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Who Is Margaret Fagenson? Wall Street Tycoon's 68-Year-Old Wife Leaps To Her Death On Upper East Side

The wife of a wealthy Wall Streeter leaped to her death Thursday from the 14th floor balcony of her luxury Upper East Side apartment. Margaret Fagenson, 68, reportedly had been suffering from depression.

She apparently pulled a small ladder from her closet and set it against the railing of her terrace as a maid worked in another room. She climbed the ladder, jumped, and fell to her death at about 10:50 a.m. She died at the scene after landing on the side of the building of her East 86th St. apartment near Carl Schurz Park, known as the Henderson House, police and witnesses said.

“I heard a loud ‘boom’ noise and I waited a couple minutes,” Rodney Bissoondath, 37, a doorman from across the street told the Daily News . “By the time I went outside, the cops were already putting sheets on the person.”

One witness said Fagenson was too far to save, and another source confirmed that Fagenson did not leave a note. Robert Fagenson, her husband of 45 years, stood by his wife’s body -- devastated -- as he held the leashes of their two dogs, witnesses said.

He is the chairman and CEO of Fagenson and Co., a money management and investment broker firm. Robert and Margaret Fagenson owned a $2.8 million unit in the Henderson House, a 22-story high-rise with a full-time doorman. Three-bedroom units sold for $2.5 million, officials said.

The couple was known for supporting animal rescue groups, such as the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals and the Humane Society of St. Thomas, Virgin Islands. In the recent months, Fagenson volunteered in the kitten nursery and read to abused dogs.

In 2011, Robert and Margaret Fagenson, who met in high school, donated $75,000 to the North Shore Animal League America, according to the Wall Street Journal. They were named "Donors of the Day."

“We’re nutty pet people,” [Robert] Fagenson told the Wall Street Journal.

A shocked friend said to the New York Post : “She is the last person who would do such a thing.”

Bissoondath said this was the third person to jump from the luxury building in recent years.

“It’s insane,” he said.

Fagenson was survived by her husband, Robert, her two daughters, Stephanie and Jennifer and granddaughter, Sophie.

Services will be held Monday, Jan. 30th 11:00 a.m. at Frank E. Campbell, 1076 Madison Ave., at 81st St.

© Copyright IBTimes 2024. All rights reserved.

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2 Crew Members Under Investigation In Sicily Yacht Sinking

A s the investigation into the sinking of the superyacht off the coast of Sicily broadens, Italian prosecutors are now scrutinizing the actions of two other crew members in addition to the captain of the vessel.

On Wednesday, prosecutors placed crew members Tim Parker Eaton and Matthew Griffiths under investigation, according to The New York Times . Eaton was in charge of the yacht’s engine room, while Griffiths was on lookout duty the night the yacht sank.

When someone is placed under investigation in Italy, there is no guarantee that charges will follow. 

The Bayesian, a 184-foot British-flagged yacht deemed unsinkable by its ship maker Perini Navi, went down in a storm off the coast of Sicily on Aug. 19, killing one crew member and six passengers, including British tech magnate Mike Lynch and his 18-year-old daughter, Hannah.

The yacht carried 22 people — 10 crew members and 12 guests who were there celebrating Lynch’s acquittal in June on all charges in a fraud case that followed the sale of his company Autonomy to Hewlett-Packard for $11 billion in 2011. 

Fifteen of the 22 people aboard survived by escaping on a lifeboat and were rescued by the sailboat Sir Robert Baden Powell. It remains unclear how the Bayesian sank, especially as the nearby Baden Powell remained largely unscathed  despite the storm.

According to The Associated Press , Giovanni Costantino, head of the Italian Sea Group, which owns Perini Navi, said the yacht’s sinking was likely caused by human error.

“The ship sank because it took on water. From where, the investigators will say,” he told Italian state media, per the AP.

Captain James Cutfield is facing a manslaughter inquiry to determine whether his actions caused the shipwreck, Cutfield’slawyer Giovanni Rizzuti told the Times on Tuesday. Prosecutors interviewed Cutfield this week, but he exercised his right to remain silent and is “very distressed,” according to Rizzuti. 

This week, nine of the 10 crew members, including those under investigation, left Sicily, sources told the Times. In Italy, people under investigation are not prohibited from leaving the country.

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68-year-old wife of Wall Street tycoon Robert Fagenson, leaps to her death at Upper East Side high-rise

Posted on January 26, 2017 by konniemoments in News // 0 Comments

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Margaret Fagenson wife of NY financier leapt to her death from her luxury high-rise apt

Margaret fagenson 68, died after she jumped from her home [henderson place] on e. 86th st., she landed on the side of the building and died at the scene about 10:50 am, thursday , the 68-year-old mother of two grown up daughters is married wall street ceo robert fagenson, the victim margaret fagenson and her wall street ceo husband robert fagenson[3rd l] with daughters jennifer and stephanie, the victim margaret and husband robert fagenson. he was seen at the scene this morning holding two dogs , mrs fagenson allegedly,  leapt from a 14th-floor balcony of ‘the  henderson house’ -e. 86th st. , nyc, thursday morning.

Robert and Margaret Fagenson own a $2.8 million unit in the Henderson House. Robert Fagenson is the CEO of Fagenson and Co., a money management and investment broker firm. The couple are avid supporters of animal rescue groups and in 2011 donated $75,000 to the North Shore Animal League, according to the Wall Street Journal. The couple have also donated to the ASPCA and the Humane Society of St. Thomas, Virgin Islands. “We’re nutty pet people,” Robert Fagenson told the Wall Street Journal when he and his wife were named the paper’s “Donors of the Day.”

 Police taped off the scene where the victim jumped to her death from a 14th floor balcony

According to some accounts Margaret Fagenson was the third person to jump from the Handerson House in recent years, “It’s insane,”Bissoondath said. A half block from Carl Schurz Park and about two blocks from Gracie Mansion, the 56-year-old building is a luxury 22-story high-rise with a full-time doorman, three-bedroom units start at $2.5 million, officials said.

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Wall street big’s wife leaps to death at upper east side high-rise.

Marcus Santos/New York Daily News

The victim leapt from a 14th-floor balcony of the E. 86th St. building near East End Ave.

Police taped off the scene where a woman jumped to her death from an Upper East Side high rise.

