Irakly Kaveladze is a Soviet-born American businessman and a vice president at the Crocus Group, a Russian real estate company headed by Russian oligarch Aras Agalarov. Kaveladze was present at the June 9, 2016, Trump Tower meeting where Donald Trump Jr. was told that he would get damaging information about Hillary Clinton from a “Russian government attorney.”1Washington Post, July 18, 2017
Eighth person in Trump Tower meeting is identified
retrieved 6/24/182New York Times, July 18, 2017
Guest List at Donald Trump Jr.’s Meeting With Russian Expands Again
retrieved 6/24/18
According to his lawyer Kaveladze was at the meeting to represent Agalarov, who is a business associate and personal friend of Donald Trump. Kaveladze said Agalarov arranged the meeting as a favor to a Natalia Veselnitskaya, a Kremlin-connected Russian lawyer who has worked for Agalarov. Veselnitskaya, who was also at the meeting, is the lawyer that was characterized to Trump Jr. as working for the Russian government.3Washington Post, July 18, 2017
Eighth person in Trump Tower meeting is identified
retrieved 6/24/184New York Times, July 18, 2017
Guest List at Donald Trump Jr.’s Meeting With Russian Expands Again
retrieved 6/24/18
In 2000, Kaveladze was the subject of a congressional inquiry into alleged Russian money laundering. Kaveladze reportedly set up more than shell 2,000 corporations in Delaware for Russian brokers; more than $1.4 billion was reportedly moved through these accounts. Former U.S. Senator Carl Levin described Kaveladze as a “poster child” of the practice of using shell companies to launder funds, and said that the inquiry helped spark reforms. Kaveladze was not charged in the investigation, which he described as a “witch hunt.”5New York Times, 11/19/2000
Laundering Of Money Seen as ‘Easy’
retrieved 6/24/186Washington Post, July 18, 2017
Eighth person in Trump Tower meeting is identified
retrieved 6/24/18
The bipartisan Senate Intelligence Committee report “Russian Active Measures Campaigns and Interference in the 2016 U.S. Election Volume 5: Counterintelligence Threats and Vulnerabilities”, released in redacted form to the public on August 18, 2020, states:
“According to a report by the United States General Accounting Office (GAO) in October 2000, Kaveladze has been involved in a range of activities in the United States that raise serious concerns regarding Russian money laundering. According to the GAO, companies created by Kaveladze established approximately 2,000 corporations, some of which had made up names for Russian brokers. Kaveladze’s companies moved more than $1 billion in wire transfer transactions into 236 accounts at two U.S. banks, most of which was then transferred back to accounts in Eastern Europe again for Russian brokers. Kaveladze has insisted that he had no involvement in any wrongdoing, calling the GAO investigation a ‘witch hunt.’”7U.S. Senate Intelligence Committee
Russian Active Measures Campaigns and Interference in the 2016 U.S. Election Volume 5: Counterintelligence Threats and Vulnerabilities
retrieved 8/18/20
