(CNN) Senate investigators are examining the activities of a little-known $10-billion Russian investment fund whose chief executive met with a member of President Donald Trump's transition team four days before Trump's inauguration, a congressional source told CNN.
The source said the Senate intelligence committee is investigating the Russian fund in connection with its examination of discussions between White House adviser Jared Kushner and the head of a prominent Russian bank. The bank, Vnesheconombank, or VEB, oversees the fund, which has ties to several Trump advisers. Both the bank and the fund have been covered since 2014 by sanctions restricting U.S. business dealings. Separately, the Treasury Department has been looking into the Jan. 16 meeting between the fund's chief executive and Anthony Scaramucci, a member of the transition team's executive committee and a fundraiser and adviser for Trump's presidential campaign, according to a Jan. 30 letter from Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin.
Two Democratic senators asked Treasury to investigate whether Scaramucci promised to lift sanctions -- a policy shift that would help the fund attract more international investment to Russia.
The inquiries draw attention to the Russian Direct Investment Fund, a government investment arm that has helped top U.S. private-equity firms invest in Russia and that was advised by Stephen Schwarzman, who is now chairman of Trump's Strategic and Policy Forum, an advisory group of business leaders.
Schwarzman, chief executive officer of Blackstone Group, was named in 2011 to the fund's International Advisory Board along with other leaders of major equity companies and sovereigh-wealth funds who reviewed the fund's operations, plans and potential investments. Schwarzman declined to comment. A source close to him said Schwarzman has not spoken to anyone on the fund "for some time."