The victim, identified by sources at the scene as Margaret Fagenson, leapt from a 14th-floor balcony of the E. 86th St. building near East End Ave. — known as the Henderson House — at about 10:50 a.m.

She landed on the side of the building on Henderson Place and died at the scene, police and horrified witnesses said.

“I heard a loud ‘boom’ noise and I waited a couple minutes,” said Rodney Bissoondath, 37, a doorman from across the street. “By the time I went outside, the cops were already putting sheets on the person.”

Grieving family members rushed to the scene, crying and clutching one another for comfort as members of the city coroner’s office prepared to remove Fagenson’s body.

One man, believed to be Fagenson’s husband Robert, was holding two dogs, witnesses said.

Robert and Margaret Fagenson own a $2.8 million unit in the Henderson House.

Robert Fagenson is the CEO of Fagenson and Co., a money management and investment broker firm.

The couple are avid supporters of animal rescue groups and in 2011 donated $75,000 to the North Shore Animal League, according to the Wall Street Journal. The couple have also donated to the ASPCA and the Humane Society of St. Thomas, Virgin Islands.

“We’re nutty pet people,” Robert Fagenson told the Wall Street Journal when he and his wife were named the paper’s “Donors of the Day.”

Built in 1961, the Henderson House is a 22-story high-rise with a full-time doorman.

Three-bedroom units go for $2.5 million, officials said.

The building is a half block from Carl Schurz Park and about two blocks from Gracie Mansion, officials said.

Bissoondath said this was the third person to jump from the building in recent years.

“It’s insane,” he said.

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Woman, 68, jumps to death from upper east side high-rise, the woman jumped from a 14th floor balcony, police said..

Brendan Krisel , Patch Staff

UPPER EAST SIDE, NY — A 68-year-old woman jumped to her death Thursday morning from the 14th floor balcony of an Upper East Side high-rise, police told Patch.

The woman jumped from a balcony of the Henderson House — a luxury co-op on East 86th St. and East End Avenue — around 10:50 a.m., police said. The police have ruled out any criminality and believe the death was a suicide, an NYPD spokeswoman told Patch.

The New York Post identified the woman as Margaret Fagenson, a resident of the building and wealthy donor to animal rescue causes, but an NYPD spokesman would not confirm those details with Patch.

Find out what's happening in Upper East Side with free, real-time updates from Patch.

The 68-year-old was pronounced dead on the scene, police told Patch. There was no immediate indication as to why the woman jumped, police said.

The Henderson House, built in 1961, is a 22-story luxury co-op complex with more than 140 apartment units. Apartments often sell for millions, according to a real estate listing website . The building is located about a block from Carl Schurz park and Gracie Mansion.

Photo by Google Maps street view

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To request removal of your name from an arrest report, submit these required items to [email protected] .

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Breaking news, wall street recruiter jumps to her death from luxury nyc home.

A Wall Street recruiter leaped to her death Monday morning from her luxury Upper East Side home, sources told The Post.

Lindsay Jacoby, 40, a mother of two, jumped around 10:30 a.m. from the fourth-floor roof of 12 Henderson Place, a historic brick home located on an enclave between East 86th and 87th streets, the sources said.

It’s unclear whether she left a note.

A man who said Lindsay was his daughter screamed in “agony” after finding out she had jumped, according to passersby.

“It was really harrowing. He screamed and screamed. We thought he was having a heart attack. He came out of the building and said to call 911. But he was clutching his heart,” said Jeffrey B.

“It wasn’t until the police showed up that we realized it was a suicide.”

It’s a nice neighborhood, “but there are demons everywhere,” another passerby added.

The woman and her husband, Seth Jacoby, purchased the one-family home in 2014 for $3.6 million, taking out a $2.5 million mortgage, according to public records.

The couple has two young children.

She previously worked in internal recruiting positions at Oppenheimer and Co., JPMorgan and Citigroup, and served as the CEO and president at her own firm, Jacoby Staffing.

She graduated cum laude from Union College in Schenectady and studied for a year in Osaka, Japan, according to her LinkedIn page.

Henderson Place was closed off Monday pending an investigation.

Two women showed up crying hysterically at the corner of Henderson and East 86th Street on Monday afternoon.

“Why would she do this?” one pal wailed.

Lindsay and Seth Jacoby were married in 2005, according to a New York Times announcement .

The jet-setting mom frequently posted on Facebook about her travels and how proud she was of her son and daughter.

“This is Istanbul!!! Loving this city, the people and spending quality time with my family!!” she wrote in 2015 along with photos of the family’s trip to Turkey.

Lindsay’s suicide comes seven months after Margaret Fagenson jumped to her death from a 14th-floor terrace at 535 E. 86th St., across the street from 12 Henderson.

Fagenson, 68, who was married to wealthy investment banking CEO Robert Fagenson, suffered from depression.

A neighbor reported seeing Lindsay taken from the house in an ambulance two weeks ago.

“I think there was something going on with them,” he said. “It seems like there was something amiss.”

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Why? Margaret Fagenson jumps to her death from luxury East 86th apartment

Margaret Fagenson an Upper East side philanthropist has jumped to her death in what is thought to be a suicide bid. Left no suicide note.

Margaret Fagenson , the 68 year old wife of a Wall St tycoon died on Thursday after jumping to her death from her luxury Upper East side high rise apartment.

According to police, the woman leapt  from a 14th-floor balcony of the E. 86th St. building near East End Ave. — known as the Henderson House  at about 10:50 a.m.

She landed on the side of the building on Henderson Place and died at the scene, noted the nypost .

According to the tabloid, the philanthropist had been suffering from depression when she pulled a small ladder from her closet and set it against the railing of her terrace just before 11 a.m. as a maid worked in another room.

From there Flanagan climbed the ladder, lifted herself over the terrace railing and fell to a sidewalk alongside her building.

Told  Rodney Bissoondath , 37, a doorman via the  nydailynews :   ‘I heard a loud ‘boom’ noise and I waited a couple minutes,’

‘By the time I went outside, the cops were already putting sheets on the person.’

The doorman said that Fagenson had been the third person to jump  from the building in recent years.

‘It’s insane,’ he said. 

Upon notice of Margaret Fagenson suicide death, f amily members gathered at the scene as the city coroner’s office sought to remove the woman’s body.

Told a friend of the woman’s as she witnessed the dead woman’s body being removed, ‘ She is the last person who would do such a thing.’

