Psy Group was an Israeli-based company whose CEO Joel Zamel pitched the Trump campaign numerous times on Psy Group’s ability to help Trump get elected. The August 2016 Trump Tower meeting included Zamel, Donald Trump Jr, Erik Prince, and George Nader. Deputy campaign chairman Rick Gates previously sought proposals from Psy Group to aid the Trump campaign by creating fake profiles online and boosting Trump’s image.

After the election, Nader paid Zamel approximately $2,000,000 for reasons that are currently unclear. Nader, through his representatives, believes that Psy Group may have indeed gone through with a plan to boost Trump, whereas Zamel and his team deny the allegation.

“Mr. Nader and Mr. Zamel have given differing accounts over whether Mr. Zamel ultimately carried out the social media effort to help the Trump campaign and why Mr. Nader paid him $2 million” reported the New York Times in a 2018 article.

Psy Group structure

The structure of Psy Group as of the August 2016 Trump Tower meeting, as seen above and exclusively reported on in 2018, runs through at least four countries. The Daily Beast reported in February that Salix Services had come under scrutiny in the Mueller probe for their management of Psy Group.

Six weeks prior to the meeting, Zamel was in Russia at the country’s St. Petersburg International Economic Forum, the New Yorker reported last month. Zamel was allegedly looking for funding. Days after his trip to Russia, the ownership of Psy Group changed to a Russian-connected shell company in the British Virgin Islands (more below).

Corporate document showing the ownership change. IOCO Limited is the trading name for Psy Group

Vasyl Khmelnytsky

A previous investigative piece found that Protexer Limited, as seen in the chart above as the parent company of Psy Group, was also the parent company for a business owned by a Russian billionaire, Mikhail Slipenchuk.

Now, it can be reported that another Soviet-born man, Vasyl Khmelnytsky, used Protexer Limited in his business as well. Multiple reports in mid-2018 revealed that the corporate structure of Khmelnytsky’s UFuture Investment Group included Cypriot and British Virgin Islands companies, including Protexer Limited.

Khmelnytsky is a Ukrainian multi-millionaire who happens to be longtime business partners with the developers of Trump Tower Toronto, Alex Shnaider and Eduard Shifrin. That project, it was later revealed, was largely funded by the Russian state-owned bank VEB.

Alex Shnaider and Donald Trump. Credit: Wall Street Journal

The connection between Khmelnytsky and Protexer Limited, the parent company of Psy Group, further raises questions about the true ownership and funding of the Israel-centered intelligence company.

Additionally, exclusively obtained documents show that Psy Group ran an operation in 2017 that targeted Ukrainian anti-corruption activists.

The operation, targeting at least two anti-corruption activists, appears to have resulted in the creation of two YouTube videos. The videos, which remain active with a combined 20,000 views, allege that the activists are under investigation for financial misconduct and/or allege ties to the United States embassy.