Russian Lawyer who attended the now infamous Trump Tower meeting, Natalia Veselnitskaya, has been indicted on a separate case tied to money laundering unsealed court documents showed on Tuesday.
According to Manhattan U.S. Attorney Geoffrey Berman, Veselnitskaya obstructed justice when she knowingly fabricated evidence — submitted “false and deceptive declarations to a federal judge.”
Courthouse News explains the case involved, “Denis Katsyv, the son of a Russian government official, in the case against his Cyprus-based company Prevezon Holdings.”
According to the article the case brought by the U.S., accused Prevezon Holdings of “stashing $230 million laundered from a tax-fraud scheme orchestrated by the Russian mafia,” was settled in May of 2017, by then-Acting United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, Joon Kim.
In his statement Kim explained, “we will not allow the U.S. financial system to be used to launder the proceeds of crimes committed anywhere – here in the U.S., in Russia, or anywhere else. Under the terms of this settlement, the defendants have agreed to pay not just what we alleged flowed to them from the Russian treasury fraud, but three times that amount, and roughly 10 times the money we alleged could be traced directly into U.S. accounts and real estate.”
The U.S. alleges that Veselnitskaya, while working as a member of the Prevezon Holdings defense team submitted a declaration that asserted that findings of the Russian Government had been independently drafted, however, according to the unsealed indictment she “in truth and in fact, and as Veselnitskaya well knew but concealed from the court, had participated in drafting those supposed independent investigative findings in secret cooperation with a senior Russian prosecutor.”
As the News Blender reported in April, Veselnitskaya, said in an interview, with NBC News, that she was a lawyer and an informant.
Why It Matters: Veselnitskaya told the U.S. Senate she was a private lawyer who operated independent of any government bodies Russian or otherwise, but the indictment seems to confirm she was in close contact with Russian government officials, going so far as to help draft at least one Russian government response to U.S. court proceedings.
U.S. Attorney Geoffrey Berman said in a statement that Veselnitskaya by fabricating the court filing attempted to, “affect the outcome of pending litigation not only undermines the integrity of the judicial process, but it threatens the ability of our courts and our Government to ensure that justice is done. We take seriously our responsibility to protect the integrity of the judicial proceedings in this District, and we will not stand idly by while outside influences seek to corrupt and pervert that process.”
As a reminder: The infamous Trump Tower meeting included several key players among Trump campaign officials, including his son, Donald Trump Jr.. When the meeting was first reported in July of 2017, President Trump drafted a statement that said the meeting was about adoption, later they admitted the meeting was set-up in order to obtain “dirt” on President Trump’s opponent Hillary Clinton.