‘I saw them yesterday,’ a neighbor told via the nypost . ‘ And they were so happy.’

Or were they?

Present at the death scene was Fagenson’s husband Robert , who at the time was holding the couple’s two poodle dogs.

Of note, R obert and Margaret Fagenson own a $2.8 million unit in the Henderson House.

Three-bedroom units at the building go for $2.5 million according to a real estate listing website . The building is located about a block from Carl Schurz park and Gracie Mansion.

Robert Fagenson is the CEO of Fagenson and Co  a boutique money management and investment broker firm.

A 2011 report via the  wallstjournal noted the couple as being supporters of animal rescue groups and donating $75,000 to the North Shore Animal League .

Told the husband via the wsj, ‘ We’re nutty pet people,’  when he and his wife were named the paper’s ‘Donors of the Day.’

Of question is whether the financier had experienced any financial setback that may have preempted the man’s wife?

Cops said that Flanagan left no suicide note before jumping, leading some to wonder if the woman’s suicide death was a spur of the moment act, or something she may have been dwelling on.

No mention was made whether the woman had tried hurting or killing herself in the past.

To date cops have offered no motive as to what may have led to the well to do woman taking her own life as some wonder if Margaret Fagenson succumbed to depression or other setbacks yet to have been divulged?

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Boat of the Week: This Speedy 153-Foot Superyacht Has Its Own Turbo Boost

Push a button and the turbine kicks in, which is yachting's equivalent of light speed., julia zaltzman, julia zaltzman's most recent stories.

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What do you get if you have two friends with a passion for boats, high-profile automotive careers and cash to burn? The answer is the 153-foot superyacht Excellence , a vessel that oozes speed, has brand pedigree and captures the hearts of all who own it.

Built in 2001 by Formula One racing car driver and automobile entrepreneur Roger Penske, who named her  Detroit Eagle , the yacht combined Feadship ’s Dutch craftsmanship with Penske’s own brand of engine. (Disclosure: Roger Penske is the father of Jay Penske, who owns this publication, as well as its sister publications in the Penske Media portfolio.)

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“At the time [Roger] Penske owned a company called Detroit Diesel that made diesel engines for boats, and he was also involved with a company that built turbine engines,” current owner and Penske’s longtime friend, Herb Chambers, told Robb Report . “So, he went to Feadship and built a lightweight aluminum yacht with a shallow draft to demonstrate the capability of his engines.”

The Feadship was originally built and owned for years by Roger Penske, who wanted a very fast, very luxurious superyacht. Penske installed his own Detroit Diesel-branded engines and then added a 5,600-hp turbine to give the yacht a 10-knot pop at the top end.  Courtesy of Burgess Yachts

The immaculate, polished-chrome engine room, with the diesels painted in fire-engine red, has always been a symbolic indicator of the type of impressive speeds the yacht can reach. The engines are 16-cylinder 4000 series, which generate 3,650 horsepower each. Penske then added something the superyacht world had never seen before–a Lycoming TF-50 gas turbine for an additional 5,600 horsepower.

“The boat can cruise at about 23 knots on diesel engines,” Chambers says, “but if you really want it to go fast, you push a button and the turbine kicks in taking the boat from 23 knots up to around 33 knots. It really is a remarkable vessel.”

Serial boat builder Chambers grew up in the Boston area, spending long summers on the water at his grandmother’s cottage. “I always had the desire to have a boat,” he says, a goal he realized at 24 with a 30-foot Trojan flybridge motoryacht. The Trojan would be the first of five yachts called A-Copy , named after his successful copy-machine business.

“After I sold the copy company and had this windfall of money, I ordered a 127-foot Feadship. The name A-Copy wasn’t of any significance to me anymore so I tried to think of a name that I would like,” Chambers says. “I’m not an avid reader, but I read Tom Peters’s book In Search of Excellence and loved it. It’s about running a good business. I thought Excellence , that is a great name for a boat.”

Launched last summer, Chambers’s newest 262-foot Abeking & Rasmussen “Excellence” has a futuristic hull shape, with an eagle-beak bow and large glass panels on the exterior.  Courtesy Abeking & Rasmussen

To date, Chambers has owned more than 40 yachts of many sizes. Some were even sold before he took delivery. The name “Excellence” serves as a constant reminder to his 30-year-long captain for the need to maintain high standards on board, he says. It has also carried through to Chamber’s six most recent yachts. This includes his largest yacht to date, a striking 262-foot Abeking & Rasmussen launched in 2019, on which he enjoys cruising the European waters of Croatia, Greece, Italy and St Tropez. That Excellence won Robb Report ’s 2020 Best of the Best award for interiors.

With its “eagle” reverse bow and triple-height glass atrium, the Winch-designed yacht turns heads wherever it goes. But that’s hardly surprising considering Philip Starck’s opinion-dividing Motor Yacht A was the design inspiration this latest Excellence .

“When I first saw Motor Yacht A , I said, ‘That looks like a submarine. Who would ever want to have a boat like that?’ And the second time I saw it, I said, ‘That boat is pretty nice. I kinda like that bow.’ And the third time I saw it, I thought, ‘I absolutely love that.’ So, that’s where the idea for Excellence ’s bow came from.”

While he has recently listed the Feadship “Excellence,” Chambers plans to enjoy the yacht for while he still owns her. He has often owned two yachts—the newer one that is often under charter, and a smaller, faster one that is at his disposal for his “personal use.” 

While Chambers’s appreciation of Feadship has long endured after his first foray with the Dutch shipbuilder, it wasn’t until a 2018 visit to Fort Lauderdale Boat Show that Penske’s 153-foot yacht caught Chamber’s eye. Prized by Chambers for its flexible speed and six-foot Bahamas-friendly draft, it is one of the few yachts that he hasn’t put on the charter market.

“I view the Feadship as a very personal boat,” says Chambers. “It’s only a four-stateroom boat, but you can bring three other couples or family members with you. When I told Roger Penske that I had bought the boat, he said his family was mad at him when he sold it because they loved it so much.”

An extensive 2019 refit of the yacht includes a full paint job, an updated sound system and refurb of the original John Munford interior. Chambers bought the yacht for his own personal use. “Because my boats get chartered, I always love to have a boat that’s available just for me,” Chambers says. “I built a 94-foot Mangusta for that purpose and used it in America when my big yacht was on charter in the Mediterranean or Caribbean. The Feadship can do pretty much what the Mangusta did, but it’s a bigger, more comfortable boat, so I sold the Mangusta at the start of 2020.”

