US firm that gave cash to Michael Cohen helped secure millions for Putin-linked oligarch

Files reviewed by Guardian shed new light on ties between Columbus Nova, Viktor Vekselberg and Kremlin-allied bankers

A company that paid Michael Cohen, Donald Trump’s legal fixer, was also involved in securing hundreds of millions of dollars in funding for a Russian oligarch from a bank with ties to Russia’s intelligence services.

Columbus Nova, an investment firm based in New York, confirmed earlier this month that it paid Cohen half a million dollarsin consulting fees. The company is the US affiliate of Renova Group, a Moscow-based corporation owned by Viktor Vekselberg, one of Russia’s richest men.

Records reviewed by the Guardian show that American investment vehicles managed for Vekselberg by Columbus Nova were used to secure $450m in loans that Vekselberg took from the Russian state-controlled VTB Bank.

The records shed new light on the complex financial ties between a firm found to have been paying the US president’s personal attorney, a Russian billionaire on good terms with Vladimir Putin, and bankers allied with the Kremlin.

Vekselberg, 61, was questioned by agents working for Robert Mueller, the special counsel investigating alleged collusion between Russia and Trump’s 2016 election campaign team. US authorities concluded that Putin ordered an operation to help Trump win. Vekselberg is not accused of any wrongdoing.

Columbus Nova’s chief executive, Vekselberg’s cousin Andrew Intrater, donated $250,000 to Trump’s inauguration fund. He has since donated $35,000 to the president’s joint 2020 fundraising effort with the Republican National Committee, where Cohen is a senior official.

A spokesman for Columbus Nova, who declined to speak on the record, said the funding supplied to Vekselberg by VTB was not actually used by Vekselberg’s American investment vehicles. A spokesman for Vekselberg did not respond to requests for comment. Columbus Nova has insisted Vekselberg had no involvement in hiring Cohen.

Filings to Delaware authorities show that Bounty Investments, an investment vehicle that Columbus Nova managed for Vekselberg, was named in 2010 as the borrower on four loans from VTB Capital, the Russian bank’s investment arm.

In Russia, VTB Capital had recently described itself as “pivotal in managing the state’s interests” and said Putin took an active interest in its operations. VTB was sanctioned by the US Treasury in 2014 in response to Putin’s annexation of part of Ukraine. Vekselberg himself was recently sanctioned by the US.

A source familiar with the arrangement said Vekselberg’s company Renova Group borrowed $450m through VTB Group in November 2008. The following year, Vekselberg was asked to provide additional collateral for the funding and used his stakes in US investment vehicles managed by Columbus Nova. Records indicate that the loans were all paid off by May 2011.

A spokeswoman for VTB said in a statement: “The loan was provided in ordinary course of business of VTB Group and in line with prevailing market conditions.” Cohen and his attorney did not respond to requests for comment.

VTB Bank is closely connected with the Russian government. Its chairman, Andrey Kostin, is a state-decorated former Soviet official who was stationed in London during the 1980s. VTB has dismissed claims by some historians and analysts that Kostin’s work was intelligence-related. The bank said this was “incorrect gossip” and that Kostin was a diplomat.

The bank’s spokeswoman said: “We categorically deny the allegations that Mr Kostin has ever had affiliations with the Russian intelligence services, nor has he ever worked for the FSB or other national security organisations. We recommend you to ask the British and American secret services on this subject. They definitely should confirm our statement.”

Vasily Titov, VTB’s former deputy chairman who was reported to have departed last October, was also the chairman of the public council of the FSB, a successor agency to the KGB.

Yet a former Trump business associate sought funding from VTB during the 2016 election campaign for a planned Trump property development in Moscow, according to a report published last month by Democrats on the House Intelligence committee.

The associate, Russian-born developer Felix Sater, described Kostin as “Putin’s top finance guy” in an email to Trump’s legal fixer Michael Cohen and said Kostin had shown willingness to “finance Trump Moscow”. Kostin later denied that any such discussions took place.

Until both websites recently went offline, Renova’s website named Columbus Nova among its holdings and Columbus Nova’s said it was “the US investment vehicle for the Renova Group”. In a statement earlier this month, Columbus Nova said it was “solely owned and controlled by Americans”.

In December 2015, Vekselberg was a guest at a much-discussed dinner in Moscow to celebrate the state-backed RT television channel, which was also attended by Putin and Michael Flynn, Trump’s former national security adviser.

This article originally appeared in The Guardian.