David Corn: A Russian Business Associate of Wilbur Ross Was Just Sanctioned by the Trump Admin

[babylonsister]

https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2018/04/a-russian-business-associate-of-wilbur-ross-was-just-sanctioned-by-the-trump-administration/

A Russian Business Associate of Wilbur Ross Was Just Sanctioned by the Trump Administration
Why did the commerce secretary downplay his business ties to the Putin-friendly oligarch Viktor Vekselberg?

David Corn
Apr. 10, 2018 10:42 AM

snip//

After Trump nominated Ross to be commerce secretary, several Democratic senators asked Ross about his involvement with Vekselberg. A group of these lawmakers led by Sen. Bill Nelson (D-Fla.) sent him a list of questions about his ties to the Bank of Cyprus and the oligarch. (After being nominated, Ross had said he would divest his financial interest in the bank.) In a conversation with Nelson, Ross dismissed talk of his relationship with Vekselberg and claimed that he had only met the Russian once for an hour. But prior to the confirmation vote, the White House refused to release Ross’ answers to the senators’ questions—a move that angered several Democrats in the body. And in a written response to one question submitted to Ross by Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.), Ross insisted that Vekselberg had not been his partner.

But Ross and Vekselberg had been working together. In October 2014, Ross announced his proposal for a new board of directors for the bank. The directors on his list would include Maksim Goldman, a representative of Vekselberg’s Renova. And the chairman of the board—recruited by Ross and Vekselberg—would be Josef Ackermann, a former CEO of Deutsche Bank who was then a director of Renova Management AG, an industrial holding company controlled by Vekselberg. As Bloomberg reported at the time, “Ross, whose group owns 17 percent of the bank, plans to share the vice-chairman post with Vladimir Strzhalkovskiy, who served with Putin in the KGB in the 1980s.”

So let’s rewind the tape: Ross was collaborating directly with Vekselberg to profit from the revival and reorganization of the Bank of Cyprus, and this included proposing to place Vekselberg’s associates in key leadership roles of the bank. This was not an unusual move, given Vekselberg’s large holdings in the institution. But Ross’ relationship with the oligarch went far beyond a one-time, hour-long meeting. A good follow-up question for the senators would be why Ross had indicated he had little to do with Vekselberg.

Ross is not Vekselberg’s only connection to Trump World. In early 2017, Andrew Intrater, the CEO of Columbus Nova, the lone American subsidiary of Renova Group, donated $250,000 to Trump’s inauguration fund. Intrater had no previous record of making large political contributions. In June 2017, he also kicked in $35,000 to a joint fundraising committee for Trump’s reelection and the Republican National Committee. Intrater, an American citizen, is Vekselberg’s cousin, according to filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

In announcing its recent sanctions on Russia, the Treasury Department suggested that Vekselberg runs a corrupt outfit. Its press release noted, “In 2016, Russian prosecutors raided Renova’s offices and arrested two associates of Vekselberg, including the company’s chief managing director and another top executive, for bribing officials connected to a power generation project in Russia.” And Mnuchin declared, “Russian oligarchs and elites who profit from [Russia’s] corrupt system will no longer be insulated from the consequences of their government’s destabilizing activities.” Well, Ross was doing business with this profiting-from-corruption oligarch until Ross was tapped by Trump to join his cabinet. And this remains one of the Trump-Russia connections that still warrants greater explanation.

[Mme. Defarge]

1. Rachel was on this story

during the early days of the current maladministration.