Lawyer Natalya Veselnitskaya was accused of obstructing justice in the United States

Photo: AP/TASS

Lawyer Natalya Veselnitskaya, about whom the whole world learned in connection with the investigation of the alleged intervention of Russia in the American elections, threatens a prison term in the United States. At the end of December, the Federal Prosecutor's Office of New York accused Veselnitskaya of obstructing justice. According to the documents published by the prosecutor’s office, with the help of a certain high-ranking Russian prosecutor, the lawyer tried to prevent the investigation of money on the laundering of the Cyprus company Prevezon Holding, which was owned by the son of one of the top managers of Russian Railways. According to this charges, Veselnitskaya threatens in the United States up to 10 years in prison.

Read more. The accusations against Veselnitskaya are associated with the investigation in the United States against the Cyprus Prevezon Holdings, which belonged to Denis Katskovu, the son of Vice President of Russian Railways Peter Katv. The investigation against Prevezon began in 2013 at the request of the head of the Hermitage Capital Management Foundation William Brauder. The company was suspected of laundering in the USA $ 230 million stolen from the Russian budget.

Veselnitskaya advised and represented Prevezon's interests during the trial. Now in the United States she is accused of obstructing the investigation. From the published documents it follows that during the investigation, the US Ministry of Justice requested the assistance of the Russian prosecutor's office. The judge in the Prevezon case later wrote that instead of an answer to the request of the American authorities, the Russian General Prosecutor's Office sent a "long treatise on Katskov's innocence." As a result, the process ended with a pre -trial agreement - Prevezon Holdings agreed to pay $ 5.9 million compensation to the US authorities.

How Veselnitskaya interfered with the investigation. The charges against a lawyer say that she was in close contact with an unnamed high -ranking Russian prosecutor and had access to a draft letter, which the department eventually sent as a response to the request of the American authorities, and also participated in the preparation of this document.

In April 2018, the project “Dossier” Mikhail Khodorkovsky also reported the same about this. At his disposal was the correspondence of Veselnitskaya with the employees of the Prosecutor General’s Office. From it, for example, it followed that with the Prevezon process Veselnitskaya in 2014-2015 was helped by the deputy chief of the Office for the investigation of especially important cases of the Prosecutor General Sergei Bochkarev. Khodorkovsky then stated that the editors of the Dossier gained access to her letters from an anonymous source. Veselnitskaya herself said that she became a victim of American hackers (we wrote in detail about this here ). Prior to this episode, the lawyer denied her ties with the Russian authorities, although she confirmed the acquaintance with the prosecutor general Yuri Chaika.

https://youtu.be/bbwd3kdsl7c

Why is it important? Evidence of Veselnitskaya’s connections with the Russian authorities at the highest level can be used in the investigation of the special prosecutor Robert Müller about the alleged intervention of Russia in the American elections. One of its main episodes isthe meeting of Veselnitskaya with representatives of the campaign headquarters Donald Trump during the presidential campaign in 2016. Then Donald Trump Jr., Jared Kushner (Ivanka Trump's husband) and the head of the Trump election headquarters Paul Manafortmet at Trump Tower in New York with Veselnitskaya, who allegedly promised them to provide them with Hillary Clinton (both sides refuted it).

Anton Baev