Impostor Made It Into Mar-a-Lago - Got Close Enough to Touch Trump
Calling herself Anna de Rothschild, the woman talked her way into exclusive circles. That is, until she was revealed to be Inna Yashchyshyn, an immigrant from Ukraine who is now under investigation by the FBI, according to an explosive package of reports published last week.
In May of 2021, she made it into the exclusive club of Mar-a-Lago, in Florida’s Palm Beach County, where former President Donald Trump makes his home and where she was photographed with members of former Trump’s inner circle.
The next day, she was photographed with Trump himself and Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina at the Trump International Golf Club, a few miles from Mar-a-Lago.
Reporting the woman’s story was a combined effort of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette and a journalism consortium called the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project.
“The path that led Yashchyshyn to Mar-a-Lago and Trump’s side was years in the making. It saw her become involved with a fraudulent charity, make trips to the Caribbean, and woo various high rollers with would-be business ideas,” one of the reports noted.
The reports noted she is under investigation in Canada for her activities.
EXCLUSIVE: A 33-year-old Russian-speaking immigrant posing as Anna de Rothschild — a member of the European banking dynasty — infiltrated Mar-a-Lago and Trump’s entourage. Said one guest: “How did they allow it?”
@PittsburghPG and @OCCRP https://t.co/kx1cBD86Cp— Michael Sallah (@MikeSallah7) August 26, 2022
Yashchyshyn has no relationship to the famed Rothchild banking family.
That she made into Mar-a-Lago is a concern to many.
“That’s his residence,” Ed Martin, a former U.S. Treasury special agent who spent more than two decades in criminal intelligence, told the Post-Gazette. “She shouldn’t have been in there.”
The Post-Gazette and the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project learned fake passports and IDs from the U.S. and Canada have been confiscated in which Yashchyshyn is identified as Anna de Rothschild.
Yashchyshyn claims she has never used another name.
“I think there is some misunderstanding,” she said, according to the Post-Gazette, claiming fake documents were generated by a former business partner.
“That’s all fake, and nothing happened,” she said.
John LeFevre, a former investment banker, author and Mar-a-Lago member, told the Post-Gazette the woman identified herself as a Rothschild and “everyone was eating it up.”
“It wasn’t just dropping the family name. She talked about vineyards and family estates and growing up in Monaco,” he said.
The FBI is investigating Yashchyshyn’s role in suspect financial activities, according to the reports.
“The probe into her activities comes three years after two different women from China — one of them toting two passports and a thumb drive with malicious software — were arrested in separate instances after they entered the club grounds while Mr. Trump was president,” the Post-Gazette stated.
“Both were sentenced to less than a year in jail and have since been released with at least one being deported to China last year.”
The Secret Service would not comment about Yashchyshyn.
“To maintain the operational integrity of our work, we are unable to comment specifically concerning the means, methods or resources used to conduct our protective operations,” Steven Kopek, a special agent and spokesman, said in a statement.
Former agents said no background check was likely run.
In most instances, “they are going to do a level of screening — a hand check” for weapons, said Jonathan Wackrow, a former agent who served on President Barack Obama’s detail. “He still has a full detail.”
However, as the reporting package summarized, the incident exposes a potential security risk to Trump:
“[E]xperts say her ability to mingle with members of Mr. Trump’s entourage raises concerns about ongoing security at the private club that continues to host some of the most powerful elected leaders in the country and serves as a storage site for some of the country’s closely guarded secrets.”
“The question is, was it a fraud or an intelligence threat?” Charles Marino, a former Secret Service supervisor told the reporters. “The fact that we are asking this question is a problem.”
Valeriy Tarasenko, 44, a Florida businessman who said Yashchyshyn wanted to get money from the Trumps, said she used “her fake identity as Anna de Rothschild to gain access to and build relationships with U.S. politician[s], including but not limited to Donald Trump, Lindsey Graham, and Eric Greitens,” according to a court affidavit.
Yashchyshyn, however, told authorities that Tarasenko was the puppeteer and she was the puppet.
“[E]very single move that I did, I’ve been told by Valeriy to do so,” she said in a deposition, according to the reporting. “[A]fter a few incidents like that, I realized that he’s using me for his lifestyle and for his needs.”
“Over time, Tarasenko became more controlling and aggressive over me,” she said in an affidavit.
“I am the victim right now, that’s all I can tell you,” she said in an interview with reporters on the project.
Tarasenko, in turn, denied her claims.
OCCRP said Yashchyshyn worked for Tarasenko in 2014 as a nanny. She said he used her to get money from men she met “on the street or some restaurants or events or online.”
“I would go on the dates, make a friendship, and Valeriy would take my phone and start contacting the guys from my phone and ask for the need for food, for pay the bills, ask for cash, you know,” she said.
Yashchyshyn attended the U.S. Open in Flushing Meadows, New York, last year and the Austrian World Summit in 2019, where she was photographed with celebrities, according to the reporting.
“We always thought her grandfather had the money and that he was an oligarch,” developer Paul Barton told reporters, adding that his company paid for her to fly on private jets to a company resort project in the Bahamas.
Dean Lawrence, a Florida music creative director, became acquainted with Yashchyshyn when dealing with her as part of his involvement with a music company — Rothschild Media Label — where she was the president.
He told reporters on the project that he was the one who opened the eyes of Trump’s advisers that the woman they thought was a Rothschild was not.
He said he told them, “I want to clear something up with you. I want you to know that she has nothing to do with the Rothschilds. Don’t get involved in any kind of business with her.”
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