The 2001 build has undergone a complete refurbishment of the interior. 

Being a serial owner, Chambers also recently listed the updated Feadship. He plans to enjoy the yacht while she is still available. Will he miss this Excellence ?

“I really don’t know,” Chambers says, pausing. “I would maybe look to build a similar boat, around 150 feet, something that would be fast. But the Abeking & Rasmussen Excellence is still new to me. The time for me to sell a boat is when I still like it.”

That creates a great opportunity for a buyer who wants a piece of superyacht history–a very fast superyacht history.

Excellence is co-listed for sale with Burgess  and Merle Wood & Associates for $16,900,000. Here are more views.

Images Courtesy of Burgess Yachts

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Friends of Christmas Cove Launch Battle Against Floating Restaurant

Two weeks ago, when residents of several East End housing communities got wind of plans to locate a floating restaurant and bar in Christmas Cove, the reaction was, "You’ve got to be kidding me!" according to Robert Fagenson.      Since then, Fagenson and dozens of others have not just rallied to protest the plan, but have with the assistance of Tom Bolt & Associates, PC, formed a non-profit organization, commissioned a study by the University of the Virgin Islands (UVI) and are circulating petitions in anticipation of a public hearing on Tuesday.       The group, known as the Friends of Christmas Cove Inc., formally announced its establishment at a news conference Sunday, March 2nd at Robert’s American Grille in Cowpet Bay. Group president Fagenson, and others outlined their objections to the bar and restaurant plan by WT Enterprises LLC and distributed a summary document of the UVI study they commissioned on the Christmas Cove ecosystem.      

 The group intends to present the full study Tuesday at a Coastal Zone Management (CZM) Committee hearing on the WT Enterprises permit application in hopes the permit will be denied. A decision on the permit is expected March 26.       WT Enterprises is applying to moor a 115-foot, three-story vessel known as the Leylon Sneed just off the privately-owned St. James Island, about a mile southeast of St. Thomas. An 80-by-5 foot dock would be attached to the port side of the vessel for dinghy and small boat mooring.       Owners of the Sneed, Curtis Penn and Delbert Parsons of St. John, claim boaters do not want to travel to the William Thornton, known as the Willy T, located off Norman Island in the British Virgin Islands, to enjoy a floating restaurant.       The Willy T is known for having provided incentives to its customers to jump naked into the water from its third floor. However, Parsons told the Source last month that the Sneed is not going to be "crazy like the Willie T." Parsons did say that he and his partner plan to include a nightclub, but stressed that it would not be loud.       Contacted Sunday, Curtis Penn said he and Parsons were advised by their attorney to withhold further comment until the Tuesday hearing.       "Maybe there’s a fitting place for a floating bar and restaurant somewhere in the (U.S.) V.I.," Fagenson said at the news conference. "But…if there’s one thing that appears to be as clear as the waters of Christmas Cove, putting the Leylon Sneed smack in the middle of it is wrong."       Christmas Cove lies within the St. James Marine Reserve and Wildlife Sanctuary, home to endangered species of coral, seagrass and turtles. It also lies within a narrow passageway used by commercial ferries taking passengers from Charlotte Amalie to St. John. In addition, children learning to sail from the neighboring St. Thomas Yacht Club use the cove to train.       Members of the newly formed citizens group told reporters Tuesday that the presence of the Leylon Sneed and the dozens of power boats it would attract would not only present a safety concern as well as concerns about noise, but pose a threat to the sensitive marine environment that earned the cove its status as a sanctuary.       In an interview Friday, Assistant Director of Enforcement for the Department of Planning and Natural Resources, Roberto Tapia, said it is prohibited to locate a commercial establishment within the bounds the St. James Marine Reserve and Wildlife Sanctuary.       "There are rules and regulations for sanctuaries, which is: no commercial activities in a sanctuary," said Tapia. "None whatsoever. That’s the rule."       Asked whether that meant the CZM permit would be denied, Tapia replied, "That’s a question that will have to be weighed through until the application process is finished." However, he added that the sanctuary falls under federal protection, and he said local laws must conform.       Rick Nemeth, director of the Center for Marine and Environmental Studies at UVI, issued a statement presented Sunday by the citizens’ group saying he personally observed more than 170 colonies of the endangered staghorn and elkhorn coral in Christmas Cove while researching the area on behalf of Friends of Christmas Cove. In addition, Nemeth said he saw 50 species of reef fish and two sea turtles feeding on seagrass, another endangered species protected by the sanctuary status.       Nemeth is expected to present the results of his team’s study at the Tuesday hearing. In addition, Friends of Christmas Cove is circulating petitions opposing the plan which they hope to present Tuesday.       The meeting is open to the public. It begins at 6 p.m. on the second floor of the Port Authority building, just east of the Cyril E. King Airport.

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Step on board the 80m Abeking & Rasmussen superyacht Excellence

An owner thought his 60-metre yacht couldn’t be bettered – until he saw an 80-metre model at the 2015 Fort Lauderdale show. Four years later, that owner took delivery of his Excellence, as Sam Fortescue discovers .

What do you do when you think you’ve built the perfect 60-metre yacht? Well, naturally, you start again with something even bigger. Or at least that’s what the American owner of the Excellence series of six yachts chose to do. “The 60-metre yacht that I had, Excellence V , was in my opinion the most beautiful, high volume, best performing yacht of her size that I was aware of,” he tells me. “To build another 60-metre that was better, I believed was impossible. I decided to move up to 80 metres and a more contemporary design. At one of the yacht shows I saw a rendering of a design that was to be a Winch/Abeking joint venture. I fell in love.”

This begins the rapid-fire story of the sixth Excellence , perhaps the most striking yacht ever to leave Abeking & Rasmussen ’s yard in Bremen, northern Germany. With her heavily reversed bow and acres of sheer glass windows reflecting back at me like a pair of aviator sunglasses, Excellence stopped me in my tracks as I gazed at her across the River Weser. In fact, work on the boat was in progress several years before the owner decided that he wanted a new yacht, and long before she would become the sixth Excellence . Andrew Winch’s design office had teamed up with Abeking to produce a radical concept. “The owner saw a preliminary model at the 2015 Fort Lauderdale Boat Show, and said, ‘I want that boat’,” recalls Winch when I meet him in Bremen to tour the yacht. “He came to us because we helped him step out of the middle market and out of his comfort zone. He’s had to be extremely brave and question whether he will like it in the end.”

