Exclusive: Mueller's team questions Russian oligarch about payments to Cohen
(CNN)Special counsel Robert Mueller's investigators have questioned a Russian oligarch about hundreds of thousands of dollars in payments his company's US affiliate made to President Donald Trump's personal attorney, Michael Cohen, after the election, according to a source familiar with the matter.
Viktor Vekselberg, chairman of asset manager Renova Group, is an oligarch close to Vladimir Putin, and last month the Trump administration placed him on a list of sanctioned Russians for activities including election interference. The purpose of the payments, which predate the sanctions, and the nature of the business relationship between Vekselberg and Cohen is unclear. The scrutiny of the payments could add to the legal troubles for Cohen, whose home and office were raided last month as part of a criminal investigation by federal prosecutors in Manhattan. In court documents, the prosecutors said at least part of their inquiry stemmed from a referral from Mueller's office.
The questions asked of Vekselberg suggest that Mueller investigators have been examining some of Cohen's business relationships as part of the investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election. Vekselberg is one of two Russian oligarchs the FBI stopped earlier this year after their private jets landed in New York-area airports as part of Mueller's investigation.
Investigators also asked Vekselberg about donations the head of his US affiliate made to Trump's inaugural fund and campaign funds, sources said.
The attorney for Stormy Daniels -- the porn star who received $130,000 to keep quiet about an alleged affair she had with Trump a decade ago -- produced information Tuesday evening that appears to add further details to CNN's reporting. Michael Avenatti alleged that Cohen received half a million dollars from a company affiliated with Vekselberg in the months after the presidential election.
Avenatti alleged the $500,000 went into the bank account for Essential Consultants, a shell company that Cohen set up before the election that was used to pay Daniels. Avenatti added that the payments occurred from January to August 2017.
FBI agents asked Vekselberg about payments his company's American affiliate, Columbus Nova, made to Cohen, according to one source. The Russian was questioned as well about $300,000 in political donations by Andrew Intrater, Vekselberg's American cousin who is the head of Columbus Nova, sources said. Intrater was also questioned by Mueller's investigators, two sources told CNN. Last month, Vekselberg was placed on the US government's list of sanctioned individuals, prohibiting him from traveling to the US.
The payments occurred at the same time Cohen was trying to build a consulting and legal business after the election and around the time he left the Trump Organization. At that time, he was still Trump's personal lawyer. Even last month, as Trump responded to questions about the payment to Daniels, the President deferred to Cohen and said, "Michael is my attorney." In court filings, Cohen's attorney said that Cohen has seven clients for whom he provides "strategic advice and business consulting." The attorney did not specify whether Columbus Nova was one of those clients.
Columbus Nova and Intrater did not respond to requests for comment. An attorney for Vekselberg did not respond to a request for comment, nor did representatives for his company in Russia. Cohen did not respond to a request for comment. Prosecutors with the US attorney's office in Manhattan are investigating Cohen's personal financial dealings, including his taxi business and payments made to silence Daniels, sources have told CNN. The FBI raided Cohen's home, office and hotel room last month, seizing at least eight boxes of documents and more than a dozen electronic devices. Cohen's attorney said the inquiry was referred by Mueller's team.
Vekselberg's cousin Intrater gave generously to support Trump. He donated $250,000 to the Trump inauguration fund, $35,000 to the Trump Victory Fund, and $29,600 to the Republican National Committee in June 2017, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.
While it is illegal for foreigners to donate to US politics, Intrater is American.
