Ruble trouble

Stormy att’y: Cohen got $500G from Putin pal

A RUSSIAN oligarch sanctioned by the U.S. government deposited about $500,000 into the same bank account that longtime Trump attorney Michael Cohen used to pay off porn star Stormy Daniels, her lawyer said Tuesday.

Viktor Vekselberg, a Kremlin-connected billionaire who has reportedly been interviewed by special counsel Robert Mueller, wired the cash into a First Republic account registered to Cohen’s Essential Consulting company, according to a bombshell dossier released by Daniels attorney Michael Avenatti.

The money was routed to Cohen between January and August 2017 in eight payments from Columbus Nova, a Manhattan-based investment firm owned by Vekselberg’s American cousin, Andrew Intrater, Avenatti said. Vekselberg’s first payment was issued “approximately 75 days” after Cohen’s $130,000 hush payment to Daniels, according to Avenatti.

Daniels, 39, says she took the preelection payoff in exchange for promising to never speak publically about having sex with Trump in 2006.

Avenatti raised the suggestion that Vekselberg’s money “may have reimbursed” Cohen’s payment to Daniels. “Mr. Trump and Mr. Cohen have a lot of explaining to do,” he tweeted.

Richard Owens, an attorney for Columbus Nova, pushed back against Avenatti’s suggestion that Vekselberg was involved, saying the wire transfers were issued after the firm hired Cohen as a “business consultant.”

“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,” Owens told the Daily News.

Vekselberg, who has an estimated worth of $13 billion, is close with Russian President Vladimir Putin and was among a number of oligarchs sanctioned by the Treasury Department last month. Mueller’s investigators questioned Vekselberg, 61, about the Columbus Nova payments after they stopped him at a New York-area airport earlier this year, CNN reported.

In addition to Columbus Nova, Avenatti’s document says AT&T paid Cohen’s Essential Consulting $200,000 while it had an antitrust case pending before the Justice Department. The telecom giant said the payments were for consulting work.

“They did no legal or lobbying work for us,” AT&T said in a statement.