A German company newly sanctioned by the Biden administration for its ties to the poisoning of a Russian political activist has been linked to the infamous 2016 meeting at Trump Tower.
The Biden administration sanctioned Riol-Chemie for its "activities in support of Russia's weapons of mass destruction programs," but financial records reviewed by The Daily Beast show the poisoning of Alexei Navalny is tied to the money laundering network that Russian attorney Natalia Veselnitskya was trying to cover up when she met with Donald Trump Jr. and other campaign officials before the 2016 election.
The dark money network, which was exposed by Russian lawyer Sergei Magnitsky can be linked by those documents to the chemical weapons program run by Russia's intelligence services, the website reported.
Documents compiled by Lithuanian investigators show Riol-Chemie received hundreds of thousands of dollars from a company registered in the British Virgin Islands that's accused of laundering some of the $230 million fraud exposed by Magnitsky, who was murdered in jail after revealing the theft, and French investigators found records that show two companies registered in New Zealand sent $1 million of that stolen money to the German chemical maker.
The U.S. and other countries have enacted anti-corruption laws in Magnitsky's name, which Veselnitskaya asked the Trump campaign to overturn if the Republican won the election, and Bill Browder — Magnitsky's former employer — said those laws preventing Vladimir Putin from spending the stolen money as he pleases have driven the Russian president crazy.
"This clearly shows why Putin has become unhinged because of the Magnitsky investigation," Browder said. "Every layer of this onion that is peeled, ever more dirty and dangerous information emerges."
Veselnitskaya was charged in early 2019 by federal prosecutors in Manhattan with seeking to obstruct an investigation into money laundering that involved Prevezon Holdings and its Russian owner Denis Katsyv, and shows her deep ties to Kremlin officials.
She met June 9, 2016 with Trump Jr., Jared Kushner and then Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort after promising to deliver campaign dirt against Hillary Clinton.
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