He was previously scrutinized by Congress for alleged money-laundering activities, though he denied wrongdoing and no charges were ever brought. He was revealed to be one of the participants in the June 9, 2016, Trump Tower meeting. Kaveladze reportedly attended this meeting as a representative of the Agalarovs, and has claimed he was unaware of the purpose behind the meeting. Kaveladze was born in Georgia and studied in Moscow before immigrating to the U.S. in 1991, and he currently holds American citizenship. In 2000, the New York Times reported on the findings of a Congressional inquiry explaining the ease with which foreigners could hide their identities and use shell companies to launder money through American banks. This inquiry examined accounts established by Kaveladze, who had created more than 2,000 corporations in Delaware for various Russian individuals and subsequently opened bank accounts for these corporations. Citibank, one of the banks used to open these accounts, claimed that no illegal activity was found to be linked to the accounts associated with Kaveladze. More than $1.4 billion was moved to these accounts, the sources of which were unknown. Former Senator Carl Levin, who requested the initial inquiry, referred to Kaveladze as a “poster child” for using shell companies to launder money; however, Kaveladze was not charged with any crimes as a result of the inquiry, which he described as a “witch hunt.” (Photo credit: Mark Wilson / Getty Images)