Michael Cohen, President Donald Trump’s personal attorney and fixer, met with a billionaire Russian oligarch at Trump Tower in New York just days before the president took the oath of office.
The meeting was reported to be about ways to to improve relations between Washington DC and Moscow.
But the meeting has drawn the eye of special counsel Robert Mueller, who’s investigation into Russia’s role in the 2016 election has increasingly turned to Cohen.
Russian businessman Viktor Vekselberg, pictured here at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum, met with Trump attorney Michael Cohen in Trump Tower shortly before the January 2017 inauguration of President Trump.
Columbus Nova Andrew Intrater arranged the meeting between Russian businessman Viktor Vekselberg and Trump attorney Michael Cohen. He’s pictured here (on the far right) withUSC Shoah Foundation board member Mickey Shapiro, USC Shoah Foundation founder Steven Spielberg, and honoree William Clay Ford, Jr. at a gala dinner at the Henry Ford Museum in September of 2015 in Dearborn, Michigan.
Businessman Viktor Vekselberg, chairman of Russian asset manager Renova Group, discussed a mutual desire to strengthen Russia’s relations with the United States according to Andrew Intrater, an American businessman who attended the meeting and invests money for Vekselberg, The New York Times reported.
Both men have been questioned by Mueller’s team.
In addition to being interviewed, Vekselberg was recently sanctioned by the U.S., had assets in American frozen and is not allowed in the country, CNN reported.
Mueller’s investigators stopped Vekselberg at a New York airport in early May after he arrived on a private plane, the Times reported, and the special counsel’s team have interviewed Intrater twice.
Vekselberg is estimated to be worth $13.6 billion, according to Forbes, and he made his fortune in gas and aluminium. He is said to be close to Russian President Vladimir Putin.
The Ukrainian-born businessman is the largest single owner of Faberge Imperial Easter eggs in the world with 15 in his collection.
During their conversation at Trump Tower in January 2017, Cohen and Vekselberg arranged to see one another during the inauguration festivities, which was the second of their three meetings.
Days after the January inauguration, Intrater’s private equity firm, Columbus Nova, awarded Cohen a one-year $1 million consulting contract.
That deal is what got the attention of the federal authorities investigating Cohen.
Cohen and Intrater reportedly met when both happened to be dining at the Polo Bar on October 20, 2016, when a mutual friend introduced them. Intrater called Cohen after the election to congratulate him.
They sat together at one of the dinners on Inauguration Day and Intrater’s $250,000 donation to the inaugural committee got him two tickets to the swearing-in ceremony, which he and Vekselberg attended..
Intrater, who is Vekselberg’s his cousin, denied there was any pay-to-play at work and said the Russian businessman, who is also his biggest client, had no role in the decision to hire Cohen as a consultant.
Cohen was reportedly hired to bring in investors – in other words use his rolodex to bring in cash from wealthy clients to the investment firm.
Intrater said the Trump Tower meeting was brief and impromptu and that Vekselberg had not originally planned to attend. He noted they did not see Trump, who was in the building that day, and it’s unknown of the then-president-elect was aware it was happening.
‘Obviously, if I’d known in January 2017 that I was about to hire this high-profile guy who’d wind up in this big mess, I wouldn’t have introduced him to my biggest client, and wouldn’t have hired him at all,’ Intrater told the Times.
Video footage from C-SPAN, which kept a camera feed in the lobby during the transition process, showed Vekselberg and Intrater arriving at Trump Tower on Jan. 9, 2017.
Michael Cohen’s business practices are under investigation by special counsel Robert Mueller.
After President Donald Trump’s inauguration, Michael Cohen received a one-year $1 million consulting contract with Columbus Nova, the firm Andrew Intrater runs.
At the time of the meeting, Cohen worked for the Trump Organization and his future was uncertain. He did not get an administration job, which he was reportedly expecting, and instead set up his own consulting firm for clients who wanted advice on working with the new administration.
Cohen’s deal with Columbus Nova did not work out well for him. The two parted ways after six months with after no new deals materialized and Cohen was only paid $580,000 of the $1 million contract.
Cohen’s private office was raided in April by federal agents and several of his business records were seized.