The Mother Jones article detailed that in 2017 the first payment was made through the shell firm Biniatta Trade LP at a value of US$150,000 (€131,457) on 24 March 2017, followed by a second payment of US$25,000 (€21,910) and a third and final payment of US$500,000 (€438,189). Among the high payments revealed, the former Albanian Democratic Party leader Lulzim Basha admitted only that he made the second payment of US$25,000. In his Foreign Agents Registration Act declaration, US Lobbyist Nick Muzin stated that he received a US$25,000 agreement with the Albanian political party signed by Basha, but eight months later he amended the declaration to state that he had received US$675,000 (€591,555), not US$25,000 for his work on behalf of Basha’s political party. At that time Basha met several Republican congressmen and managed to have a photo with then president Donald Trump. In the investigative article, Mother Jones alleged that the origin of the money paid by Biniatta Trade in the name of Basha was Russia. It was revealed that Biniatta Trade was controlled by two companies registered in Belize which in turn were controlled by Russian citizens. There was no person physically working at the Biniatta Trade address in Edinburgh, which was also the address of other shell companies.

The first investigation by the Albania prosecution office started on 9 March 2018 and on 23 August 2019 the Ministry of Justice of Albania sent an official request to US authorities in relation to the interrogation of the Muzin. In November of that year, the case against Basha and two other party officials – Arben Ristani and Ilir Dervishi – was sent to the First Instance Tirana Court (Criminal Branch) on charges of laundering of proceeds of crime and falsification of seals, stamps or forms. On 27 January 2020 during the preliminary hearing, the judge of the First Instance Court Lazër Sallaku dismissed the criminal proceedings against the accused. On 14 May 2020, the First Instance Court decision was upheld by the Appeal Court of Tirana, resulting in the dismissal of the criminal case on the falsification of documents against Basha, Ristani and Dervishi. This case garnered a lot of public attention and controversy in Albania, with accusations that the prosecutors altered the testimony of Muzin. The appeal prosecutor Nezir Gjoka, who resigned for health reasons, did not appeal the case in the High Court, thus failing to exhaust all levels of the judiciary.