Pascual worked forUSAID from 1983 to 1995 in Sudan, South Africa and Mozambique, and as Deputy Assistant Administrator for Europe and Eurasia. From July 1998 to January 2000, Pascual served as Special Assistant to the President and NSC Senior Director forRussia,Ukraine and Eurasia, and from 1995 to 1998 as Director for the same region, from October 2000 until May 2003, as theU.S. Ambassador to Ukraine.[8][9] When theMelnychenkorecordings ofLeonid Kuchma became known, Pascual revealed that the tapes are genuine, undistorted, unaltered, and not manipulated because of the conclusion fromFBIElectronic Research Facility's analysis of the original recording device and the original recording found that there are not unusual sounds which would indicate a tampering of the recording, the recording is continuous with no breaks, and there is no manipulation of the digital files.[10][11] These recordings, known asKuchmagate, confirmed Kuchma's involvement in the assassination by decapitation ofGeorgiy Gongadze and Kuchma's unwavering support forVladimir Putin during theCali cocaine cartel money laundering through the Putin-owned German firm St. Petersburg Real Estate Holding Company (German:St. Peterburg Immobilien und Beteiligungs AG) (SPAG).[12][13][14][15][a][b] His support for the recordings' authenticity directly led to theOrange Revolution of 2004 in Ukraine.
He was then named Assistance Coordinator for Europe and Eurasia.[31] In 2004, he was named Coordinator for Reconstruction and Stabilization at theUS Department of State.[32]
In 2015, Pascual worked as vice president and Director of the Foreign Policy Studies Program at theBrookings Institution[33] where he presided over the creation of the Brookings Doha Center and the Brookings-Tsinghua Center.
Selected by PresidentBarack Obama as ambassador to Mexico, he was confirmed by theUnited States Senate on August 7, 2009.[9] He presented his credentials to the Mexican government on August 9, 2009[9] and personally toPresidentFelipe Calderón on October 21, 2009.[34] Pascual submitted his resignation as Ambassador to Mexico on March 19, 2011 in part due to tensions with Calderón.[35] Tensions with President Calderón arose as a result of theWikiLeaks release of diplomatic cables in which Pascual criticized the Mexican military's ability or willingness to fight the Mexican drug cartels. Pascual is considered to be the first casualty of the Wikileaks affair.[36][37][38]
Pascual was appointed the State Department's Special Envoy and Coordinator for International Energy Affairs in May 2011, succeedingDavid L. Goldwyn.[39][40] He led theBureau of Energy Resources.[41] Pascual was also the senior advisor to the Secretary of State on globalenergy diplomacy.[7] In February 2012, April 2013 and January 2014 Pascual was nominated asAssistant Secretary of State for Energy Resources, but not confirmed by theSenate.[42] In August 2014 Pascual was succeeded byAmos Hochstein.[43] After leaving the State Department Pascual became senior vice president of global energy atIHS Markit and then senior vice president for geopolitics and international relations at S&P Global Commodities Insights.[44][45][5]
^Markus Rese was CEO of Frankfurt based SPAG which was linked toVladimir Putin,Herman Gref and Russian criminal groups who had transferred money to SPAG through a Romanian bank.[16][17] Russian co-owner of the SPAG's joint venture was the government of Saint-Petersburg with 882,500 shares or 27.58% stake and Vladimir Putin, then the municipal official, who was a member of the board from 1992 to 2000 with 200 shares held as a controlling or blocking stake throughVladimir Smirnov since 17 December 1994. The second largest stake in SPAG was 742,176 shares or a 23.19% stake which was held by theUnterschleißheim basedBaader Wertpapierhandelsbank. Baader Wertpapierhandelsbank sold a stake in KST investments toKurt Ochner (born 1953) who was one of the largest fund managers in the FrankfurtNeuer Markt, which gained substantial investments through an alleged speculation bubble from its establishment on 10 March 1997 until its peak on 10 March 2001 during thedot-com bubble and then collapsed until it closed on 5 June 2003, through the 1990 established Luxembourg basedJulius Baer investment fund, which is associated withBank Julius Bär a Zurich based private bank known for its wealth management. During the late 1990s, Marian von Korff (born 17 May 1966Pfaffenhofen,Upper Bavaria), who is close to Ochner, was an advisor to the Luxembourg based fund VMR Strategie Quadrat and the owner of the 1994 established Fair Invest GmbH and other firms which had IPOs with the Neuer Markt and gave Korff very large returns on his investments including some with the brothers Florian andThomas Haffa such as EM-Entertainment Munich, Merchandising, Film und Fernsehen GmbH (EM.TV) of theKirch Group.[12][18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25]
^Березовский, Борис (24 June 2003)."Новый передел. Что делать?" [New redistribution. What to do?].Коммерсантъ (in Russian). No. 129 (2732). Archived fromthe original on 16 June 2011. Retrieved16 January 2020.
^Пономарев, Игорь (15 December 2006)."Риск - часть нашей профессии" [Risk is part of our profession].Национальный Банковский Журнал (nbj.ru) (in Russian). Archived fromthe original on 30 March 2022. Retrieved29 March 2022.
^"Иван Гучков" [Ivan Guchkov].Национальный Банковский Журнал (nbj.ru) (in Russian). 29 March 2022. Archived fromthe original on 30 March 2022. Retrieved29 March 2022.
