Russian Oligarch Funded Donald Trump Jr.’s Bahamas Wedding

Kevin Lamarque / REUTERS Donald Trump Jr.’s lavish Bahamas wedding was heavily funded by a Russian oligarch with close ties to Vladimir Putin, according to a bombshell report.

Umar Kremlev, head of the International Boxing Association (IBA), paid for hundreds of thousands of dollars in expenses for President Donald Trump’s eldest son when he tied the knot with his partner, socialite Bettina Anderson, in May, ProPublica reported.

This included renting a private island for a reception, where the happy couple had their first dance.

Kremlev also paid for a massive fireworks display and helped plan other aspects of the three-day event.

While Kremlev did not attend the small wedding ceremony itself, he was part of a larger guest list of around 50 people who joined the Trumps for the wider celebrations in the Bahamas.

It is not known why Kremlev paid for so much of Trump Jr.’s wedding, especially as Forbes estimates that the president’s eldest son’s net worth has skyrocketed to around $300 million thanks to his crypto ventures.

Questions have also been raised about why Trump Jr. let a close Putin ally help with his wedding, especially as his family has been intensely scrutinized over its relationship with Russia dating back to Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into Moscow’s interference in the 2016 election.

“If I’m paying for your wedding, at some point, you’re going to owe me something,” Frank Montoya Jr., a retired career FBI official, told ProPublica.

“This should be unthinkable for the son of the president.

End of story.” Kremlev was said to have been part of a group of Russians in attendance at the reception whose presence “puzzled” other guests.

This included businessman Alexander Lagutin and Elena Sobol, dubbed Kremlev’s “right-hand man” at the IBA.

“What are they doing here?” one person recalled thinking, according to ProPublica, about the conspicuous Russian guests.

Neither Trump Jr. nor his wife, now Bettina Anderson, shared any photos of Kremlev or the other Russians who formed the close-knit group celebrating their special day on social media.

However, Kremlev appears in a photo shared on Instagram by one of Bettina’s friends who also attended.