At this point, the design had some of its key features in evidence – that bow, the huge areas of glazing and the flying-saucer-shaped pods fore and aft of each deck. But in other ways, it has changed dramatically, growing shorter and losing its proposed helipad as the curve of the bow was stretched further aft. The process was surprisingly quick. “After so many builds the owner is a very experienced specifier,” Winch says. “He works with a tick list and thinks it through methodically.”

Somewhat counter-intuitively, the best place to really understand the striking exterior of this yacht is inside – the mezzanine on the owner’s deck to be precise. Here, two decks have been cut away, so that your gaze falls 10 metres to the main deck below when you peer over the balustrade. The five-metre-tall sheets of glass that form the mirrored external skin of the yacht are displayed in all their glory. Two slim steel frames are the only support for the edges of these vast panes. It is a view into the heart of an engineering problem that Abeking & Rasmussen at first considered too difficult to solve. “It was a nightmare,” says senior project manager Jens Bottke before remembering himself. “Really a challenge.”

Despite the expansion and contraction of the aluminium superstructure, and the obvious movement caused by the yacht’s motion, it was not the fixing of these 1.3-tonne glass panels that presented the greatest problem. It was the fact that they needed to be perfectly rigid on the outside, so as not to distort the mirror finish, and provide excellent insulation to spare the yacht’s air conditioning. “The glass packages are actually four to six panes, complete with insulation layers and finishes,” Bottke says. At their thickest, they are 8cm thick. Add to that the need to create three-dimensional curves in places and you have a huge challenge that could be overcome only by using German technology and Italian engineering.

Heading out on to the side deck, I marvel at the 25-metre line of perfectly smooth glass. Bremen’s industrial riverscape is perfectly reflected from top to bottom. This blemish-free exterior hides other design and engineering feats, too. The life rafts are hidden in a bulwark cabinet so as not to spoil the yacht’s majestic lines. And you won’t find any hint of a ventilation louvre in the exterior, either. They are all disguised behind mirror-finish stainless steel, blending in perfectly with the windows. Abeking also had to design some smart exterior doors to account for the superstructure’s bevel and curvature. Each set uses a slightly different mechanism, swinging silently open on different-sized arms or gliding out on a single curved support. “I think there’s only one standard exterior door on the whole yacht,” Bottke says. “Structure and design-wise, it’s been our most challenging project.”

Challenges aplenty awaited inside, too: from details such as how to make an electric blind for a window that gets thinner as it goes up, to weaving filaments of precious silver into a composite that resembles metallic carbon fibre. The unifying theme for the interior is luxury cars, a nod to the origin of the owner’s fortune in car dealerships. “The boat has car detailing throughout,” Winch says. “There are many things you might recognise.” Those range from the black-and-white concentric circles on the saloon floor and ceiling that recall the tyres of a classic car, to the double-stitched leather detailing in the cabins. The ventilation louvres in the cabins are designed to look like the grille of a bonnet, and there are tyre-track patterns carved into the wooden panelling of a dayhead.

The interior strikes a balance between splashes of bright colour and dignified coffee tones – a bit like one of the owner’s favourite sports cars, in fact. Besides noble woods and fine Italian leathers, marble is the stand-out material on board. “There are more than 30 different marbles on  Excellence ,” says Winch interior designer Lizzy Hart. “And about 30 per cent is golden onyx.” The honey-toned stone is quarried in Chile and appears everywhere aboard – from the main guest corridor to the his-and-hers owner’s bathrooms. Here, the effect is particularly striking: the space glows as if it contains a hoard of gold.

Every cabin has a unique character, with its own feature headboard, and every public space has a rarefied list of marbles, precious woods and leathers. There are woods I’ve never heard of – tamo ash, blue ombre rippled sycamore, amboyna burr – and novel leather finishes. Minute detail is everywhere you look. In the owner’s suite, it is Macassar ebony panelling, wool carpets with crocodile pattern by Oliver Treutlein, and woven silver wire that makes the window mullions look like precious carbon fibre. And yet practicality is never far from the surface. All the high-tread areas are in limed oak, for instance, not vulnerable carpet.

Clever use of mirrors throughout the interior serves to extend sight lines and broaden perspectives. In the main saloon, for example, mirrors behind the louvres make the casing around the ventilation shafts disappear. There are also thin mirrored strips all the way around the top of walls in the cabins, which fool the eye into seeing more space. It has meant being equally cunning with the use of indirect lighting. Though the owner has made allowances for guests because he runs  Excellence  as a charter business, he was adamant that the boat was built entirely to his own taste. “ Excellence  was built to be a sporty, modern, comfortable yacht that could become a classic,” he tells me. “The interior is not designed for charter – it is luxury with tremendous space, beautiful fabrics and is comfortable to spend time on.”

All the same, he knows some of his guests will need to work, so he has put in a library/office where previous  Excellences  made do with a desk in a corner. There are tobacco leaves on the wall here, pressed into a rich pattern and trimmed with laser-cut silver leather. Birdseye maple is the feature wood, alongside cappuccino marble and tan leather tiles underfoot. It is a very calming space. And he specified the six guest cabins to be 25 square metres and of very similar comfort, to avoid any competition for “the big cabin”. The gym on the main deck had to be bigger than on the previous boats, and the spa area is among the brightest I’ve seen, with great views out of the sauna through the huge windows. There’s also a dedicated nine-seat cinema.

For all the richness of the finish, the atmosphere on board is comfortable and convenient. Take the main saloon, where you are greeted by deep cream-coloured sofas and a 1.8-metre-diameter coffee table. As we sit down, I have to check the natural urge to put my feet up. The owner anticipated this and requested golden onyx for the rim of the wooden table precisely so that it would resist wear and tear. It’s taken for granted that guests here will feel able to put their feet up. On the bridge deck, aft of the 14-seat outdoor table, there is a relaxed bar. And so it doesn’t block the view, it is sunken into the deck allowing guests to look over the top. The pool on the main deck below has removable bar seating in it, with more bar stools on the other side of the bar. This same pool also spreads dappled light on to the beach club below through a glass floor panel. Most guests will approach in this way, so the owner insisted on a space that at once welcomes them and showcases all the delights the yacht has to offer. He’s done away with the usual fold-up transom door leading into the bowels of the boat: Excellence features instead two curved sliding doors that give access from the large beach club into the tender garage.

