OFFERONDON—Trump Tower Attorney Natalia Veselnitskaya was accused of an elaborate new plot to undermine the course of justice.
Veselnitskaya, the pro-Kremlin lawyer who attended the infamous 2016 Trump Tower meeting with Donald Trump Jr. and Jared Kushner, allegedly modified the official documents, according to leaked records seen by The Daily Beast.
Lawyer, who has tasked with promoting one of President Vladimir Putin’s most beloved propaganda campaigns in the US, was was indicted on charges of obstruction of justice by prosecutors for the Southern District of New York.
The new documents allege that Veselnitskaya or her team may have used a similar strategy to forge allegedly independent evidence presented to the court in a related case in Switzerland, where Veselnitskaya’s clients – Denis Katsyv and his company Prevezon – were at the center of a massive money-laundering and tax fraud investigation that was dropped last year.
“Natalia Veselnitskaya, a lawyer for a key suspect in the Swiss case, edited a direct testimony of obstruction of justice in the Swiss criminal case,” states a document that sets out newly submitted evidence. to the Swiss Federal Criminal Court, by The Daily Beast.
The court filed by Hermitage Capital – who is blamed for fraud by the Russian government – includes emails obtained by the Dossier Center, a London-based anti-corruption organization, which appear to show evidence Official evidence from the Russian state in the case against the customer of Veselnitskaya is not independently manufactured as Moscow has claimed.
Metadata on an important Word document handed over by the Prosecutor General’s Office in Moscow shows that one of the editors of the report was an account under the name “Veselnitskaya NV”
Metadata on the second Word document — also obtained by the Dossier Center — shows that the file was authored by someone named “Natalia” and then edited by an account named “Mitusova NA” Natalia Alexandrovna Mitusova is the name of Veselnitskaya’s stepdaughter and a former colleague when they both worked at the law firm Camerton Consulting.
The second document, seen by The Daily Beast, was a translation of a report by a supposedly independent investigator authorized by Russian officials that became key evidence in the case. Neither Veselnitskaya nor Mitusova responded to requests for comment.
US prosecutors indicted Veselnitskaya in January 2019 on similar charges. They allege that she secretly worked with the Russian Prosecutor General’s office to draft a document to be shared with the United States under the treaty of mutual legal assistance. The document in question is purported to show that an independent Russian investigation found Veselnitskaya’s clients had nothing to do with the money laundering they were charged with in a New York court.
However, US prosecutors obtained the emails, which indicate that Veselnitskaya contacted one of the officials in the department via email. Examination of the Word documents they shared showed that Veselnitskaya had made significant modifications to the document using the change tracking feature.
The document — with Veselnitskaya’s changes incorporated — has been submitted to US prosecutors by authorities in Moscow, demonstrating how closely Trump Tower’s lawyers have worked with the Russian state.
When Don Jr., Kushner and Paul Manafort, Trump’s former campaign manager, met with Veselnitskaya in 2016 to discuss damaging information she might have about Hillary Clinton, it was confirmed. that the Moscow lawyer has nothing to do with Putin’s government.
In fact, she’s promoting one of his pet projects: the reversal of the Magnitsky Act. The Anti-Corruption Act, signed by President Obama in 2012, is named in honor of Sergei Magnitsky, who uncovered a $230 million scam before he was jailed and mistreated by Russian authorities. and left to die.
The Magnitsky Act sets out sanctions for those accused of covering up fraud and laundering proceeds, and provides a mechanism for penalizing corrupt individuals in Russia and beyond. Magnitsky-style legislation has been adopted in the European Union and eight countries around the world, most recently including Australia.
Katsyv and his company Prevezon have been charged by US prosecutors with helping launder the proceeds of that massive fraud, which they deny.
Swiss authorities froze about $8 million worth of assets in connection with the alleged scam a decade ago but decided to return most of the money last year despite knowing full well that Their investigation was compromised by Russia.
A consultant for the Swiss Federal Prosecutor’s Office, Named in court as Victor K, was fired following allegations of bribery and “unauthorized covert conduct” including secret meeting with Veselnitskaya. The former anti-corruption police officer was also flown by helicopter during a bear hunt in Russia’s Far East. He took another luxury trip to Russia with Swiss prosecutor Patrick Lamon and Swiss attorney general Michael Lauber. Three of them were photographed enjoying a cruise on a Baikal boat with high-ranking Russian officials.
Despite the extreme humiliation of the Swiss judicial system, the court decided to return the money to Russia in a judgment in July 2021. New charges of Russian interference are likely to be filed as part of an ongoing appeal against that ruling. If the appeal is successful, the amount will not be returned.
It was alleged in court papers filed on January 17, 2022—It was first reported by the Swiss newspaper Tages-Anzeiger—It was Veselnitskaya who edited the transcript of the interview conducted by Victor K and Lamon in Moscow, which took place at the Prosecutor General’s office. That official transcript was given to Swiss prosecutors.
The court filing was made by Hermitage Capital, which is owned by US-born businessman Bill Browder. The Russian government has claimed — without basis — that Browder and Magnitsky are indeed behind the scam.
Other emails discovered by the Dossier Center now appear to suggest that someone named Veselnitskaya’s stepdaughter may also have been involved in drafting another document. This account purports to contain the independent testimony of an expert witness in Russia who claimed that it was not possible to track the alleged money laundering funds that found their way into the Prevezon account.
Edward Shakirov’s supposedly independent testimony was translated by Veselnitskaya’s assistant in October 2015, according to leaked emails. The metadata on the resulting document was edited by someone using the name of Veselnitskaya’s stepdaughter, Mitusova.
A copy of that translated testimony was then forwarded to the Swiss authorities by Russian officials in December of that year.
This evidence seems to be really at odds with Swiss authorities, as the prosecutor’s shutdown order mentioned Shakirov’s name 15 times.
A federal judge is expected to rule soon on whether the case should be reopened and sent back to prosecutors for further investigation.
