Trump’s Russian Laundromat: The South Florida Edition (2003-2010’s)
Trump’s Russian laundromat was not confined to New York or his overseas properties. In south Florida as well, Russians gobbled up Trump condos via all-cash, anonymous transactions.
Courtesy of Craig Unger
[Craig is the NYT bestselling author of six books on the GOP’s assault on democracy including American Kompromat, House of Trump, House of Putin, and Den of Spies.]
By the time he ran for president in 2016, Donald Trump had begun insisting that he had absolutely “nothing to do with Russia.” More specifically, Trump pointed out that he never owned a tower in Moscow and never borrowed money from Russian banks. But these denials conveniently omitted essential facts that showed for decades Trump had been supported by Kremlin-connected businessmen and Russian intelligence figures who had poured hundreds of millions of dollars into his properties. Just as Trump Tower in New York had become a magnet for Russian wealth, as had Trump projects in Panama City, Toronto, and Baku, so now Sunny Isles, Florida showed all the signs of having become another laundromat for Russian wealth.
That’s how the Russians came to own him.
Indeed, the way the Russians invested in Trump-branded real estate revealed all the tell-tale signs of money laundering. The fact that properties could be bought via all-cash purchases and owned by anonymous limited liability companies that masked the beneficial ownership made Trump-branded real estate ideal for laundering vast amounts of money, which is precisely why they were so appealing. In fact, a 2018 Buzzfeed investigation found that across his developments, Trump and his partners sold at least $1.5 billion worth of condos to shell companies, cash buyers, and others who raised red flags for money laundering risk.
Think about it. You could buy a condo for two or three million, sell it to a friend, and then flip it back and forth to your little heart’s content.
What more could an oligarch ask for?
Trump’s New York properties have commanded more attention, but the epicenter of these new sales was Sunny Isles Beach, a strip of oceanfront about 20 miles north of Miami where six Trump-branded towers were built starting in the early 2000’s. They quickly transformed the skyline and, thanks to the influx of Russian buyers, earned the nickname “Little Moscow.”
A Reuters investigation in 2017 found that at least 63 individuals with Russian passports or addresses had purchased nearly $100 million worth of condos in Trump developments there. One of the real estate broker claimed to have sold 500 condos there and said that one-third of the buyers were “Russian-speakers.”
Moreover, the buyers were not ordinary faceless investors. They were tied to Russia’s political and business elite. Among them was Alexander Yuzvik, a senior executive at Spetstroi, the state construction firm responsible for building facilities for Russia’s intelligence services, including the FSB and GRU. In 2010, Yuzvik bought a $1.3 million apartment in Trump Palace with his wife, linking Trump’s brand directly to Russia’s security state. Another buyer was Alexey Ustaev, the founder of St. Petersburg’s Viking Bank, who acquired a $1.2 million condo in Trump Palace in 2009 and followed that with a $5.2 million penthouse in Trump Royale two years later.
Yet another customer of these Trump-branded condos was Oleg Misevra, a coal baron from Russia’s Far East who had been praised by Vladimir Putin. Misevra paid $6.8 million penthouse in the Trump Hollywood. As a result, Trump’s real estate empire was even more deeply beholden to the networks of Kremlin-favored oligarchs and mobsters.
Behind the surge of Russian buyers stood one curious figure: Elena Baronoff. A Soviet émigré from Uzbekistan who moved to Miami in the 1980s, Baronoff became the exclusive sales agent for the Trump Grande and other Trump-branded towers in Sunny Isles. Fluent in Russian, she acted as the bridge between Trump’s partners in Florida and wealthy clients from Moscow, St. Petersburg, and beyond.
She traveled regularly to Russia and Europe to pitch units, cultivating oligarch buyers and reinforcing Sunny Isles’ reputation as “Little Moscow.” Colleagues described her as glamorous, mysterious, and almost “spy-like,” a woman whose Soviet background and poise gave her unique access to Russia’s elite. In an interview before the House Intelligence Committee, Glenn Simpson, a former Wall Street Journal reporter who later founded Fusion GPS, testified that Baronoff was “a suspected organized crime figure” who had lots of relationships with Russians as well.
Gil Dezer, Trump’s partner in the towers, later admitted: “She was huge, she was big for them. No one has filled her shoes.” In 2014, Baronoff was diagnosed with leukemia and died the following year at the age of 53, but not before she had helped funnel millions in Russian wealth into Trump’s branded developments.
Other buyers came from Russia’s political class. Vadim Gataullin, a regional parliamentarian from Bashkortostan and the son of a deputy prosecutor, bought multiple Trump Hollywood units through his U.S. company, VVG Real Estate Investments. He paid $3.5 million for one apartment and $920,000 for another, flipping both for a profit while never disclosing the holdings in his official asset declarations back in Russia. Pavel Uglanov, a former deputy minister in the Saratov regional government and a member of Putin’s United Russia party, also entered the market. In 2012, he bought a Trump Hollywood condo for $1.8 million and sold it two years later for $2.9 million. Uglanov later posted photos online with Alexander Zaldostanov, the leader of the Kremlin’s Night Wolves motorcycle gang, sanctioned by the United States for its role in Russia’s illegal invasion and annexation of Crimea.