And before you snort, realise that this is no ordinary garage. It has been designed and fitted out with a bar, comfortable seating and lined with the yacht’s best toys. As you step aboard, you spot the dive gear and wetsuits, Seabobs and RS200 sailing dinghy. You’re already excited about the experience that lies ahead. “I have spent a great deal of time on yachts and it is truly my passion,” the owner says. “I love spending time on board.”

The boat started in the Med and at time of press was due to cross the Atlantic to make the Fort Lauderdale International Boat Show – she easily has the range to do that. With this project, the owner has completed a different sort of journey, building a yacht that will look edgy for decades to come. And though he is clearly very proud of the result, there is one thing he didn’t get quite right: “I felt the design would be very polarising, but I was wrong,” he tells me. “It appears that better than 90 per cent of the comments are extremely positive.”

Excellence is available to charter with Burgess .

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Robert Hanssen, F.B.I. Agent Exposed as Spy for Moscow, Dies at 79

Mr. Hanssen was sentenced to life in prison in 2002, bringing to a close one of the most lurid and damaging espionage cases in American history.

By Peter Baker

Peter Baker reported from Washington. He was a correspondent for The Washington Post in Moscow when Robert Hanssen was arrested in 2001 and covered the diplomatic rupture that followed.

Robert P. Hanssen, a former F.B.I. agent who spied for Moscow off and on for more than two decades during and after the Cold War in one of the most damaging espionage cases in American history, was discovered dead in his prison cell in Colorado on Monday, federal authorities announced. He was 79.

The Federal Bureau of Prisons said in a statement that Mr. Hanssen was found unresponsive just before 7 a.m. at the United States Penitentiary Florence, where he was serving a life sentence. He was pronounced dead after lifesaving efforts by emergency medical workers. The statement did not identify a cause.

Mr. Hanssen’s case was considered one of the most notorious spy scandals of his generation, shocking F.B.I. leaders and other government officials when they learned that one of their own had been feeding information to the other side with impunity for so many years. To this day, the F.B.I. describes him as “the most damaging spy in bureau history.”

In exchange for $1.4 million in cash, bank funds and diamonds, Mr. Hanssen passed along a torrent of secrets to Moscow, including one disclosing that the United States government had dug a tunnel underneath the Soviet embassy in Washington to eavesdrop on diplomatic and other communications. He also informed Moscow about three K.G.B. officers who were secretly spying for the United States, two of whom were later executed.

“The magnitude of Hanssen’s crimes cannot be overstated,” Paul J. McNulty, who was the U.S. attorney who prosecuted him, said on Monday in response to reports of his death. “They will long be remembered as being among the most egregious betrayals of trust in U.S. history. It was both a low point and an investigative success for the FBI.”

Mr. Hanssen’s arrest, in 2001, briefly ruptured relations between the United States and Russia at a time when the two former enemies were seeking to build friendlier ties after the collapse of the Soviet Union. President George W. Bush expelled about 50 Russian diplomats , and President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia retaliated with a tit-for-tat expulsion of 50 American diplomats. But both sides were determined to end the matter there and not allow it to result in a more lasting rift.

The discovery of Mr. Hanssen’s espionage embarrassed the F.B.I. and resulted in changes to security procedures. He told investigators after his arrest that security at the bureau was so lax that it amounted to “criminal negligence.” He said it was a simple matter to gain access to classified material on official computers with only routine security clearances.

“Any clerk in the bureau could come up with stuff on that system,” Mr. Hanssen said, according to a Justice Department report on his case in 2002. “It’s criminal what’s laid out.”

Mr. Hanssen pleaded guilty to 15 counts of espionage and conspiracy to avoid the death penalty and expressed remorse for his betrayal. “I am shamed by it,” he said during the 2002 hearing where he was sentenced to life in prison without parole.

Since July 17, 2002, Mr. Hanssen had been in custody at Florence, the supermax facility that is considered the most secure prison in the federal system and used in recent years to house convicted terrorists. Inmates there are typically held in solitary confinement for 23 hours a day.

Mr. Hanssen joined the F.B.I. in 1976 as a special agent and went on to hold several counterintelligence positions that gave him access to classified information. He began spying for the Soviet Union three years after joining the bureau, when he was assigned to a counterintelligence unit in New York, by walking into the New York offices of Amtorg, a Soviet trade organization that was known to be a front for the Soviet military intelligence agency.

He stopped spying for several years starting in 1980, after his wife, Bonnie, walked in on him in the basement of their home in Westchester County, N.Y., and he quickly tried to cover up his papers. He confessed to her and to a priest affiliated with Opus Dei, the conservative Catholic organization to which the couple belonged.

In 1985, he began spying again, providing information to the K.G.B. This time he did a better job of covering his tracks, using encrypted communications and other secret methods; even the Russians never knew who he was. Identifying himself only by code names like B and Ramon Garcia, Mr. Hanssen turned over sensitive information said to include specific satellite intelligence collection capabilities.

He stopped spying again after the Soviet Union collapsed, then resumed again in 1999. His betrayal went undetected for years as he collected at least $600,000 in cash and diamonds from the K.G.B. and its post-Soviet successor, S.V.R., which told him that they had set aside another $800,000 for him in a Moscow bank, according to prosecutors.

In the 1990s, after the arrest of Aldrich Ames, a C.I.A. agent who had also spied for the Russians, the F.B.I. and the C.I.A. realized that someone else was still providing Russia with classified information, and they began “Graysuit,” a hunt for the unknown double agent. But it was not until 2000 that investigators were able to narrow the search, when the F.B.I. paid $7 million to a former Russian intelligence officer for a file on the anonymous mole who called himself B — a file that included an audio recording with a voice that two F.B.I. analysts who knew Mr. Hanssen eventually recognized.

Using fingerprints, the F.B.I. confirmed that the mole was Mr. Hanssen and surveilled him for months, even promoting him to keep better track of him. In February 2001, agents arrested him in Foxstone Park in the Washington suburb of Vienna, Va., a few blocks from his home, after he had left classified documents in a garbage bag at a “dead drop” for his Russian handlers under a wooden footbridge.