However, the donations were a sharp increase from previous cycles and may raise questions for investigators. Intrater's only previous political donations included $1,200 to Democrat Bill Richardson's presidential run in 2008 and $2,600 in 2014 for Republican Chris Day's congressional race in New York. Renova Group donated between $50,000 and $100,000 to the Clinton Foundation, but it's not clear when the contribution occurred, according to the foundation's public list of donors. Vekselberg may also be of interest to investigators because of his close ties to the Kremlin. He built his fortune following the collapse of the Soviet Union through a series of deals in the oil and gas sector. In 2004, he paid over $100 million to buy nine Faberge eggs from the American Forbes family, returning the second-largest collection of imperial eggs to Russia. Six years later, he was appointed by then-Russian president Dmitry Medvedev to lead the Skolkovo Innovation Center project, the Kremlin's answer to Silicon Valley. From 2007 until March 2012, Vekselberg was a shareholder and chairman of the board of Rusal, the aluminum company controlled by Oleg Deripaska. Deripaska has business ties to former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort, who has been indicted on fraud and tax related charges as part of Mueller's investigation. Manafort has pleaded not guilty. Deripaska, who also was added to the US sanctions list last month, has sued Manafort over a soured investment deal.
Lamesa Investments Ltd, an affiliate of Renova, acquired a large stake in the Bank of Cyprus at the same time Wilbur Ross, then a private equity investor, made a capital infusion into the then-struggling bank. Lamesa now holds a 9.2% stake in the Bank of Cyprus. Ross resigned from his position as vice chairman of the bank after he was confirmed as Trump's commerce secretary.
Vekselberg also attended the December 2015 dinner in Moscow for RT, the state-controlled television channel, where Michael Flynn, Trump's former national security adviser, sat beside Putin, according to NBC News. Flynn has pleaded guilty to lying about a call he had with the Russian ambassador during the presidential transition and is cooperating with the Mueller investigation.
Vekselberg attended Trump's inauguration ceremony as a guest of "one of his closest American business partners," Renova spokesman Andrey Shtorkh told The Washington Post. The New York Times reported that Intrater gave Vekselberg the ticket.
Definitely wise to take a wait and see approach what this lawyer produces, though he's been pretty thorough so far.
But either way...
A) These people are so dumb it's staggering. How are they this dumb?
The stupidity is far more egregious than the money laundering.
B) The new funniest part of this saga is that Trump couldn't even come up with $130,000 to pay his lawyer back for the NDA hush agreement with his prostitute (that went public because he forgot to sign it).
Just normal things that happen to rich business geniuses.
500k? man, this russian adoption situation has spiraled out of control!!
“To announce that there must be no criticism of the President, or that we are to stand by the President, right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public.”
“To announce that there must be no criticism of the President, or that we are to stand by the President, right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public.”
WASHINGTON (AP) — Stormy Daniels' lawyer said Tuesday he has information showing that Michael Cohen, President Donald Trump's longtime personal attorney, received $500,000 from a company associated with a Russian billionaire within months of paying hush money to Daniels, a porn star who claims she had an affair with Trump.
Lawyer Michael Avenatti also said hundreds of thousands of dollars streamed into Cohen's account from companies including Novartis, AT&T and Korea Aerospace. AT&T confirmed its connection Tuesday evening.
Related Searches Trump Lawyer Michael Cohen WifeTrump Paid CohenMichael Cohen AttorneyTrump Repaid CohenCohen Trump Lawyer Avenatti did not provide documents to support the claims and did not reveal the source of his information.
But in a seven-page memo he detailed what he said were wire transfers going into and out of the account Cohen used to pay Daniels $130,000 in October 2016 to stay silent about her alleged affair with the soon-to-be president. Trump denies having an affair with Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford.
The memo, containing highly specific dates and amounts, stated that Viktor Vekselberg, a Russian billionaire, and his cousin "routed" eight payments totaling approximately $500,000 to Cohen's company, Essential Consultants, between January and August 2017. The reason for the payment was not known.
Speculating without offering proof, the Avenatti memo said, "It appears these funds may have replenished the account following the payment to Ms. Clifford."
Avenatti's memo said the deposits into the account controlled by Cohen were made by Columbus Nova, an American investment company affiliated with the Renova Group, which is controlled by Russian billionaire Victor Vekselberg.
Columbus Nova's attorney Richard Owens said in a statement that, after Trump's inauguration, the firm hired Cohen as a business consultant "regarding potential sources of capital and potential investments in real estate and other ventures," but that it had nothing to do with Vekselberg.
