Natalia Veselnitskaya

Natalia Veselnitskaya
Born Natalia Vladimirovna Veselnitskaya
Moscow, Russia
Alma mater Moscow State Legal Academy
Occupation Lawyer
Known for Advocacy against Magnitsky Act
Trump campaign-Russian meeting

Natalia Vladimirovna Veselnitskaya (Russian: Ната́лья Влади́мировна Весельни́цкая; IPA: [nɐˈtalʲjə vʲɪsʲɪlʲˈnʲit͡skəjə]) is a Russian lawyer who has been an outspoken advocate in the United States against the Magnitsky Act. Her prominent clients include Pyotr Katsyv, an official in the state-owned Russian Railways, and his son Denis Katsyv, whom she defended against a money laundering charge in New York.[1][2]

Her June 2016 meeting with Donald Trump Jr., Jared Kushner, and Paul Manafort in Trump Tower has attracted attention related to Russian interference in the 2016 United States elections.[3][4][5][6]

Education and career

Veselnitskaya attests she graduated with distinction from the Moscow State Legal Academy in 1998.[7] She attests that she was then employed by the prosecutor's office in Moscow Oblast, where she worked on legislation.[7] She claims to have won over 300 legal cases.[8] She then moved into private practice, focusing on land deals in the expanding Moscow suburbs.[8]

Veselnitskaya has long been the lawyer for Pyotr Katsyv, who is the vice-president of the state-owned Russian Railways, and was formerly the Moscow region's minister of transportation.[8] In 2008, Vladimir Solovyov accused Veselnitskaya and her stepdaughter of orchestrating unusual court decisions regarding land in Moscow.[8] Veselnitskaya successfully sued Spravedlivost, an anti-corruption nonprofit, for defamation after it accused her, her former husband, and Katsyv of seizing land using government connections.[8] Her claims that land owned by IKEA was actually owned by an old collective farm were ultimately dismissed by the Supreme Court of Russia.[8]

Veselnitskaya and her firm, Kamerton Consulting, represented FSB's, Russia's security service, interests from 2005 to 2013.[9]

Advocacy against the Magnitsky Act

In 2009, Sergei Magnitsky, a lawyer who had accused Moscow law enforcement of stealing $230 million tax in tax rebates from his client, was beaten to death in jail. In 2012, Magnitsky's client, Bill Browder, secured passage of the Magnitsky Act, which imposed sanctions on the officials involved.[8] Russian President Vladimir Putin responded by banning adoptions by Americans.[8]

In February 2015, the "Human Rights Accountability Global Initiative Foundation" was created in Delaware.[10][11] Rinat Akhmetshin, a naturalized U.S. citizen from Russia who has worked as a Washington lobbyist since 1998, agreed to lobby for the foundation backed by Denis Katsyv.[12][13] From 1986 to 1988, Akmetshin had served in the Soviet Army, where he obtained the rank of sergeant and worked in a counterintelligence unit for the KGB.[12] Veselnitskaya's campaign included an unsuccessful attempt in Washington to repeal the Magnitsky Act and to "keep Mr. Magnitsky’s name off the Law.[3]

On June 9, 2016, Veselnitskaya met with Donald Trump Jr., Paul Manafort, and Jared Kushner in Trump Tower, which they had scheduled after Emin Agalarov's publicist had told Donald Jr. that she was a "Russian government attorney" offering incriminating information on Hillary Clinton due to "its government’s support for Mr. Trump".[14] Donald Trump Jr. later claimed in July of 2017 that Veselnitskaya instead used the meeting to criticize the Magnitsky Act.[15]

Akhmetshin says he met with Veselnitskaya for lunch before the meeting where she then asked him to attend, which he did.[16] According to Akhmetshin, Veselnitskaya's translator, Anatoli Samachornov, also attended.[12] He also says Veselnitskaya left a document with Trump Jr.[16]

Two days after the Trump Tower meeting, the foundation registered to lobby Congress on the Magnitsky Act.[12]

Later that June, Veselnitskaya screened a film by Andrei Nekrasov at the Newseum in Washington, D.C., that was critical of Magnitsky.[8] She was "deeply involved in the making of The Magnitsky Act — Behind the Scenes.[17] She provided the film crew with "the real proofs and records of testimony" according to RussiaTV5, a "station whose owners are known to be close to Mr. Putin".[3]

Veselnitskaya represented Pyotr Katsyv's son, Denis, when Preet Bharara, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, charged him with money laundering.[8] Federal prosecutors accused Katsyv of using Manhattan real estate deals to launder money stolen from Browder's Hermitage Capital Management in violation of the Magnitsky Act.[18][19] The Russian government then banned Bharara from traveling there.[18]

In October 2015, Veselnitskaya traveled to Manhattan with her clients for a deposition in the case.[20] After being told at the end of the deposition that the counter-party would be required to reimburse her expenses, she billed the U.S. government for $50,000, including an $800 meal, eight grappas, and a $995-a-night room at the Plaza Hotel.[21] Two months after President Donald Trump fired Bharara, the case settled, with Katsyv's company, Prevezon Holdings, paying $6 million without admitting any wrongdoing.[8][22] The settlement was for less than 3% of the amount prosecutors had initially sought.[18]

In March 2017, Senator Chuck Grassley filed a complaint alleging that the foundation, Akhmetshin, Prevezon Holdings, and Fusion GPS had violated the Foreign Agents Registration Act.[23]

