russian government or any of its agencies. he also told the post he was born in russia and became a u.s. citizen in 2009. his lobbying effort which he did on behalf of the russian lawyer veselnitska veselnitskaya, a complaint filed claims the effort was on behalf of the kremlin. he has also been accused according to court papers filed in new york in 2015 of hacking on behalf of one company into the computer systems of a rival company to steal confidential information in a business dispute. the company, imr with drew the accusation soon after without providing a reason. in an earlier related case he denied a similar accusation saying in an affidavit quote, i am not a computer specialist and i am not capable of hacking. he was well known in washington for being connected to very