WASHINGTON _ Call it the oil well that didn't end well.
On one side of a bitter, long-running civil lawsuit over a failed Russian oilfield investment is Elliott Broidy, a top Trump fundraiser who faces questions raised by McClatchy and other news outlets about his work in Romania and with the United Arab Emirates, and about a possible contract to persuade the Justice Department to drop a probe involving Malaysia's prime minister.
In spite of that, Broidy co-hosted an event in Beverly Hills Tuesday night that was projected to bring in $5 million for President Donald Trump and the Republican National Committee.
On the other is Yuri Vanetik, a Zelig-like Soviet emigre who has misrepresented his academic credentials, may have run afoul of foreign agent registration requirements when he took politicians from Ukraine and Georgia to a series of meetings on Capitol Hill and, with his father, has been ordered by the courts to pay at least $8 million in civil fraud judgments.
Yet Vanetik is frequently photographed with the Republican elite, including House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich and former President George W. Bush.
The escalating legal fight between the two Californians in the upper echelons of GOP fundraising sheds light on the network of shady characters _ and shell companies _ they did business with in connection with the oil deal. And it underscores the checkered pasts of both men, pasts that seem to have either been missed or ignored by politicians and rainmakers in the Republican Party.
Broidy, in fact, outdoes Vanetik when it comes to run-ins with the law.
He admitted in 2009 that he had paid nearly $1 million in bribes to pension officials in New York state in exchange for their investment with his Israel-focused Markstone Capital fund. His company was forced to forfeit $18 million in management fees, and Broidy avoided prison time by giving prosecutors information on the recipients of his payments.
He re-emerged during the 2016 presidential election as a top fundraiser for several Republican candidates and was named deputy finance chair for the RNC. A McClatchy investigation in February revealed that he's now running a defense company and brought a Romanian politician facing corruption charges at home to Trump's inauguration, months before Broidy's firm opened up shop in Romania. Subsequent reporting by The New York Times showed that the defense company has won contracts in the United Arab Emirates and that Broidy has advocated to the Trump administration on behalf of officials there.
The contentious legal action brought by Broidy against his friend Vanetik has played out under the radar, in part because it is unfolding in the California state court system, where many records are not easily accessible online.
Broidy said that he was the victim of an elaborate scheme carried out by the Vanetiks.
"As a jury unanimously determined, Yuri Vanetik and his father Anatoly defrauded me in a sham deal about a supposed energy-related investment, which included shell companies created and/or operated by the Vanetiks, the collection of which was determined by the court to be a fraudulent scheme,'' Broidy said.
Vanetik and his lawyer did not respond to requests for comment.
