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   GOP operatives funneling Russian money to Trump is the latest foreign   
   “straw” donor scheme   
      
       By Anna Massoglia   
       September 22, 2021 11:55 am   
      
   (Photo by KIRILL KUDRYAVTSEV/AFP via Getty Images)   
      
   The indictment of two Republican operatives on charges they allegedly   
   funneled money from a Russian national to the Trump campaign’s joint   
   fundraising committee is the latest in a string of high profile — and high   
   stakes — foreign straw donor schemes exposed by the Department of Justice.   
      
   Federal prosecutors claim Jesse Benton and Doug Wead accepted $100,000   
   from an unidentified Russian foreign national in exchange for getting the   
   person a meeting with then-candidate Donald Trump at a fundraiser in 2016.   
   Allegedly, the two funnelled $25,000 to the Trump campaign’s joint   
   fundraising committee and pocketed the other $75,000.   
      
   Benton, a former campaign manager for Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) and Senate   
   Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), worked for the pro-Trump super   
   PAC Great America PAC in 2016. In December 2020, Benton was pardoned by   
   Trump on charges tied to hiding bribes in a 2012 scandal. At the time,   
   Benton allegedly paid a vendor who then paid a subvendor, violating the   
   FEC’s ultimate vendor disclosure rules.   
      
   Wead was a White House adviser during former President George H.W. Bush’s   
   presidency and  also worked for Paul as well as the Kentucky senator’s   
   father, former Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas). In 2019, Wead released a book   
   titled “Inside Trump’s White House.”   
      
   Although the indictment, made public Tuesday, does not name the foreign   
   national, Forensic News reported that evidence suggests the description of   
   “Foreign National 1” — the Russian who allegedly funded the straw   
   donations — matches Roman Vasilenko. The indictment’s description of   
   “Foreign National 2” shares similarities to Olga Kovalova, a Ukrainian-   
   born translator who has appeared at events with both Wead and Vasilenko.   
      
   As evidence, Forensic News pointed to Vasilenko’s ties to Wead and   
   unearthed a picture of Vasilenko posing with Trump at the 2016 fundraiser   
   mentioned in the indictment. A 2016 video also appears to show Vasilenko   
   and Wead at a 2016 fundraiser with Trump.   
      
   Tickets to the Philadelphia fundraiser mentioned in the indictment cost at   
   least $25,000, payable as a contribution to the Trump campaign’s joint   
   fundraising committee. As a foreign national, Vasilenko would have been   
   barred by federal law from making contributions to political groups or   
   campaigns to influence U.S. elections. Straw donations, where the source   
   of funding is obscured, are also illegal.   
      
   Wead’s longstanding relationship with Vasilenko and Kovalova is evident   
   from their digital footprints.   
      
   Life is Good, Vasilenko’s company that provides ‘self-help’ seminars on   
   how to “achieve financial prosperity,” lists Wead as a partner. A YouTube   
   video from 2009 shows Kovalova translating for Wead, who was also listed   
   on the Ukrainian born translator’s website.   
      
   Vasilenko and Wead were also both involved in Canyonville Academy, a   
   Christian boarding school where Wead was president until 2019. Wead   
   appointed Vasilenko to the school’s board in 2018.   
      
   The new indictment is not the first instance of the Justice Department   
   probing foreign contributions that boosted Trump.   
      
   Last week, Igor Fruman, a Soviet-born operative and assocate of Rudy   
   Giuliani, pleaded guilty to funneling political contributions from a   
   foreign national to pro-Trump super PAC America First Action.   
      
   Federal prosecutors recently announced that Giuliani, who also worked with   
   Fruman’s business partner Lev Parnas, is under investigation over whether   
   he may have acted as an unregistered foreign agent.   
      
   Parnas, Fruman and their U.S. partner, David Correia, were charged in the   
   illegal foreign straw donor scheme after allegedly funneling $325,000 from   
   Russian national Andrei Muraviev through shell companies to America First   
   Action.   
      
   Fruman’s guilty plea notably did not include an agreement to cooperate   
   with the government, and he could face up to five years in prison.   
      
   In February, Correia was sentenced to a year and a day in prison after he   
   pleaded guilty to conspiracy and making false statements about the illegal   
   foreign straw donor scheme.   
      
   The trial for Parnas and another alleged co-conspirator, Ukrainian-born   
   California cannabis investor Andrey Kukushkin, is set to open Oct. 13.   
      
   Other groups supporting Trump have also come under scrutiny for alleged   
   foreign money.   
      
   Federal prosecutors reportedly began probing allegations of foreign   
   donations to Trump’s inaugural committee and pro-Trump super PAC   
   Rebuilding America Now in 2018. The inquiry reportedly examined whether   
   foreign nationals from Middle Eastern nations — including Qatar, Saudi   
   Arabia and the United Arab Emirates — funneled money through straw donors   
   to disguise their donations to the super PAC and Trump’s inaugural   
   committee. That committee was chaired by Tom Barrack, who was arrested in   
   July on charges he secretly acted in the U.S. as an agent for the UAE.   
      
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   In 2018, Republican lobbyist Sam Patten pleaded guilty to helping funnel   
   foreign money to Trump’s inaugural committee from a Ukrainian oligarch.   
   Patten was a longtime partner of Konstantin Kilimnik, a Ukrainian   
   businessman with ties to Russian intelligence who previously worked for   
   Trump’s 2016 campaign chair Paul Manafort.   
      
   California financier and Trump inaugural donor Imaad Zuberi was sentenced   
   to 12 years in prison in February after pleading guilty to violating the   
   Foreign Agents Registration Act and making illegal contributions after he   
   failed to register as a foreign agent while working for the Sri Lankan   
   government and lobbying high-level U.S. government officials. Zuberi,   
   along with his firm Avenue Ventures, gave $900,000 to Trump’s 2017   
   inaugural committee and admitted he “helped facilitate” donations from   
   foreign sources.   
      
   The Justice Department reportedly probed whether another $100,000 donation   
   to Trump’s inauguration came from Jho Low, a fugitive Malaysian financier   
   accused of stealing billions in the 1MDB scandal, and who allegedly   
   transferred roughly $21 million to the Fugees’ Pras Michel as part of the   
   straw donor scheme.   
      
   The Justice Department also scrutinized Low’s $1.5 million in transfers to   
   a firm called LNS Capital shortly before the firm’s head, Larry Davis,   
   made political contributions to the Trump campaign’s joint fundraising   
   committee.The Justice Department has not released a conclusion on whether   
   or not Low was the source of funding behind those contributions.   
      
   The Malaysian financier’s contributions reached politicians on both sides   
      
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