From BuzzFeed:
A Russian-born lobbyist who attended the controversial Trump Tower meeting in June 2016 received a series of suspicious payments totaling half a million dollars before and after the encounter.
Documents reviewed by BuzzFeed News show that Rinat Akhmetshin, a Soviet military officer turned Washington lobbyist, deposited large, round-number amounts of cash in the months preceding and following the meeting, where a Russian lawyer offered senior Trump campaign officials dirt on Hillary Clinton.
The lobbyist also received a large payment that bank investigators deemed suspicious from Denis Katsyv, whose company Prevezon Holdings was accused by the US Justice Department of laundering the proceeds of a $230 million Russian tax fraud.
…
In the months before and after the meeting with the Trump campaign, documents show that Akhmetshin made unexplained cash deposits totaling $40,000, and received a wire transfer of $100,000 directly from Katsyv along with $52,000 from a foundation funded by Katsyv and other wealthy Russians to try to undermine that law. Bankers examining the lobbyist’s accounts flagged these transactions for a variety of reasons, including the inability to explain them, their overseas origin, and a suspicion that they showed Akhmetshin had violated federal lobbying law.
www.buzzfeednews.com/…
Suddenly, his story about getting a casual invite from Veselnitskaya just before the meeting sounds extremely fishy.
This dude is about as KGB as they come, and I have little doubt that he was hand-selected to attend the meeting by Putin himself. His shady, off-shore style payment plan sure seems to suggest as much.
According to the article, Robert Mueller is investigating Katsyv’s foundation, one of the sources of Akhmetshin’s unexplained payments. Hopefully, Mueller knows everything.
Update 1: From Crashing Vor in the comments:
1. From the article, it appears he is still resident in the US. If there’s anything hard on him, he needs to be snatched up into the loving arms of law enforcement toute suite before he feels a longing to see the rodina again.
2. Who the fuck is so stupid as to deposit $40K, in round numbers, in cash, with no supporting documents? I’ve known people with very, um, interesting businesses over the years and not a one of them would have tried that. Not the brightest bulb in the KGB marquee, I’m thinking.