In a July 14, 2017 intervew with the Wall Street Journal, Veselnitskaya acknowledged that she was in regular contact with the Russian prosecutor general's office and with Prosecutor General Yuri Chaika.[24][25]

Personal life

Veselnitskaya was at one time married to Aleksandr Mitusov, a former deputy transportation minister of the Moscow area.[3][8]

See also

References

  1. ↑ Jason Motlagh (31 December 2015). "Fighting Putin Doesn’t Make You a Saint". The New Republic. Retrieved 15 July 2017.
  2. ↑ "Defendant Prevezon Holdings Ltd. Agrees to Pay $5,896,333.65, Triple the Fraud Proceeds Alleged to Be Directly Traceable to the Defendants".
  3. 1 2 3 4 Becker, Jo; Apuzzo, Matt; Goldman, Adam (July 8, 2017). "Trump Team Met With Lawyer Linked to Kremlin During Campaign". The New York Times. Retrieved July 8, 2017.
  4. ↑ Hofmann, James. "The Daily 202: Email to Donald Trump Jr. could be a smoking gun, as Russia connections deepen".
  5. ↑ staff. "Donald Trump Jr met Russian lawyer after promise of information on Hillary Clinton".
  6. ↑ Simmons, Kier. "Russian Lawyer Who Met With Trump Jr.: I Didn’t Have Clinton Info They Wanted".
  7. 1 2 "Declaration of Natalia Veselnitskaya, United States v. Prevezon Holdings Ltd, No. 13-cv-06326 (TPG) (S.D.N.Y. January 5, 2016)". Scribd. Retrieved 12 July 2017.
  8. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 MacFarquhar, Neil; Kramer, Andrew E. (12 July 2017). "Natalia Veselnitskaya, Lawyer Who Met Trump Jr., Seen as Fearsome Moscow Insider". The New York Times. p. A1. Retrieved 12 July 2017.
  9. ↑ Tsvetkova, Maria; Stubbs, Jack (21 July 2017). "Exclusive: Moscow lawyer who met Trump Jr. had Russian spy agency as client". Reuters. Retrieved 21 July 2017.
  10. ↑ Weiss, Michael (18 May 2016). "Putin’s Dirty Game in the U.S. Congress". The Daily Beast. Retrieved 15 July 2017.
  11. ↑ Hermitage Capital Management (15 July 2016), Complaint regarding the violation of US Lobbying Laws by the Human Rights Accountability Global Initiative Foundation and others by Hermitage Capital Management (PDF), Grassley.senate.gov, retrieved 12 July 2017
  12. 1 2 3 4 Eileen Sullivan; Kenneth P. Vogel; Adam Goldman; Jo Becker (15 July 2017). "Russian-American Lobbyist Attended Meeting Organized by Trump’s Son". The New York Times. p. A1. Retrieved 15 July 2017.
  13. ↑ Weiss, Michael (4 May 2017). "US Congressman talks Russian money laundering with alleged ex-spy in Berlin". CNN. Retrieved 15 July 2017.
  14. ↑ Becker, Jo; Goldman, Adam; Apuzzo, Matt (12 July 2017). "Russian Dirt on Clinton? ‘I Love It,’ Donald Trump Jr. Said". The New York Times. p. A1. Retrieved 12 July 2017.
  15. ↑ Apuzzo, Matt; Becker, Jo; Goldman, Adam; Haberman, Maggie (11 July 2017). "Trump Jr. Was Told in Email of Russian Effort to Aid Campaign". The New York Times. p. A1. Retrieved 12 July 2017.
  16. 1 2 Helderman, Rosalind S.; Hamburger, Tom (15 July 2017). "Russian American lobbyist was present at Trump Jr.’s meeting with Kremlin-connected lawyer". The Washington Post. p. A1. Retrieved 15 July 2017.
  17. ↑ European TV Channel Puts Controversial Magnitsky Film On Hold
  18. 1 2 3 Feeley, Jef; Bob, Van Voris (13 May 2017). "Laundering Suit Ends as Russian Firm, U.S. Claim Victory". Bloomberg News. Retrieved 12 July 2017.
  19. ↑ "United States of America v. Prevezon Holdings Ltd. et al". Justia Dockets & Filings. Retrieved 12 July 2017.
  20. ↑ Weiss, Michael (9 December 2015). "Russians Stick U.S. With $50K Plaza Hotel Bar Bill". The Daily Beast. Retrieved 15 July 2017.
  21. ↑ Thielman, Sam (10 July 2017). "Lawyer Who Met Don Jr. Was Key Player In High-Profile Money Laundering Case". Talking Points Memo. Retrieved 15 July 2017.
  22. ↑ "Acting Manhattan U.S. Attorney Announces $5.9 Million Settlement Of Civil Money Laundering And Forfeiture Claims Against Real Estate Corporations Alleged To Have Laundered Proceeds Of Russian Tax Fraud". United States Department of Justice. Retrieved 12 July 2017.
  23. ↑ Sen. Chuck Grassley (31 March 2017). "Complaint: Firm behind Dossier & Former Russian Intel Officer Joined Lobbying Effort to Kill Pro-Whistleblower Sanctions for Kremlin". www.grassley.senate.gov. Retrieved 15 July 2017.
  24. ↑ http://thehill.com/policy/national-security/342109-russian-lawyer-who-met-with-trump-jr-was-in-touch-with-top-russian
  25. ↑ https://www.wsj.com/articles/russian-lawyer-who-trump-jr-met-says-she-was-in-contact-with-top-russian-prosecutor-1500063809
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