Irakly "Ike" Kaveladze | |
|---|---|
| Born | 1965 (age 59–60) |
| Occupation(s) | Senior Vice President, Crocus Group |
Irakly "Ike" Kaveladze (Georgian: ირაკლი კაველაძე) is aGeorgian-American business executive. He is senior vice president atCrocus Group [ru], the real estate development company run byAras Agalarov. He was one of eight people attending ameeting withDonald Trump'selection campaign officials in June 2016.[1][2][3] 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."[1]
Kaveladze was born in theSoviet republic of Georgia in 1965.[4] He graduated from theMoscow Finance Academy in 1989 and received an MBA from theUniversity 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 inDelaware 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.[5] Amoney 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.[5][6] In response to a2020 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."[7]
On June 9, 2016, he was present at a meeting inTrump Tower between three people associated with theDonald Trump campaign—Donald Trump Jr.,Jared Kushner, andPaul Manafort—and several other people including Russian attorneyNatalia Veselnitskaya.[3] The meeting had been proposed byAzerbaijani singerEmin Agalarov and his father, Moscow-basedoligarchAras Agalarov, Kaveladze's employer.[2] Kaveladze attended the meeting as a representative of the Agalarov family and to serve as an interpreter if necessary, according to his attorney.[1]
