the news. I had seen a figure of $168k that he supposedly was paid, but I don’t remember where I saw it or what that was based on. I had already thought that they maybe paid somebody $10k to write it, so I was off by quite a bit. Still, I think Fusion is a kind of cutout, receiving money from various sources, and doling it out to various recipients, with some double-book accounting to cover it.
Remember, they were also on Russia’s payroll. So where does that money go? Is there anything real about Fusion? Is it just a means of getting your underlings paid for their dirty work, while the big money gets kicked back to people whose names we probably know?
It wouldn’t surprise me if this came out of some French political thriller writer, and Steele paid the guy twenty-thousand for a month of effort.
The nine-million likely got cut up into dozens of expenses....all charged off on a company credit card. Someone likely pretended to be a Russian-hooker, and they dispensed ten-thousand for a weekend interview at some fancy hotel in Warsaw. Someone else pretended to be another hooker, and was dispensed another ten-thousand along the way. The Brit tax folks can’t prove nothing on the expense accounts and the money likely just kept shifting hour-by-hour.
The real audit that ought to be done here by the Brit IRS....is to make Fusion explain where the money went.