(CNN) Stewart Rahr is a pharmaceutical billionaire, self-described "king of all fun" and, as President Donald Trump told a magazine, a real character.

Rahr, a fixture on gossip sites, was "the fake bidder" who plunked down $60,000 in 2013 for a portrait of his friend Trump, according to an article clipping provided Wednesday by former Trump attorney Michael Cohen.

"The objective was to ensure that his portrait, which was going to be auctioned last, would go for the highest price of any portrait that afternoon," Cohen said in his opening statement Wednesday to the House Oversight Committee. He also described the bidder as a straw buyer , who makes a purchase on behalf of another person.

The bidder was reimbursed by the charity Trump Foundation, Cohen told the House Oversight Committee

CNN made several calls and emails to Rahr, but did not receive a response. On one attempt, a man who answered the phone said he could get Rahr on the line but hung up once he found out it was CNN calling. Rahr declined to comment when the Washington Post reported on Trump's charitable giving in 2016.