Irakly "Ike" Kaveladze (Georgian: ირაკლი კაველაძე) is a

Georgian-American Georgian Americans ( ka, ქართველი ამერიკელები, tr) are Americans of full or partial Georgian ancestry. They encompass ethnic Georgians who have immigrated to the U.S. from Georgia, as well as other areas wi ...

business executive. He is senior vice president at , the real estate development company run by

Aras Agalarov Aras Iskanderovich Agalarov ( az, Araz İsgəndəroviç Ağalarov; russian: link=no, Ара́з Исканде́рович Агала́ров; born 8 November 1955) is an Azerbaijani-Russian billionaire real estate developer. Several sources ha ...

. He was one of eight people attending a meeting with

Donald Trump Donald John Trump (born June 14, 1946) is an American politician, media personality, and businessman who served as the 45th president of the United States from 2017 to 2021. Trump graduated from the Wharton School of the University of P ...

election campaign A political campaign is an organized effort which seeks to influence the decision making progress within a specific group. In democracies, political campaigns often refer to electoral campaigns, by which representatives are chosen or referend ...

officials in June 2016. According to his attorney, Kavaladze is a long-time U.S. citizen and has "never had any engagement with the Russian government in any capacity." Kaveladze was born in the Soviet republic of Georgia in 1965. He graduated from the Moscow Finance Academy in 1989 and received an MBA from the University of New Haven in Connecticut in 2002, according to his website. He immigrated to the US in 1991 where he set up International Business Creations (IBC), a company that opened bank accounts with Citibank of New York and the Commercial Bank of San Francisco for companies incorporated in

Delaware Delaware ( ) is a state in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States, bordering Maryland to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and New Jersey and the Atlantic Ocean to its east. The state takes its name from the adjacent Del ...

for Russian brokers. In 1996, Kaveladze set up Euro-American Corporate Services Inc. whose services included incorporating companies in Delaware for Russian brokers and setting up bank accounts for them. A money laundering investigation in 2000 revealed that Kaveladze had created corporations without knowing who owned them and that more than $1.4 billion had been moved through their accounts. In response to a 2020 senate report that mentioned this investigation, a lawyer from the firm representing Kaveladze stated that it "does nothing more than reiterate decades-old claims of money laundering that have been consistently denied and debunked and which, despite extensive investigations, resulted in no finding of any illegality whatsoever." On June 9, 2016, he was present at a meeting in

Trump Tower Trump Tower is a 58-story, mixed-use skyscraper at 721–725 Fifth Avenue in the Midtown Manhattan neighborhood of New York City, between East 56th and 57th Streets. The building contains the headquarters for the Trump Organization, as well ...

between three people associated with the Donald Trump campaign—

Donald Trump Jr. Donald John Trump Jr. (born December 31, 1977) is an American political activist, businessman, author, and former television presenter. He is the eldest child of Donald Trump, 45th president of the United States from 2017 to 2021, and his firs ...

Jared Kushner Jared Corey Kushner (born January 10, 1981) is an American businessman and investor. He served as a senior advisor to 45th U.S. president Donald Trump, his father-in-law. Since leaving the White House, Kushner founded Affinity Partners, a pri ...

, and Paul Manafort—and several other people including Russian attorney Natalia Veselnitskaya. The meeting had been proposed by Azerbaijani singer

Emin Agalarov Emin Aras oghlu Agalarov ( az, Emin Araz oğlu Ağalarov, russian: Эмин Аразович Агаларов; born December 12, 1979), also known as Emin Arazovich Agalarov, is an Azerbaijani-Russian singer and businessman. He writes and perfo ...

and his father, Moscow-based oligarch

, Kaveladze's employer. Kaveladze attended the meeting as a representative of the Agalarov family and to serve as an interpreter if necessary, according to his attorney.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kaveladze, Ike American people of Georgian (country) descent Living people People associated with Russian interference in the 2016 United States elections People associated with the 2016 United States presidential election 1965 births

See also

References