Owens said any suggestion that Vekselberg used Columbus Nova as a conduit for payments to Cohen are false.
"Neither Viktor Vekselberg nor anyone else, other than Columbus Nova's owners, were involved in the decision to hire Cohen or provided funding for his engagement," he said.
Cohen and his attorney did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
At the time of the payments, there was an active FBI counterintelligence investigation — which special counsel Robert Mueller took over last May — into Russian election interference and any possible coordination with Trump associates.
Vekselberg was targeted for U.S. sanctions by the Trump administration last month. He built his fortune, currently estimated by Forbes at $14.6 billion, by investing in the aluminum and oil industries. More recently, he has expanded his assets to include industrial equipment and high technology.
Offering confirmation for at least one of the payments, AT&T said in a statement that Essential Consultants was one of several firms it "engaged in early 2017 to provide insights into understanding the new administration."
"They did no legal or lobbying work for us, and the contract ended in December 2017," the company said.
Such a confidential relationship would not violate federal lobbying laws if Cohen did not seek to influence Trump on the companies' behalf. But hiring the president's personal attorney for advice on how to woo Trump would be highly unusual, especially given that Cohen was never formally involved in the campaign or Trump's administration.
Making the arrangement even stranger, the blue-chip companies' payments to Cohen were routed to Essential Consultants LLC — the same company Cohen used to buy Stormy Daniels' silence about her alleged affair with the President.
Novartis and Korea Aerospace did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
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and whats crazy is that so far, this guy has been spot on about everything. i mean damn, there's zero reason to distrust this guy until proven otherwise.
a porn star and her lawyer are out here finessing the hell out of the POTUS and his minions.
“To announce that there must be no criticism of the President, or that we are to stand by the President, right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public.”
Just normal things that happen to rich business geniuses
Especially the 'stable' ones.
Once about every 1-2 months he melts down because the media depicts him as he is, and it causes him to go on these angry 2 or 3 minute rants about how he's really smart, and they're the funniest things, because he's completely oblivious to the fact that it's obviously not working.
and whats crazy is that so far, this guy has been spot on about everything. i mean damn, there's zero reason to distrust this guy until proven otherwise.
a porn star and her lawyer are out here finessing the hell out of the POTUS and his minions.
I'm having a really hard time figuring out how MA's batting avg could be this high. Dude's tapped in, somehow. Crazy accurate, so far.
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My Pops made me become 'news aware' when I reached the age of 13 ("He's not a boy any more,'Nita. I got this now-").
It started on Sundays. New rules: You can't read the Sunday Comix until you've read Page One and Page Two.
He'd quiz me every Sat morn/aft on our piano & organ delivery runs. Current events, political issues... those truck rides on Three Aces Moving® runs were brutal. 3 years later, 10th grade: Watergate scandal. My first experience with blockbuster investigative journalism. Plumber's Squad. Woodward/Bernstein. Watergate tapes. Rocked DC to its foundation. I was young, so I found it a bit hard to process. I was fascinated- and also appalled. Thanks, Pops.
That's the only other time in my life that I've witnessed corruption like this... ...and even THOSE criminals didn't consort with Russians.
Russians. Every time I let that sink in, it kills a little more of me.
I'm now old, and I find this a bit hard to process. Thanks, Pops.
Mueller and his team never speak to the Press,, so my question is, how the hell can the press be sure they talked to this guy or that guy? I guess they can interview those that have been interviewed by Mueller and/or his team.
But how do they find out who Mueller is about to speak with?
Let me know when they can Prove that Cohen got the money from an Oligarch.
#GMSTRONG
“Everyone is entitled to his own opinion, but not to his own facts.” Daniel Patrick Moynahan
"Alternative facts hurt us all. Think before you blindly believe." Damanshot
“To announce that there must be no criticism of the President, or that we are to stand by the President, right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public.”
