https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20180509/07502539808/att-stumbles-as-it-tries-to-explain-why-it-paid-200k-to-cohens-shady-shell-company.shtml

Stormy Daniels lawyer Michael Avenatti yesterday dropped a bit of a bombshell on DC in the form of this document (pdf), which alleges that Trump lawyer and "fixer" Michael Cohen was engaged in far deeper, shadier financial shenanigans than had so far been reported. Numerous allegations are made in the document, including claims that Cohen may have violated banking laws in setting up and funneling money through a front company by the name of Essential Consultants, including payments made by Columbus Nova, a U.S.-based affiliate of a company controlled by a Russian millionaire, Victor Vekselberg.

But buried within the document also sits allegations that numerous companies were also paying into Cohen's shell company, which had no employees and claimed to have been focused on real estate ventures. Korean Aerospace Industries, Novartis, and AT&T all managed to pay Cohen for ambiguous services, and all have been providing some comically murky explanations as to why they'd be dumping money into a shell company operated by the President's arguably-shady fixer: