We’ve known since last fall that U.S. citizens linked to Russian oligarch Viktor Vekselberg gave millions to Republican political committees supporting Donald Trump.
Now, a new document shedding light on Michael Cohen’s financial dealings offers evidence that a U.S. firm directly tied to Vekselberg continued to shell out some $500,000 in payments to Michael Cohen, Trump’s personal fixer, after Trump had entered the White House.
Much of the core information in the new document, which was compiled by Michael Avenatti, Stormy Daniels’ lawyer, and released Tuesday, has since been confirmed by major news organizations including the New York Times.
Vekselberg, who is one of Russia’s wealthiest men and is said to be close to Vladimir Putin, is on the U.S. sanctions list. He was interviewed by prosecutors with Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s office at a New York-area airport this spring
According to the new document, over the first eight months of 2017, Columbus Nova, a New York investment firm, funneled $500,000 to Essential Consultants LLC, a shell company that Cohen also used to pay hush money to Daniels. Columbus Nova has been described as the U.S. affiliate of The Renova Group, which is chaired by Vekselberg.
A lawyer for Columbus Nova called reports that Vekselberg used the firm as a “conduit for payments” to Cohen “patently untrue.”
But people with close ties to Vekselberg have funded Trump before. Leonard Blavatnik, a Ukrainian-born U.S. citizen, billionaire, and longtime business partner of Vekselberg, gave $383,000 to the RNC and $1 million to Trump’s inauguration fund, ABC reported in September. And Vekselberg’s cousin, Columbus Nova CEO Andrew Intrater, gave $35,000 to the Trump Victory fund and another $250,000 to Trump’s inauguration fund, per the report. Vekselberg reportedly attended the inauguration.
Mueller’s investigators asked Vekselberg about his cousin’s 2016 donations and the Columbus Nova payments during their airport sit-down, as CNN reported Tuesday. Intrater has reportedly also been interviewed by the special counsel’s team, according to CNN.
A third U.S. businessman linked to Vekselberg, Russian-born oil executive Simon Kukes, gave $280,000 to Trump’s campaign and various GOP political committees after Trump became the GOP nominee, ABC News reported. Kukes worked for both Vekselberg and Blavatnik at oil giant TNK, as Open Secrets documented.
Vekselberg also was present at the infamous 2015 dinner hosted by Russian state news network RT, and attended by both Michael Flynn and his son, Michael Flynn Jr. And a company Vekselberg controlled became the biggest Bank of Cyprus shareholder in 2014, after Wilbur Ross, a Trump ally who is now Commerce Secretary, assumed a controlling interest in the financial institution.
Vekselberg’s name cropped up again in a January 2018 Washington Post story documenting all of the high-powered Russians who flew to Washington, D.C. to attend Trump’s inaugural festivities.
At some point in the following few months, according to the New York Times, federal agents stopped Vekselberg at a New York City airport after his private jet landed, searched his electronic devices, and questioned him.
Then, in early April, the Trump administration announced that it was imposing sanctions on a host of Russian individuals and entities to punish Putin’s government for “malign activity” around the world. Vekselberg was among the seven Russian oligarchs and 17 Russian government officials barred them from traveling to America or doing business with American companies.
"…a January 2018 Washington Post story documenting all of the high-powered Russians who flew to Washington, D.C. to attend Trump’s inaugural festivities."
Well, with the millions of people at the inauguration, of course there would be a few folks from Russia in attendance. Plus, Obama was so ill-mannered that he didn’t invite any Russians at all.
Please , somebody explain why this activity would stop?The traitorous GOP nor the president have lifted a finger to adequetely address the obvious torrent of influence money pouring in to the system. We can only hope Muellar is able to pursue his findings to conclusion.Cohen and everyone associated with these crimes must be exposed completely and face the legal consequences.
Columbus Nova wasn’t just an “affiliate” Renova – it was described on the website (in the bio information of one of the partners) as “the US investment vehicle for the Renova Group”
and then there’s this, from Forbes
Will this eventually lead to another hearing about the danger of corporate money influencing elections? A Citizens United revisit?
I indicated this when Rudy made his comments about over 400k being ‘funneled’ through Cohen. Because Rudy was unable to acknowledge or document more than the 130k to Stormy Daniels, it indicated that money for other, unknown purposes was being sent through Cohen. It also raised questions about whether Essential Consultants was one of probably several conduits for money laundering or slush fund activity, which would be in violation of federal banking laws. Avenatti hit on this immediately in his memo. There are also tax evasion laws in question here. In essence, the easiest and most likely way to get Cohen is to indict him on similar charges to those of Manafort and Gates.
Where Cohen and Trump took risks is in using the same process for laundering Russian money as they did for the Daniels payment. That’s why an investigation into the Stormy Daniels matter has turned this up.
All that said, Mueller has known about the payments from large corporations to Cohen for several months. He has identified activity relating to Cohen that is within his mandate. That suggests to me that he has known about the Stormy Daniels payment for months as well. If he followed the money that led him to Essential Consultants, he would’ve known about all other major payments and deposits.
That Avenatti has found a separate and independent path to break open the Trump-Cohen gravy train of money helps Mueller sell his case to the American public when he reveals it.
The decision to refer the Cohen matter to SDNY is a bit of a mystery, because if Mueller interviewed AT&T and Novartis, he already concluded that Cohen’s various money ‘funneling’ schemes are tied to Russia. The best answer I can come up with is that it was a tactical and political decision by Rosenstein and Mueller to get another investigative source involved to weaken Trump’s attempts to influence the investigations. In addition, it avoids the types of suits that Manafort has thrown up there challenging the OSC mandate. That said, it’s quite possible that the OSC and SDNY indict Cohen on separate charges in different jurisdictions. I suppose Cohen could be indicted in DC as well as NY at this point.