EXCLUSIVE: Pelosi Jr. Oil Company Employed Russians To Influence Politicians

Employee From Moscow 'Cultivated network of prominent contacts including politicians'

  by PATRICK HOWLEY

 

 January 27, 2020

Nancy Pelosi’s son Paul Pelosi Jr. was a board member of the energy company Viscoil Holdings and an executive at its related company NRGLab, which did energy business in Ukraine. House speaker Nancy Pelosi appeared with her son Paul in a promotional video which was released by NRGLab in 2013 on the same day the company promoted its new deal in Ukraine.Now, newly unearthed records show that Viscoil employed Russians to establish “contacts with government officials and key players in the oil and gas industry,” and to cultivate a “network of prominent contacts including politicians, allowing company’s emergence into high-level political arena.”

Viscoil was registered to a Moscow-based Russian named Sergey Sorokin and David Strawn, a business partner of George W. Bush and Jeb Bush’s cousin John Ellis.

A spokesman for Nancy Pelosi has confirmed that Pelosi Jr. was a board member of Viscoil, and claimed in a vague statement that Viscoil folded and Pelosi Jr. was not involved with the re-constituted business entity. But actually, records reveal that Viscoil operated continuously at least from 2010-2013, and Pelosi Jr. was a well-documented executive of NRGLab, which absorbed Viscoil and its technology. The spokesman said that Viscoil was focused on U.S. business during Pelosi Jr.’s tenure, but records show Viscoil planning international business including in Brazil.

Additionally, Pelosi Jr. traveled to Ukraine in 2017 to meet with Ukraine government officials, supposedly to discuss a “youth soccer” initiative. Pelosi Jr. was representing his company the Corporate Governance Initiative and he touted an endorsement from the World Sports Alliance, an accused diamond-mining scam which was run by his friend and associate Asa Saint Clair who has been charged by the Department of Justice for wire fraud in connection to the World Sports Alliances’ cryptocurrency scam.

LinkedIn records show the extent of Viscoil political influence peddling using Russian employees. The citizen researcher who can be found on Twitter at @_IREDEEMABLES contributed research for this report.

Daria Zelenkova, who went on to receive her M.B.A. from Moscow State Institute of International Relations, worked for Viscoil Holdings from May 2012 to December 2014. During her tenure at Viscoil, Zelenkova “Established contacts with government officials and key players in the oil and gas industry.”

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