[ad_1]
Natalya Veselnitskaya, who gained importance as a result of a meeting with Donald Trump Jr. and other members of the Trump campaign after being made to promise information damaging on Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, was indicted by the US Attorney's Office in Manhattan, who had handled the case of money laundering involving an investment firm based in Cyprus and its Russian owner.
During this case, Veselnitskaya, a member of the defense team, made a false statement in New York federal court referred to the findings of the investigation of the Russian government in this case , concealing from the court that she "had participated in the drafting of these supposed findings of the independent investigation in secret cooperation with a senior Russian prosecutor", according to the indictment .
Veselnitskaya is not in the United States and it is unlikely that she will ever see a court or be arrested unless she leaves Russia. She told CNN Tuesday that she "would defend her professional honor" in this case and declined to comment on the case, saying she had just heard the news. She added that she was "frustrated" by the US and international media coverage about her.
Emails published by Trump Jr. show that he had accepted the meeting after being informed that the "Crown Prosecutor of Russia" had wanted to incriminate the Trump campaign. information about Clinton. Instead, Trump Jr. later stated that Veselnitskaya was putting emphasis on the repeal of the Magnitsky law, a 2012 law condemning Russians accused of human rights violations.
Veselnitskaya said during interviews that she was maintaining working relations with the Russian Attorney General, Yuri Chaika. and that they exchanged information during his lobbying proceedings against the Magnitsky law. She denied working for the Russian government and a Kremlin spokeswoman said the notion was "absurd".
It is unclear whether the Trump team reacted to Veselnitskaya's request regarding the Magnitsky law. The Trump administration has not taken steps to cancel the sanctions imposed by Russia and, in reality, new sanctions have been imposed.
Special advocate Robert Mueller investigates the Trump Tower meeting as part of his investigation into Russia's interference in the 2016 election dispute. The special council office refused to say whether he had contributed to the Veselnitskaya investigation or whether he had been returned to the US prosecutor's office. The indictment of Veselnitskaya seems to come directly from the New York case concerning the Cyprus-based investment firm, Prevezon Holdings Ltd., and its Russian owner, Denis Katsyv.
Veselnitskaya attended a proceeding in the United States, including an audience in Manhattan. the same day as the Trump Tower meeting of June 2016.
Federal prosecutors in New York accused Prevezon of stealing $ 1.9 million from the Russian treasury through a fraudulent repayment scheme of 230 millions of dollars. The so-called stratagem was discovered by Sergei Magnitsky, a Russian lawyer. Magnitsky was later imprisoned by the Russian government and later died in a Moscow prison under suspicious circumstances.
According to the unsealed indictment on Tuesday, Veselnitskaya submitted the false statement to the court in November 2015, claiming that the Russian government had tried to refrain from responding to a request of the US government in the case Prevezon regarding bank documents and other items showing the evolution of the proceeds of the Russian Treasury fraud, and suggesting that she had been forced to apply for an order of a court annulling the refusal of the Russian Attorney General.
E-mails obtained by New York prosecutors show however that in 2014, she had sent messages to the personal account of a supervisor of the Russian Attorney General's Office with draft response to the request. from the US government. 19659002] His emails contained "many changes and comments followed," according to the indictment. The Russian prosecutor then sent him a revised draft reply, accompanied by notes on further additions, the indictment said. The final response sent by the Russian government to the US government contained many insertions from Veselnitskaya, "either essentially word for word, in reformulated form, or with slight modifications".
CLARIFICATION: This story has been updated to reflect what Veselnitskaya Accused in the context of the money laundering case.
Nathan Hodge of CNN and Marshall Cohen contributed to this report.
[ad_2]Source link