The Miami Herald uncovered another layer regarding Trump condos sold to Russian officials tied to pro-Kremlin biker clubs. One $1.5 million apartment in Trump Palace was transferred to a relative of Svyatoslav Mangushev, a former Spetsnaz officer, part of Russia’s elite special forces, who later became associated with Putin’s notorious motorcycle club, a group that has carried out destabilizing operations abroad and has been designated a national security threat in several European countries. According to The Miami Herald, at around the same time, Vladimir Zorin, a senior Russian official, purchased two Sunny Isles condos for a combined $4.5 million between 2012 and 2013, one of which was the same property linked to the Mangushev family. Together, the transactions showed just how far into Trump-branded towers the networks of Russian state and intelligence connected figures had penetrated.
The most notorious deal came not in Sunny Isles but in Palm Beach. As I recounted in a previous post, That’s What Friends Are For, in 2008, fertilizer billionaire Dmitry Rybolovlev bought Trump’s oceanfront estate “Maison de l’Amitié” for $95 million, more than twice what Trump had paid just four years earlier.
Trump had originally acquired the property at a 2004 bankruptcy auction, even though his longtime friend, Jeffrey Epstein had told him that he very much wanted the property. As The Palm Beach Post reported, Trump outbid Epstein and later crowed about the win—in the process, destroying their friendship. Four years later, when Rybolovlev bought it, the massive infusion of Russian capital rescued Trump at a precarious moment during the 2008 fiscal crisis.
Other figures also appeared in Trump’s orbit. Simon Kukes, a Russian-American oil executive who once ran Yukos, owned property in Trump developments and later donated to Trump’s 2016 campaign. Kukes’s career had long straddled Russian energy and Western finance, placing him squarely among the Kremlin-linked business class that sought legitimacy abroad. His name later surfaced in connection with the infamous 2016 Trump Tower meeting, where Donald Trump Jr., Paul Manafort, and other campaign officials met with Russian intermediaries offering “dirt” on Hillary Clinton.
As I wrote in House of Trump, House of Putin:
In the wake of the Trump Tower meeting in June, and the weakened Ukraine plank, Russian support came pouring in—in the form of money, strategic advice, and newly forged alliances. Simon Kukes, a Russian-born American citizen who had replaced Putin foe Mikhail Khodorkovsky as head of Yukos, gave a total of $283,283 to various Trump entities, including a joint fund-raising committee called Trump Victory, whose beneficiaries included the Trump campaign, the RNC, and several state-level committees.
These purchases followed a familiar pattern, involving all-cash purchases and limited liability companies. In Sunny Isles alone, nearly one-third of all Trump condos were held by LLCs, making it impossible to know how many additional Russian buyers slipped through undetected.
Trump’s properties epitomized a broader vulnerability in American real estate. The U.S. Treasury has repeatedly warned that opaque property deals pose a national security risk, and Trump’s branding empire—fed by a wave of Russian capital flight—turned those risks into direct entanglements.
The result was a network of ties that belie Trump’s denials of Russian connections. A Spetstroi executive tied to intelligence services, a coal magnate praised by Vladimir Putin, a United Russia politician, a former Spetsnaz officer linked to biker gangs, and an oligarch with billions to spare all parked their money in Trump-branded properties.
And this is only a small sample. As then-Representative Adam Schiff(D-CA) warned in 2017, the money flowed one way, out of Russia and into Trump’s world, leaving him financially bound to the Kremlin and its networks long before he entered the White House.
Cast of Characters
Elena Baronoff
Soviet émigré from Uzbekistan and exclusive sales agent for Trump’s Sunny Isles towers, who marketed condos to wealthy Russians until she died in 2015.
Vadim Gataullin
Regional politician from Bashkortostan and member of United Russia, bought multiple Trump Hollywood units through his U.S. company and flipped them for profit.
Simon Kukes
Russian-American oil executive and former Yukos CEO, owned property in Trump developments, and later donated to Trump’s 2016 campaign.
Svyatoslav Mangushev
Former Spetsnaz officer turned bureaucrat with ties to Putin’s infamous motorcycle club, whose family received a $1.5 million Trump Palace condo.
Oleg Misevra
Coal magnate from Russia’s Far East, praised publicly by Vladimir Putin, who purchased a $6.8 million penthouse in Trump Hollywood.
Alexander Yuzvik
Senior executive at Spetstroi, the state construction firm building facilities for Russia’s FSB and GRU, who bought a $1.3 million condo in Trump Palace.
Dmitry Rybolovlev
Fertilizer billionaire and oligarch, bought Trump’s Palm Beach estate for $95 million in 2008, more than double what Trump paid just four years earlier.
Alexey Ustaev
Founder of Viking Bank in St. Petersburg, purchased condos in Trump Palace and Trump Royale worth over $6 million.
Pavel Uglanov
Former deputy minister in Saratov, United Russia member, bought a $1.8 million Trump Hollywood condo and later posted photos with Night Wolves leader Alexander Zaldostanov.
Vladimir Zorin
Senior Russian official, purchased two Sunny Isles condos for $4.5 million, including one connected to the Mangushev family.
*****
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*****
For the complete story on how Trump became a Russian asset, read Craig Unger’s House of Trump, House of Putin, American Kompromat and his latest book, Den of Spies.
House of Trump, House of Putin
The Untold Story of Donald Trump and the Russian Mafia
American Kompromat
How the KGB Cultivated Donald Trump, and Related Tales of Sex, Greed, Power, and Treachery
Den of Spies
Reagan, Carter, and the Secret History of the Treason That Stole the White House
