Ukrainian billionaire Victor Pinchuk gave $150,000 to the Trump Foundation in 2015 for the organization of Donald Trump`s participation in a conference, according to Ukrainian news outlet Ukrayinska Pravda.
”The money was paid to president-elect Trump`s foundation for support of a video conference call during the Yalta European Strategy annual conference, which is organized by the Victor Pinchuk Foundation and Pinchuk-founded NGO YES in Ukraine every September,” the press service told Ukrayinska Pravda.
It is also mentioned that Pinchuk met with Trump in the city of New York several years ago and invited him to take part in the event.
Earlier U.S. business monthly Fast Company (FC) wrote that the Donald J. Trump Foundation`s 2015 tax return shows that Ukrainian billionaire businessman and philanthropist Victor Pinchuk, through his London-based charity, gave $150,000 to the foundation.
”Pinchuk was also a major donor to the Clinton Foundation and hired a well-connected lobbyist to arrange meetings at the State Department when Hillary Clinton was Secretary of State. On the campaign trail, Clinton was criticized for having ties to the Ukrainian oligarch, who is the son-in-law of former Ukrainian president Leonid Kuchma. Republicans decried the `overlapping interests` between Clinton Foundation donors and the Clinton-led State Department and Trump repeatedly vowed to have a special prosecutor probe donations to the foundation made when Clinton was serving the Obama administration,” FC wrote.
According to Ukrayinska Pravda, Pinchuk transferred at least $8.1 million in total to the Clintons in the past few years.
The Wall Street Journal in turn calculated that the Ukrainians were the most generous donors of the Clinton Foundation in 2014, and their donations were estimated at $10 million.
”Between 2009 and 2013, including when Mrs. Clinton was secretary of state, the Clinton Foundation received at least $8.6 million from the Victor Pinchuk Foundation, according to that foundation, which is based in Kyiv, Ukraine. It was created by Mr. Pinchuk, whose fortune stems from a pipe-making company. He served two terms as an elected member of the Ukrainian Parliament and is a proponent of closer ties between Ukraine and the European Union,” The Wall Street Journal wrote on March 19, 2015.
Mr. Pinchuk and his wife – the daughter of former Ukraine President Leonid Kuchma – began donating to Clinton charities in 2006 after being introduced to Mr. Clinton by Doug Schoen, a pollster who has worked for both Clintons.
In 2008, Pinchuk made a five-year, $29 million commitment to the Clinton Global Initiative, a wing of the foundation that coordinates charitable projects and funding for them but doesn`t handle the money. The pledge was to fund a program to train future Ukrainian leaders and professionals ”to modernize Ukraine,” according to the Clinton Foundation.