Cohen’s $600,000 deal with AT&T specified he would advise on Time Warner merger, internal company records show
By Rosalind S. Helderman, Brian Fung and Tom Hamburger May 10 at 6:41 PM
Three days after President Trump was sworn into office, the telecom giant AT&T turned to his personal attorney, Michael Cohen, for help on a wide portfolio of issues pending before the federal government — including the company’s proposed merger with Time Warner, according to documents obtained by The Washington Post.
The internal documents reveal for the first time that Cohen’s $600,000 deal with AT&T specified that he would provide advice on the $85 billion merger, which required the approval of federal antitrust regulators.
Trump had voiced opposition to the merger during the presidential campaign, and his administration ultimately opposed the AT&T effort. The Department of Justice filed suit in November to block the deal, and that case is pending.
Cohen’s deals with AT&T and other corporate clients were first revealed this week by an attorney for adult-film star Stormy Daniels, but the new documents obtained by The Post offered greater detail about his arrangement with the telecom company and the type of work he had been hired to perform.
It is unclear what insight Cohen — a longtime real estate attorney and former taxi cab operator — could have provided AT&T on complex telecom matters.
At the same time that he was collecting $50,000 a month from AT&T, Cohen was being paid large sums to advise other companies on a broad variety of issues, including the Affordable Care Act, accounting practices and real estate.
In the wake of Trump’s election, corporate clients paid Cohen at least $2.95 million through a company called Essential Consultants, according to figures confirmed by the companies.
Essential Consultants was the same company Cohen used in October 2016 to route money to Daniels in exchange for her agreement not to disclose an alleged affair with Trump.
The corporate payments he received demonstrate how Cohen was able to turn his ties with the new president into money-making opportunities, despite Trump’s campaign pledges to “drain the swamp.”
AT&T and the pharmaceutical company Novartis, another Cohen client, said this week that they provided information about their dealings with Trump’s lawyer to special counsel Robert S. Mueller III last year. Cohen is also under investigation by prosecutors in New York for possible bank fraud and campaign finance violations.
The $600,000 that flowed to Cohen from AT&T was about 3.5 percent of the $16.8 million the company spent on lobbying in 2017, according to disclosure forms.
A “scope of work” describing Cohen’s contract in an internal AT&T document shows that he was hired to “focus on specific long-term planning initiatives as well as the immediate issue of corporate tax reform and the acquisition of Time Warner.”
He was also directed to “creatively address political and communications issues” facing the company and advise the company on matters before the Federal Communications Commission.
AT&T declined to comment on the documents, which were provided to The Post anonymously, but did not challenge their authenticity.
Cohen’s lawyer, Stephen Ryan, declined to comment. Cohen did not respond to requests for comment.
The internal AT&T documents show that Cohen was supposed to spend half his time on “legislative policy development” and the other half on “regulatory policy development.” Payments to Cohen were approved by two executives in AT&T’s public affairs office in Washington.
The documents specified that Cohen, who was not a registered lobbyist, was to spend none of his time engaged in lobbying. They described his work as advising the company, not contacting federal officials.
Under federal rules, individuals must register as lobbyists if they spend 20 percent of their time working for a client on legislative and executive branch issues and if they have had contact with at least two government officials related to that client, according to Larry Noble, a former general counsel of the Federal Election Commission and an expert on lobbying law.
Cohen’s work for AT&T did not appear to meet that definition, Noble said. However, he noted that hiring the president’s lawyer could trigger ethical questions.
“It is an ethical concern if you have a lawyer who appears to be selling access to a current client, who is president,” Noble said.
Rudolph W. Giuliani, a lawyer for Trump, said Wednesday that the president was unaware of Cohen’s consulting agreements.
AT&T has declined to comment on the specific amount it paid to Essential Consultants. Under the one-year contract, the company has said, Cohen was hired to provide “insights into understanding the new administration.”
In an internal email to employees obtained by The Post, AT&T said Cohen was among “several consultants” the company hired in early 2017 “to help us understand how the President and his administration might approach a wide range of policy issues important to the company, including regulatory reform at the FCC, corporate tax reform and antitrust enforcement.”
