Washington (CNN) Justice Department official Bruce Ohr and former British spy Christopher Steele -- frequent targets of President Donald Trump's ire related to the Russia investigation -- were involved in US efforts to flip a Russian oligarch with ties to the Kremlin, The New York Times reports.

Between 2014 and 2016, the FBI and the Justice Department sought and attempted to turn Russian businessman Oleg Deripaska into an informant for the United States, the Times reported Saturday

Citing current and former officials and associates of Deripaska, the Times reported that investigators were hoping for information from Deripaska on Russian organized crime during a September 2015 meeting and, in a meeting a year later, on possible Russian aid to Trump's 2016 presidential campaign.

The effort to recruit Deripaska was part of a broader, classified US initiative that attempted to gain the cooperation of several Russian oligarchs, the Times reported. The newspaper added that the effort did not seem to have had any successes; Deripaska told US investigators he disagreed with them on Russian organized crime and ideas about possible Russian collusion with the Trump campaign, a person familiar with the exchanges told the Times.

According to the Times, Ohr and Steele first discussed flipping Deripaska in November 2014. Working as an intermediary, Steele helped arrange a meeting between Deripaska and US officials, including Ohr, in 2015, during which Deripaska was asked about the connections between Russian organized crime and Russian President Vladimir Putin's government, the Times reported, citing a person familiar with the events.

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