The newly revealed member of Trump Jr.'s meeting was once implicated in a Russian money-laundering scheme

The newly revealed member of Donald Trump Jr.'s meeting with a Kremlin-linked Russian lawyer last June was once implicated in a Russian money-laundering scheme, reporter Sarah Kendzior pointed out Tuesday. In yet another plot twist, it turns out that Ike Kaveladze, an American-based employee of Russian developers who attended the Trump Tower meeting, was targeted in an investigation in 2000 into foreigners laundering money through American banks. The New York Times wrote about it in November 2000:
A congressional inquiry has found that it is "relatively easy" for foreigners to hide their identities and form shell companies here that can launder money through American banks.In a nine-month inquiry that subpoenaed bank records, the investigators found that an unknown number of Russians and other East Europeans moved more than $1.4 billion through accounts at Citibank of New York and the Commercial Bank of San Francisco.The accounts had been opened by Irakly Kaveladze, who immigrated to the United States from Russia in 1991, according to Citibank and Mr. Kaveladze. He set up more than 2,000 corporations in Delaware for Russian brokers and then opened the bank accounts for them, without knowing who owned the corporations, according to the report by the General Accounting Office, which has not been made public. [The New York Times]
Kaveladze now works for Emin and Aras Agalarov, the Russian developers who hosted the 2013 Miss Universe pageant when Trump decided to bring it to Moscow. It was Emin's publicist, Rob Goldstone, who emailed Trump Jr. to set up the June 2016 meeting, promising that the lawyer had compromising information on Hillary Clinton that would boost now-President Trump's chances of winning the election.
The Washington Post reported Tuesday that Kaveladze's identity was requested by a "representative of Special Counsel Robert Mueller," suggesting Mueller is now investigating the Trump Jr. meeting.
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
-
New York court tosses Trump's $500M fraud fine
Speed Read A divided appeals court threw out a hefty penalty against President Trump for fraudulently inflating his wealth
-
Trump said to seek government stake in Intel
Speed Read The president and Intel CEO Lip-Bu Tan reportedly discussed the proposal at a recent meeting
-
US to take 15% cut of AI chip sales to China
Speed Read Nvidia and AMD will pay the Trump administration 15% of their revenue from selling artificial intelligence chips to China
-
NFL gets ESPN stake in deal with Disney
Speed Read The deal gives the NFL a 10% stake in Disney's ESPN sports empire and gives ESPN ownership of NFL Network
-
Samsung to make Tesla chips in $16.5B deal
Speed Read Tesla has signed a deal to get its next-generation chips from Samsung
-
FCC greenlights $8B Paramount-Skydance merger
Speed Read The Federal Communications Commission will allow Paramount to merge with the Hollywood studio Skydance
-
Tesla reports plummeting profits
Speed Read The company may soon face more problems with the expiration of federal electric vehicle tax credits
-
Dollar faces historic slump as stocks hit new high
Speed Read While stocks have recovered post-Trump tariffs, the dollar has weakened more than 10% this year