At the time the contract was signed, AT&T was trying to build ties to the new administration. Months earlier, Trump had come out strongly against the proposed AT&T merger with Time Warner, which owns CNN — a network he often berates as “fake news.”
“As an example of the power structure I’m fighting, AT&T is buying Time Warner and thus CNN, a deal we will not approve in my administration because it’s too much concentration of power in the hands of too few,” Trump said during a speech in Gettysburg, Pa., in October 2016.
On Jan. 12, 2017, Cohen and AT&T’s chief executive, Randall Stephenson, were both seen visiting Trump Tower in New York, days before the contract with Essential Consultants was signed.
But although the two men arrived within minutes of each other, they did not meet that day and have never met, AT&T said this week.
At the time, AT&T said that Stephenson had “a very good meeting” with Trump but that the Time Warner merger “was not a topic of discussion.”
“The conversation focused on how AT&T can work with the Trump administration to increase investment in the U.S., stimulate job creation in America, and make American companies more competitive globally,” the company said.
After the revelation of Cohen’s link to AT&T, ranking Democrats on antitrust subcommittees in the House and Senate sent a joint letter to the Justice Department’s top competition enforcer, Makan Delrahim, asking whether he knew of the company’s payments to Cohen during his agency’s independent review of the Time Warner merger.
The Justice Department declined to comment.
According to a person familiar with the matter who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe ongoing litigation, Delrahim was not aware of AT&T’s payments to Cohen.
Meanwhile, Novartis chief executive Vasant Narasimhan sent an email to employees Thursday calling the company’s $1.2 million contract with Cohen a “mistake” and acknowledging that the revelation “was not a good day for Novartis.”
“We made a mistake in entering into this engagement and, as a consequence, are being criticized by a world that expects more from us,” Narasimhan wrote.
Narasimhan joined the company in 2005 but did not take the helm of the global drug company until this February. “I was not involved with any aspect of this situation,” Narasimhan wrote to employees, adding that it had been a difficult day for him and his family.
Avenatti dropped another bombshell tonight. Cohen colluded with the lawyer that represented Daniels and he proved it with an email. Then the Cohen prosecutors and Mueller got to him, now he's working with them.
I'm beginning to wonder if Mueller's team and Avenatti are playing 3 card molly with Trump. Mueller wants to keep the heat and focus off him to finish up so he sends the Cohen case to NY Prosecutors and authorizes Avenatti to release damning evidence causing Trump to focus on him and leaving them wondering where Avenatti is getting the docs.
Here is an honest question to the right; Do you think it's ok for Cohen to make money (millions) selling access to Trump after his inauguration? Also, if it is proved that Trump took a share of those payments for himself, will you be OK with that?
AT&T Chief Says Hiring Michael Cohen Was a ‘Big Mistake’
By Cecilia Kang May 11, 2018
WASHINGTON — Randall L. Stephenson, AT&T’s chief executive, said on Friday that the company had made a “big mistake” by hiring President Trump’s personal lawyer, Michael D. Cohen, to advise on the telecommunications giant’s deal to buy Time Warner.
“Our company has been in the headlines for all the wrong reasons these last few days and our reputation has been damaged,” Mr. Stephenson wrote in a memo to employees. “There is no other way to say it — AT&T hiring Michael Cohen as a political consultant was a big mistake.”
Mr. Stephenson’s note followed the revelation that the company had paid Mr. Cohen $600,000 to advise on the $85.4 billion merger with Time Warner and other regulatory matters. Mr. Stephenson also said in the memo that the company’s head of lobbying and external affairs, Bob Quinn, 57, would be retiring.
Federal prosecutors are investigating Mr. Cohen’s business dealings, including a $130,000 payment he made to the pornographic film actress Stephanie Clifford, known professionally as Stormy Daniels, as part of a deal to buy her silence about an affair she says she had with Mr. Trump. The president has denied Ms. Clifford’s claims.
