The lawyer for one of the central figures of the Mueller investigation has denied a slew of alleged connections to Russia, though has acknowledged some.
Stephan Roh is the lawyer for Joseph Mifsud, the well-traveled Maltese academic described in the Mueller report as maintaining “various Russian contacts.”
In April 2016, Mifsud allegedly told a Trump campaign aide that Russians had “thousands of emails” of rival presidential candidate and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. This information was ultimately used by the FBI to open a counterintelligence investigation that involved extensive spying on Trump campaign staff.
Mueller took over the probe in 2017 and after 22 months concluded in March that the investigation didn’t establish that President Donald Trump or anybody from his team conspired or coordinated with Russia’s efforts to meddle in the 2016 election.
As Mifsud’s name emerged in media reports in 2017, Roh put forward a claim that Mifsud was likely a Western intelligence asset used to connect the Trump campaign to Russia.
Meanwhile, media scrutinized Roh’s background, finding that he ran several businesses, including an energy consultancy and a law firm, and has offices in Switzerland, Germany, London, Hong Kong, mainland China, Russia, Monaco, and the United Arab Emirates.
Of particular interest to many media were any contacts Roh may have had with Russia.
Roh has been open about his sympathies for Russia.
Helena
Between December 2011 and October 2016, Roh’s company, R&B Secretarial Services acted as a company secretary, meaning legal representative, to Helena Investments, a UK investment company that, at some point, became the owner of small Russian oil investor Finrusinvest.Roh said he only got a “small service income” for the work with Helena.
The significance of the work with Helena seems heightened by the fact that R&B Secretarial Services acted as company secretary to only seven entities—six of Roh’s own companies and Helena Investments.
Severnvale
In 2005, Roh bought a small resource company, Severnvale Nuclear Services, from British nuclear scientist John Harbottle.Roh said he used Severnvale for a “new opportunity” to partner with Swiss and German “established well known commodity traders”—no Russians or uranium involved. He declined to name the partners.
“A trading contract can easily generate millions,” he said, noting that his margin was about 10 percent so the resulting profit was not “exciting.”
Severnvale Nuclear II
As it happened, in 2006 a company with a similar name, Severnvale Nuclear Trading, was set up in Ireland. The company changed its name to Vinkins Holdings in 2008 and a few months later changed its leadership too. In its 2013 tax returns, two companies based in Russia and Cyprus were listed as its subsidiaries, one headed by former Russian Senator Alexey Klishin and the other by the former director of Klishin’s law firm.Apart from the similar name, there doesn’t seem to be any connection between Roh’s company and the one linked to Klishin. Roh denied any connection.
It appears Mifsud has worked for years on building relationships with Russian academic institutions, especially the ones that rear future Russian government officials and diplomats. The end goal seemed to be to bring their students over to study at Link or LAD—a golden opportunity to build relationships with future Russian leaders.
On Mifsud’s prompting, Roh said he bought a 5 percent stake in Link in 2015. That year, Roh took Mifsud on as an unpaid consultant, he said, hoping Mifsud could help him expand his business in Russia.
A Fund by the Same Name
The year after buying Severnvale, Roh set up an investment fund in Cyprus called East Star Diversity Fund LLC. The next year, a report came out in Russian media that an East Star Diversity Fund was handling $200 million, including the money of former Russian Senator-turned-banker Gleb Fetisov.There’s no evidence of a connection between Roh’s fund and Fetisov. Roh denied any connection, saying his fund never had any investors.