A recently sanctioned Russian oligarch used his company to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars to President Donald Trump's longtime personal attorney, deposited into an account used to pay off a pornographic film actress, US media reported Tuesday. CNN said Renova Group chairman Viktor Vekselberg was questioned along with his cousin Andrew Intrater, who heads the firm's US affiliate Columbus Nova, by agents investigating Russian interference in the 2016 American presidential election.
Michael Avenatti, the attorney representing porn actress Stormy Daniels, released a dossier alleging that Vekselberg and his cousin transferred "approximately $500,000" to Cohen in eight payments. "Mr Cohen inexplicably accepted these payments while he was the personal attorney to the president," the document said.
The New York Times and NBC News said they had reviewed financial documents that corroborated Avenatti's claims. Vekselberg was among seven Kremlin-linked oligarchs the Trump administration slapped with sanctions in April. Daniels, born as Stephanie Clifford, was paid $130,000 by Cohen as part of a non-disclosure agreement just before the 2016 presidential election, over an alleged affair with Trump a decade earlier.
Comments
Comments are closed for this article.