The payment to Ms. Clifford was the first known activity involving Essentials Consulting, a so-called shell company incorporated in Delaware by Mr. Cohen. It was through Essentials Consulting that AT&T retained Mr. Cohen.
AT&T was one of multiple companies Mr. Cohen approached after the election. The Swiss drugmaker Novartis paid Essential Consulting $1.2 million for a yearlong contract to provide insights on the new administration’s approach to health care policy.
Novartis said its former chief executive, Joe Jimenez, hired Essentials. Like Mr. Stephenson, Norvartis’ current chief executive, Vasant Narasimhan, also distanced himself from Mr. Cohen, saying this week that he had no role in decision to hire Mr. Cohen.
Novartis said it discovered soon after signing the contract that Mr. Cohen could not provide the services he had promised and allowed the contract to expire.
For AT&T, the disclosure of its ties to Mr. Cohen comes at a critical moment. The company is defending its merger with Time Warner in federal court against the Justice Department’s efforts to block the deal.
Mr. Stephenson insisted in his memo that “everything we did was done according to the law and entirely legitimate” and that Mr. Cohen did not do any lobbying on behalf of AT&T. Nonetheless, Mr. Stephenson added, retaining Mr. Cohen “was a serious misjudgment.”
“In this instance,” he continued, “our Washington D.C. team’s vetting process clearly failed, and I take responsibility for that.”
Time Warner was not aware of AT&T’s contract with Mr. Cohen, according to a person familiar with the company’s thinking. Within Time Warner this week, officials were surprised to learn about the contract with Essentials Consulting.
AT&T has said that Mr. Cohen approached employees in the company’s Washington office shortly after the election. The company signed a contract with him three days after Mr. Trump took the oath of office. He promised to provide advice on who the “key players” would be in Mr. Trump’s administration and “their priorities, and how they think,” AT&T said in a fact sheet released on Friday.
AT&T noted in the fact sheet that Mr. Cohen was among “several consultants” the company hired as Mr. Trump was assuming the presidency. AT&T said it would not disclose the names of the other people and firms hired.
Mr. Quinn was promoted to replace AT&T’s longtime head of lobbying, James Cicconi, just before the company announced its merger with Time Warner. Mr. Quinn, who began working at AT&T in the 1980s, is well connected in the political circles of both parties. But he, and the rest of the company, was surprised by the election results and had few connections to Mr. Trump’s circles.
AT&T’s vast lobbying team, which includes more than 100 people, and public policy staff will now report to the company’s general counsel, David McAtee.
Mr. Quinn declined to comment.
Earlier this week, the company said that it had been contacted late last year about Mr. Cohen by the office of Robert S. Mueller III, the special counsel investigating Russian meddling in the 2016 election and other matters. AT&T said it had “cooperated fully” with the inquiries.
Novartis said this week that it had also spoken with Mr. Mueller’s team about the payments to Mr. Cohen. Novartis said that it had cooperated fully and considers its role in the matter closed.
Analysts said they did not expect the revelations about AT&T’s ties to Mr. Cohen to affect the government’s lawsuit to block the company’s merger with Time Warner.
AT&T and Time Warner had suggested ahead of the trial that the Justice Department’s decision to block a merger of two companies that don’t compete was influenced by presidential politics. Mr. Trump has been vocal in his disdain for CNN’s coverage of his administration. CNN is owned by Time Warner.
But Judge Richard J. Leon of United States District Court in Washington has been strict about keeping politics out of the case, which focuses on antitrust law and whether the deal would violate competition policy and harm consumers.
Judge Leon is expected to deliver an opinion on the case by June 12.
“These revelations come at a critical point in the trial, but they are very unlikely to have any meaningful impact on the judge’s ruling,” said Gene Kimmelman, a former senior official for the antitrust division of the Justice Department and the president of nonprofit Public Knowledge.
These companies are massively embarrassed by this. Avenatti is killing Cohen. Trump is putting distance between him and Cohen now, and I think that is a huge mistake on his part.
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