Mr. Hanssen seemed unsurprised at finally being caught. “What took you so long?” he reportedly asked when arrested.

Robert Philip Hanssen was born on April 18, 1944, in Chicago to Vivian and Howard Hanssen, a career Chicago police officer who did intelligence work for the department. An only child who was seen as nerdy and never fit in, Robert had a difficult relationship with his father, who emotionally abused him. He grew up obsessed with James Bond, collecting spy gadgets and even opening a Swiss bank account.

Mr. Hanssen received a bachelor’s degree in chemistry in 1966 from Knox College in Illinois, where he also studied Russian, but after graduation he was rejected by the National Security Agency when he applied for a position in cryptography. He enrolled in dentistry school at Northwestern University, but later transferred to the business school, where he received a master’s degree in business administration.

While in dentistry school, he met and married Bonnie Wauck and converted from Lutheran to join her Roman Catholic faith. After a year working at an accounting firm, he took a position with the Chicago Police Department specializing in forensic accounting. Four years later he moved to the F.B.I.

Bright but brittle, Mr. Hanssen was said to have burned with resentment that he did not receive the respect and assignments he felt he deserved. With six children in parochial schools or college, he attributed his decision to spy for Moscow to money, although his reasons were never fully understood.

“Many of the factors that have motivated or influenced traitors in the past — such as greed, ideology, career disappointments and resentment, and drug and alcohol abuse — do not apply to Hanssen or do not fully explain his conduct,” a Justice Department inspector general’s report on the case said in 2003.

Mr. Hanssen led a double life in more ways than one. An active member of the Roman Catholic lay organization Opus Dei, he presented himself as a religious and committed anti-communist conservative. But according to reports, he also visited strip clubs, allowed a friend to clandestinely watch him having sex with his wife and engaged in what was said to be a secret but nonsexual relationship with an exotic dancer whom he plied with gifts and took on an F.B.I. trip to Hong Kong.

Mr. Hanssen’s ability to avoid detection was a signal failure of the American intelligence apparatus. His own brother-in-law, who also worked for the F.B.I., reported suspicions about Mr. Hanssen to the bureau a decade before his arrest, but the supervisor he told had dismissed his concerns.

Mr. Hanssen was the subject of multiple books and films, including a television movie in 2002 in which he was played by William Hurt and a full-screen movie called “Breach” in 2007, in which he was played by Chris Cooper.

“Hanssen was a thicket of paradoxes, a suburban dad and outwardly devoted family man who professed to be deeply religious while at the same time betraying family, faith and country, all and everyone who ever mattered to him,” Ann Blackman, a co-author of “The Spy Next Door,” said on Monday. “For 21 years, through the terms of four presidents and three F.B.I. directors, he fooled them all.”

Jesus Jiménez contributed reporting from New York.

Peter Baker is the chief White House correspondent and has covered the last five presidents for The Times and The Washington Post. He is the author of seven books, most recently “The Divider: Trump in the White House, 2017-2021,” with Susan Glasser. More about Peter Baker

Luxury yachts and other myths: How Republican lawmakers echo Russian propaganda

Two senior Republican lawmakers, the chairs of the House Intelligence and Foreign Affairs committees, say their colleagues are echoing Russian state propaganda against Ukraine.

Researchers who study disinformation say Reps. Mike Turner, R-Ohio, and Michael McCaul, R-Texas, are merely acknowledging what has been clear for some time: Russian propaganda aimed at undermining U.S. and European support for Ukraine has steadily seeped into America’s political conversation over the past decade, taking on a life of its own.

McCaul, chair of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, told Puck News he thinks “Russian propaganda has made its way into the United States, unfortunately, and it’s infected a good chunk of my party’s base.”

Turner, chair of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, told CNN that anti-Ukraine messages from Russia are “being uttered on the House floor.”

For the past decade, since Russia’s first military incursion into Ukraine in 2014, Moscow has spread propaganda and disinformation in a bid to undercut U.S. and European military support for Ukraine, according to U.S. and Western officials.

Some of the arguments, distortions and falsehoods spread by Russia have taken root, mostly among right-wing pro-Trump outlets and Republican politicians, researchers say, including that Ukraine’s government is too corrupt to benefit from Western aid and that the Biden family has alleged corrupt ties to Ukraine.

Russia, in keeping with traditional propaganda techniques, seeks to make its case and tarnish Ukraine through a mixture of outright falsehoods, half-truths, inferences or simply amplifying and promoting arguments already being made by American or European commentators and politicians, researchers say.

The propaganda is sometimes spread covertly, through fake online accounts, or openly by Russian officials and state media. As a result, the origin of some allegations or criticisms is often opaque, especially when a certain accusation or perception has gained wide acceptance, leaving no clear fingerprints.

Early in the war, a false story boosted by Russian propaganda — that the U.S. had helped Ukraine build biological weapons labs — gained traction on right-wing social media and was touted by then-Fox News host Tucker Carlson.

Russia also is conducting a parallel propaganda campaign in Europe. Belgium’s prime minister said Thursday that his government is investigating alleged Russian bribes to members of the European Parliament as part of Moscow’s campaign to undermine support for Ukraine. Czech law enforcement officials last month alleged that a former pro-Russian member of Ukraine’s parliament, Viktor Medvedchuk, was behind a Prague-based Russian propaganda network designed to promote opposition to aiding Ukraine.

Here are some examples of Republican lawmakers using arguments often promoted by Russian propaganda:

Buying yachts

When Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy met with members of Congress behind closed doors in December to appeal for more U.S. help for his country’s troops, some lawmakers raised questions about Ukraine allegedly buying yachts with American aid money.

Zelenskyy made clear that was not the case, according to Republican Sen. Thom Tillis of North Carolina, a strong supporter of arming Ukraine. “I think the notion of corruption came up because some have said we can’t do it, because people will buy yachts with the money,” Tillis told CNN. “[Zelenskyy] disabused people of those notions.”

Where did the yacht rumor come from?

Pro-Russian actors and websites promoted a narrative alleging Zelenskyy bought two superyachts with U.S. aid dollars. One Russia-based propaganda site, DC Weekly , published a story last November that included photos of two luxury yachts, called Lucky Me and My Legacy , which it alleged were bought for $75 million.

