Donald Trump Jr. acknowledges Russian oligarch with ties to Putin hosted his lavish island wedding celebration

Donald Trump Jr. and his wife, Bettina Trump, acknowledged Monday that a Russian oligarch with ties to President Vladimir Putin paid for their lavish Caribbean island post-wedding celebration in May.

ProPublica reported that Umar Kremlev paid hundreds of thousands of dollars in wedding-related expenses for the newlyweds and dozens of guests for festivities on a private island in the Bahamas that started a day after the ceremony. The festivities included a fireworks show, which ProPublica reported Kremlev also paid for.

“Our dear friend Umar very generously hosted two incredible nights of celebrations for us AFTER our wedding. It was an extraordinarily generous wedding gift from a friend, and something for which we were and remain incredibly grateful,” according to a post on Bettina Trump’s Instagram page, which was signed “Don & Bettina.”

It’s unclear why a member of the Trump family — who has made hundreds of millions of dollars during the first year of his father’s second term, some of it from cryptocurrency ventures that have involved foreign investments — would accept a gift from someone so closely aligned with Putin.

President Donald Trump, who did not attend the wedding or the celebration, told NBC News in a statement…

Original source: https://www.nbcnews.com/business