In 2009,
Sergei Magnitsky, a tax accountant who had accused Moscow law enforcement of stealing $230 million in tax rebates from his client, was beaten to death in jail. In 2012, Magnitsky's client,
Bill Browder, secured passage of the American
Magnitsky Act, which imposed sanctions on the officials involved.
Rinat Akhmetshin, a naturalized U.S. citizen from Russia, who has worked as a Washington lobbyist since 1998, agreed to lobby for the foundation backed by
Denis Katsyv. From 1986 to 1988, Akhmetshin served in the
Soviet Army, where he obtained the rank of sergeant and worked in a counterintelligence unit for the
KGB. Donald Trump Jr. said that Veselnitskaya used the meeting to criticize the Magnitsky Act. Veselnitskaya herself commented that she mostly talked about Browder's (alleged) misdeeds, whereas the Trump team wanted what she termed "some sort of grenade". Akhmetshin said he met with Veselnitskaya for lunch and she asked him to attend the meeting, which he then did. According to Akhmetshin, Veselnitskaya's translator, Anatoli Samachornov, also attended. Two days after the Trump Tower meeting, the Human Rights Accountability Global Initiative Foundation (who Akhmetshin worked for, as a lobbyist) registered to lobby Congress on the Magnitsky Act. She provided the film crew with "the real proofs and records of testimony" according to
RussiaTV5, a "station whose owners are known to be close to Mr. Putin". In April 2016, the
European Parliament refused to show this film about Magnitsky on the basis that it was "pro-Russian propaganda". Veselnitskaya represented Pyotr Katsyv's son, Denis, when
Preet Bharara, the
United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, charged him with
money laundering. The Russian government then banned Bharara from traveling there. After being told, at the end of the deposition, that the counterparty would be required to reimburse her for her expenses, she billed the U.S. government $50,000, for an $800 meal, eight
grappas, and a $995-per-night room at the
Plaza Hotel. According to Swiss news sources, a Swiss agent and Russia specialist from the Federal Office of Police, investigating the
Prevezon transaction from a Magnitsky Act violation, travelled privately to Moscow in December 2016 with his diplomatic passport, where he met Veselnitskaya. The meeting was apparently set up by Russian Deputy Attorney General Saak Albertovich Karapetyan. Because the officer, known only as Victor K., visited Russia without the knowledge of his Swiss superiors, and part of his stay in a Moscow luxury hotel was financed by Russian officials, the man was later dismissed, suspected of abuse of office, violation of official secrecy and corruption. During an unauthorized flight, Karapetyan died in a helicopter crash north-east of Moscow in March 2019. President
Donald Trump fired Bharara on 11 March 2017 and
Jeff Sessions replaced him with
Joon Kim as the acting US Attorney for the southern district of New York during the rest of the case. In May 2017, the international money laundering case was settled with Katsyv's company, Prevezon Holdings, which was represented by
Louis Freeh, paying $6 million (without any admission of
wrongdoing). In November 2017, Katsyv's company Prevezon stated that it would pay the fine using money from
AFI Europe which is a subsidiary of
Lev Leviev's
Africa Israel Investments. In a 14 July 2017, interview with
The Wall Street Journal, Veselnitskaya acknowledged that she was in regular contact with the
Russian prosecutor general's office and with Prosecutor General
Yury Chaika "while waging a campaign against U.S. sanctions". On 8 January 2019, Veselnitskaya was indicted for obstruction of justice by the office of the U.S. Attorney for the
Southern District of New York, in connection with a 2015 money laundering case. She was accused of submitting an intentionally misleading statement to the court – a report exonerating her client Katsyv which she claimed was the result of an investigation by the Russian government, when in fact she had helped to draft the report. Veselnitskaya was believed to be in Russia at the time of the indictment and is unlikely to appear in a U.S. court as Russia does not extradite its citizens to other countries. On 11 April 2016, while on a trip to Moscow,
Dana Rohrabacher obtained from
Yuri Chaika a confidential memo of accusations against prominent donors to the Democratic Party. Veselnitskaya delivered a very similar document, with some portions word for word the same, at the Trump Tower meeting on 9 June 2016. He met with
Rinat Akhmetshin in Berlin to discuss Prevezon and later Rohrabacher was a staunch supporter of Prevezon's interests. According to
Barry Meier, Veselnitskaya and Denis Katsyv received critical information for Prevezon from
Glenn Simpson and his
Fusion GPS which had been hired to support her efforts through Mark Cymrot and John Moscow of the
BakerHostetler law firm. Because of these actions,
Bill Browder believed that the
Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) had been violated. ==Personal life==