MOSCOW: A Russian-backed company involved in a decade-long drama that touched the highest levels of the U.S. and Russian governments has finally agreed with the U.S. on how to pay a multimillion dollar settlement of a U.S. lawsuit.
Prevezon Holdings Ltd. will make good on its $6 million obligation using escrowed funds from the seizure and sale of New York apartments, according to a filing Wednesday in Manhattan federal court. The amount had grown from $5.9 million when the company reached a deal last year with U.S. prosecutors.
The dispute stemmed from $230 million in stolen Russian tax funds that were laundered out of the country and placed in bank accounts and other assets around the world, including a handful of New York luxury apartments. The matter strained relations between the two countries, leading to a ban on American adoptions of Russian orphans in retaliation for U.S. sanctions on the people involved in the theft.
It even figured in accusations of an alliance between Russia and then-presidential candidate Donald Trump that are the subject of a special counsel investigation in Washington D.C. One of Prevezon’s Russian lawyers is Natalia Veselnitskaya, who met with Trump’s son during the 2016 election in a meeting at Trump Tower that was sold as an opportunity for the campaign to get dirt from Russia on Hillary Clinton.
