Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
Soviet-born man was at Trump Jr. meeting
Calif. businessman tied to Russia is previously undisclosed 8th person known in ’16 meeting
A California businessman born in a former Soviet republic is eighth person known to have taken part.
WASHINGTON — A California businessman born in a former Soviet republic attended Donald Trump Jr.’s controversial meeting with a Russian lawyer at the height of the presidential campaign last year, adding a new level of intrigue to the political scandal roiling the White House.
Irakly “Ike” Kaveladze, 52, is now the eighth person known to have taken part in the unusual Trump Tower meeting on June 9, 2016.
Kaveladze is an employee of a large Russian real estate development firm. He was the focus of a scathing congressional inquiry in 2000 into alleged Russian money laundering through banks in California and New York but was not charged.
Investigators for special counsel Robert Mueller, who is leading the federal probe into possible coordination between Donald Trump’s presidential campaign and the Russian government, have asked to interview Kaveladze, according to Scott Balber, Kaveladze’s lawyer.
Balber said his client was “cooperating fully” with investigators. Mueller’s office declined comment.
Kaveladze’s involvement is more evidence of the role that Moscow’s Agalarov family played in arranging the meeting with Trump Jr. that now is a key focus of Mueller’s probe. The former FBI director appears to be exploring the relationship between the Trumps and the Agalarovs, who were partners on a project for a Trump hotel in Moscow that was never built.
Aras Agalarov, a billionaire developer, and his son Emin, a Russian pop star, also hosted the Trumpowned Miss Universe contest in Moscow in 2013, which Donald Trump attended.
The Agalarov family runs a real estate development firm favored by Russian President Vladimir Putin’s government.
Kaveladze has worked for the Agalarovs’ holding company, the Crocus Group, since 2004, Balber said. He is now a vice president focusing on real estate and finance.
Kaveladze immigrated to the United States from the Republic of Georgia shortly after the breakup of the Soviet Union in 1991 and later became a U.S. citizen. He was asked to take part in the Trump Tower meeting by Aras Agalarov, according to Balber.
Neither the White House nor Trump Jr. had disclosed Kaveladze’s presence at the meeting despite repeated public statements about a sit-down that involved three of Trump’s closest aides — eldest son Donald Jr., son-in-law Jared Kushner and then-campaign manager Paul Manafort.
Sen. Dianne Feinstein, DCalif., said Tuesday that Mueller had told the Senate Judiciary Committee that he has no objection to the panel publicly questioning Trump Jr. and Manafort.
Lawyers for the two have said they are willing to cooperate with congressional panels looking at Russian interference in the 2016 election and possible ties between the Trump campaign and Moscow, but it is unclear if they will agree to testify. Neither Trump Jr. nor Manafort are in the Trump administration.
During the meeting, Natalia Veselnitskaya, the Russian lawyer who had traveled from Moscow, handed Trump Jr. a sheaf of documents that she said showed improper donations to the Democratic National Committee, information that she said could be used against Trump’s Democratic rival, Hillary Clinton.
Kaveladze “was asked to attend the meeting purely to … make sure it happened,” said Balber, who is based in New York. “He literally had no idea what the meeting was about until he showed up right before.”
Kaveladze did not recall saying anything at the meeting, which lasted less than half an hour, Balber said.
According to Balber, Veselnitskaya asked one of the Agalarovs to provide an introduction to the Trumps. The Agalarovs then asked a British music publicist, Rob Goldstone, to contact Trump Jr., Balber said.
But Balber’s account of who set up the meeting is at odds with an email exchange at the time between Trump Jr. and Goldstone that Trump Jr. released last week. They indicated that it was the Agalarovs who pushed for the meeting.
In addition to Veselnitskaya, Keveladze and Goldstone, the meeting also included Rinat Akhmetshin, a lobbyist with U.S.-Russian citizenship, and Anatoli Samochornov, a translator.
During the 1990s, Kaveladze headed a Delawarebased company called International Business Creations and set up 2,000 U.S. corporations for Russian brokers, according to a critical U.S. report in November 2000.