Witness in Mueller Inquiry Who Advises UAE Ruler Also Has Ties to Russia

WASHINGTON — A witness who is cooperating in the special counsel investigation, George Nader, has connections to both the Persian Gulf states and Russia and may have information that links two important strands of the inquiry together, interviews and records show.

Nader’s ties to the United Arab Emirates are well documented — he is an adviser to its leader — but the extent of his links to Russia have not been previously disclosed.

Nader, a Lebanese-American businessman, has a catalog of international connections that paved the way for numerous meetings with White House officials that have drawn the attention of the special counsel, Robert Mueller. For example, Nader used his long-standing ties to Kirill Dmitriev, the manager of a state-run Russian investment fund, to help set up a meeting in the Seychelles between Dmitriev and a Trump adviser days before President Donald Trump took office.

Separately, investigators have asked witnesses about a meeting Nader attended in 2017 with a New York hedge fund manager, where he was joined by Jared Kushner and Stephen K. Bannon, who at the time were both senior advisers to Trump.

The investigative trail even led Mueller’s team to stop an Australian entrepreneur with ties to the UAE after he landed at a Washington-area airport, according to people briefed on the matter. The investigators questioned the entrepreneur about Nader, including Nader’s relationship with Russia and his contacts with Trump’s advisers, as well as the movement of money from the UAE into the United States.

Nader has received at least partial immunity for his cooperation, and it appears unlikely that Mueller is trying to build a case against him. Instead, it is common for prosecutors to interview as many people as possible to corroborate the testimony of a key witness like Nader.

Nader’s dealings with Russia date at least to 2012, when he helped broker a controversial $4.2 billion deal for the government of Iraq to buy Russian weapons. At the time, he was an informal adviser to Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki of Iraq, and he accompanied al-Maliki to Moscow in September 2012 to sign the arms deal at a meeting with President Vladimir Putin of Russia. Nader’s role in the deal was earlier reported by Al-Monitor.

The deal was canceled shortly after because of concerns about corruption, and a spokesman for the prime minister said it would be renegotiated.

Earlier that year, Nader also attended the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum, an invitation-only conference organized by senior officials close to Putin that Russia presents as its answer to the World Economic Forum held annually in Davos, Switzerland. Nader is on a list of participants from 2012. Representatives of the St. Petersburg forum did not respond to inquiries about his attendance in subsequent years.

Since then, according to people familiar with his travels, Nader has returned frequently to Russia on behalf of the Emirati government. He even had his picture taken with Putin, according to one person who has seen the photograph, although it is unclear when the picture was taken.

Crown Prince Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan of Abu Dhabi, the de facto ruler of the UAE, is a close ally of the United States and a frequent visitor to the White House. He has also visited Moscow and met with Putin several times in recent years. One person briefed on the matter said Nader had accompanied the crown prince to Moscow on numerous occasions.

Last year, days before Trump took office, Nader helped set up a meeting at a Seychelles resort between Dmitriev, Emirati officials and Erik Prince, the former head of Blackwater Worldwide and an adviser to Trump’s transition team. The meeting, at the bar of a Four Seasons Hotel overlooking the Indian Ocean, was brokered in part to explore the possibility of a back channel for discussions between the Trump administration and the Kremlin, according to people familiar with the meeting.

Such contacts are at the heart of Mueller’s investigation, and his investigators have repeatedly used aggressive tactics to press witnesses. About four weeks ago, FBI agents working with Mueller’s team stopped a Russian oligarch at a New York-area airport, questioned him about his dealings with Trump and seized his electronics, according to a person familiar with the matter, which was first reported by CNN.

Mueller’s investigators have asked multiple witnesses about the Seychelles meeting, part of a broader line of inquiry surrounding contacts between Emirati advisers and Trump administration officials. They have also pressed for details about a meeting Nader attended in New York in early 2017 with Kushner and Bannon with hedge fund manager Richard Gerson, a friend of Kushner’s and the founder of Falcon Edge Capital.

Mueller’s particular interest in that meeting is unclear, although Gerson has had business dealings with the court of the UAE’s Mohammed. Gerson has developed relations with several senior Emirati officials over the years, including with Mohammed himself, and he has often sought investments from Emirati state funds.

Gerson’s family also has business and philanthropic ties to the Kushners. Kushner has been friends for more than a decade with Gerson’s brother Mark, a founder of the specialized research company Gerson Lehrman Group. Mark Gerson was also an early investor in Cadre, a real estate technology company founded by Kushner and his brother, Josh.

Jared Kushner’s family foundation has also donated tens of thousands of dollars to an Israeli medical aid group led by Mark Gerson.

A lawyer for Nader and a spokesman for Rick Gerson declined to comment. Mark Gerson did not reply to requests for comment. Mueller’s investigators have also questioned Joel Zamel, an Australian entrepreneur who has an office in Tel Aviv and knows Nader, according to people briefed on the matter. Zamel has had contacts with senior UAE officials close to its ruler since at least 2014.

In February, federal agents working for Mueller stopped Zamel at Reagan National Airport outside Washington and briefly seized his electronic devices, the people said. Zamel later appeared before a grand jury and was questioned about Nader, though it was unclear whether Zamel had any information about Nader’s ties to Russia.

Zamel is a witness in Mueller’s investigation and is not suspected of any wrongdoing, according to Marc Mukasey, a lawyer for Zamel and his crowdsourced consulting firm, Wikistrat. The Wall Street Journal reported on Monday that Zamel informally met with Mueller’s team.

“Joel and Wikistrat have not been accused of anything, have done nothing wrong and are not the focus of the special counsel,” said Mukasey, a global chairman of Greenberg Traurig’s white-collar defense and special investigations practice. “Prosecutors like to question as many people as they can — even if they have tangential involvement and limited knowledge.”

Zamel briefly met last spring with Jared Kushner at the White House, another person said, though that meeting does not appear to be a focus of Mueller’s inquiry.

Wikistrat, which pays security experts around the world for their insights, has landed several government contracts, according to databases and news reports. Its website says the firm can draw from a group of more than 2,200 analysts worldwide who share their thinking on an interactive platform.

Some well-known experts serve on Wikistrat’s advisory council, including Michael V. Hayden, a former head of the CIA and the National Security Agency, and Dennis Ross, a former U.S. diplomat with deep expertise in the Middle East.