A Foreigner Paid $200,000 for Tickets to Trump's Inaugural. Now He Says He Was Duped.
WASHINGTON — A Ukrainian-Russian developer who wanted access to President Trump’s inauguration filed a lawsuit on Tuesday saying he was bilked out of the $200,000 he paid for what he thought would be V.I.P. tickets to the event.
The developer, Pavel Fuks, who once discussed a Moscow real estate project with Mr. Trump, said in the lawsuit, filed in the United States District Court for the Central District of California, that he had paid the money to a firm at the direction of Yuri Vanetik, a prominent Republican fund-raiser and sometime lobbyist. But, the lawsuit said, Mr. Vanetik failed to come through with the promised tickets, and Mr. Fuks ended up watching the inauguration from a Washington hotel bar.
The lawsuit sheds new light on efforts to accommodate foreign politicians and business executives who sought to attend Mr. Trump’s inauguration to press their agendas, curry favor or make influential connections with the incoming administration.
It is illegal for foreign nationals to buy tickets from the committees that host the official parties and other events around United States presidential inaugurations, a ban intended to limit international influence in American politics and government. Foreigners have long flocked to inaugurations as guests of American donors, which is permitted.
But federal prosecutors are investigating whether foreigners illegally funneled money to Mr. Trump’s inaugural committee and a pro-Trump super PAC to try to influence Mr. Trump’s team. And a Washington lobbyist, in a guilty plea for violating foreign lobbying laws, admitted to helping a Russia-aligned Ukrainian oligarch illegally purchase four tickets to Mr. Trump’s inauguration.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/a-foreigner-paid-dollar200000-for-tickets-to-trumps-inaugural-now-he-says-he-was-duped/ar-AAD4DEg?li=BBnbcA1
Sounds like Mr. Fuks got fucked. Sorry I couldn't resist.
= new reply since forum marked as read