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., a vocal opponent of military aid to Ukraine, in November retweeted a post about the alleged yacht purchase from the Strategic Culture Foundation, a Russian-based propaganda outlet directed by Russia’s intelligence services, according to the Treasury Department. The U.S. has imposed sanctions on the organization, accusing it of spreading disinformation and interfering in U.S. elections.

Another outspoken critic of aid to Ukraine, Republican Sen. J.D. Vance of Ohio, also made a similar claim.

In a December interview with former President Donald Trump’s White House adviser Steve Bannon, Vance claimed that members of Congress wanted to cut Social Security benefits to provide more aid to Ukraine, and that money would allegedly be used for Zelenskyy’s ministers to “buy a bigger yacht.”

“There are people who would cut Social Security, throw our grandparents into poverty. Why? So that one of Zelenskyy’s ministers can buy a bigger yacht?” Vance said. “Kiss my ass, Steve. It’s not happening.”

The tale of Zelenskyy’s luxury yacht, however, turned out to be totally false . The yachts cited in the DC Weekly article remain up for sale , the owners told The Associated Press.

Two academics at Clemson University, disinformation researchers Darren Linvill and Patrick Warren, found that DC Weekly ran numerous stories copied from other sites that were rewritten by artificial intelligence engines. The articles had bylines with fake names along with headshots copied from other online sites. DC Weekly appeared to be a Russian effort to launder false information through a seemingly legitimate news site as part of an attempt to undermine U.S. support for Ukraine, according to the researchers .

Asked by reporters about Vance’s comments, Tillis said: “I think it’s bullshit. ...If you’re talking about giving money to Ukrainian ministers — total and unmitigated bullshit.”

Greene’s office did not respond to a request for comment.

Vance’s spokesperson said the senator was making a rhetorical point about how he opposed sending U.S. assistance to what he sees as a corrupt country, but was not asserting the yacht stories online were accurate.

Vance’s office referred NBC News to an earlier response to the BBC on the same topic:

“For years, everyone in the West recognized that Ukraine was one of the most corrupt countries in the world. Somehow everyone forgot that just as we started sending them billions of dollars in foreign aid.”

Enabling ‘corruption’

Russian state media for years has painted Ukraine as deeply corrupt, and has argued that the U.S. and its allies are wasting money and military hardware by assisting such an allegedly corrupt government.

“This is absolutely a line that they have pushed, and then once it appears in the Western ecosystem, other [Russian] media picks it up and it gets recycled back,” said Bret Schafer, a senior fellow at the Alliance for Securing Democracy.

This line of argument has gained traction partly because Ukraine does face a genuine corruption problem.

Russia’s effort to focus attention on corruption in Ukraine reflects a long-established propaganda method of using facts or partial truths to anchor a broader assertion or accusation, sometimes making a leap in logic, Schafer and other researchers said. Russia’s message amounts to: Ukraine is corrupt, therefore U.S. and Western aid will be stolen and wasted.

Schafer said it was ironic for Russia, a country mired in corruption and kleptocracy, to be leveling accusations about corruption.

Republican Rep. Mary Miller has said she strongly opposes more assistance for Ukraine because it amounts to sending cash to “corrupt oligarchs.”

“With Zelensky coming to DC this week to ask for more money, I will continue to vote AGAINST sending your tax $$ to corrupt oligarchs in Ukraine for a proxy war that could have ended in ‘22,” Miller wrote in a post on X in December.

The Illinois lawmaker also echoed another assertion that often appears in Russian media, that the Biden administration allegedly undermined efforts by Russia to avoid war with Ukraine.

 “A peace deal was on the table that [Ukraine] and [Russia] were both ready to sign, but Biden said NO,” she wrote.

There was in fact no proposed peace agreement that Russia and Ukraine were prepared to sign before Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, according to U.S. and European officials. As Russian troops massed on the border of Ukraine, Western governments urged Russia not to invade and warned there would be economic and diplomatic consequences.

Reuters has reported that Russian President Vladimir Putin rejected a possible deal to avert a war that had been discussed with Kyiv by Russia’s envoy to Ukraine. The Kremlin said the report was inaccurate and has said Russia tried for years to arrive at an understanding with Ukraine.

As for corruption in Ukraine, Zelenskyy has vowed to tackle the problem, sacking senior officials in some recent cases. But some civil society groups have criticized his approach and Ukrainians say corruption is the country’s second-most serious problem, after the Russian invasion, according to a poll conducted last year.

In an annual survey, Transparency International said Ukraine made progress toward addressing the issue and now ranks 104th out of 180 countries on its Corruption Perceptions Index , climbing 12 places up from its previous ranking.

Ukraine is not alone among countries that receive U.S. and other foreign aid but struggle with corruption. Supporters of assisting Ukraine argue it would undermine America’s influence in the world and its humanitarian efforts if Washington withheld foreign aid from every country where there were reports of corruption.

Miller’s office did not respond to a request for comment.

The Biden family and Ukraine

Republicans have repeatedly alleged that President Joe Biden and his son Hunter have corrupt ties to Ukraine, and that they sought $5 million in bribes from the Ukrainian energy company Burisma to protect the firm from an investigation by Ukraine’s prosecutor general.

There is no credible evidence for the allegations. A key source for the accusations against the Bidens is a former FBI informant, Alexander Smirnov, who was arrested in February on federal charges of fabricating the bribery claims. Smirnov says he was fed information by Russian intelligence.

Republicans had heavily promoted Smirnov’s allegations against the Bidens, seeing them as crucial to a planned impeachment effort against the president that has since fizzled .

“In my estimation, that is probably the clearest example of Russian propaganda working its way into the American political system,” said Emerson Brooking, a resident senior fellow at the Digital Forensic Research Lab of the Atlantic Council.

GOP Rep. Paul Gosar of Arizona cited the false bribery allegations in expressing his opposition to providing assistance to Ukraine.

“In exchange for … bribe money from Ukraine, Joe Biden has dished out over $100 billion in taxpayer money to fund the war in Ukraine. I will not assist this corruption by sending more money to the authoritarian Ukrainian regime,” Gosar said in a statement in October.

Gosar’s office did not respond to a request for comment.

Dan De Luce is a reporter for the NBC News Investigative Unit. 

Syedah Asghar is a Capitol Hill researcher for NBC News and is based in Washington, D.C.