The Daily Beast revealed that a 70-story Trump Tower Tbilisi project backed by President Donald Trump’s sons is connected to oligarch Paata Gamgoneishvili.
Per reports, Gamgoneishvili’s past includes ties to a murdered journalist and an alleged scheme siphoning tens of millions from Russian oil giant Lukoil’s Bulgarian operations.
Eric Trump announced the project in May as the family’s “first project in the region.”
The Daily Beast, joined by PunchUp and The Newsground, reported Biograpi Living, co-owned by Gamgoneishvili and originally named in the deal, now denies involvement despite a Trump announcement featuring the company.
“This has nothing to do with the president,” spokeswoman Anna Kelly told The Beast, “whose investment holdings are held in fully discretionary accounts managed by independent third-party financial institutions.”
Investigators tied Gamgoneishvili to a network behind alleged financial fraud.
Bulgarian journalist Viktoria Marinova, who hosted investigative reports on the scandal, was brutally murdered, according to the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project, adding that authorities denied the connection despite editor disputes.
Gamgoneishvili’s past also includes ties to former Russian President Boris Yeltsin and a shopping mall fortune worth $230 million, The Daily Beast reported.
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