Russian oligarch Umar Kremlev spent hundreds of thousands of dollars to help fund Donald Trump Jr.’s Bahamas wedding

Russian businessman Umar Kremlev, head of the International Boxing Association (IBA), helped pay for the Bahamas wedding of Donald Trump Jr., the U.S. president’s son, according to ProPublica, which cited documents and three people familiar with the event.

Kremlev covered costs in the “hundreds of thousands of dollars,” ProPublica reported, including about $100,000 a night to rent the island, about $70,000 for fireworks, and other expenses tied to organizing the event. The payments went through a Dubai-based entity affiliated with the IBA. ProPublica noted, however, that Trump Jr. could have easily covered the costs himself, as Forbes estimates his fortune at $300 million.

Trump Jr. has said “just really close friends” attended the wedding — about 50 guests in all. But the guest list included a large group of Russian-speaking attendees whose presence surprised other invitees, ProPublica reported. Kremlev, who “speaks limited English,” was among them. Some of Trump Jr.’s longtime friends, meanwhile, did not receive invitations, according to the outlet. The president himself skipped the wedding, remaining in Washington at the time.

A representative for Trump Jr. did not deny that Kremlev had paid for the wedding, describing the Russian businessman as “a personal friend of Don” who shares with him a love of boxing and outdoor recreation. A representative for Eric Trump, Trump Jr.’s brother, said Eric had never heard the name Kremlev.

Kremlev’s press service stated that the IBA itself did not cover the wedding costs but declined to comment on payments from the Dubai-based entity.

According to a report by the Russian investigative outlet Proekt, Kremlev went by the surname Lutfulloev until 2010, when he changed it in an apparent effort to clean up his image. By then, he had already been convicted twice, for extortion and assault.

A shared passion for boxing brought Kremlev close to Alexei Rubezhnoy, head of the Presidential Security Service. That friendship helped him become president of the Boxing Federation of Russia in 2016 and later acquire a string of lucrative assets, including the bookmakers Fonbet, Pari, and Liga Stavok, as well as the nationalized car dealer Rolf. Sources who spoke to Proekt said Rubezhnoy first pushed for Rolf’s nationalization and then lobbied to have it transferred to Kremlev.

Kremlev has led the IBA since 2020, a period in which it received tens of millions of dollars from Gazprom. In 2023, the International Olympic Committee stripped the IBA of its right to organize Olympic boxing tournaments, citing, among other reasons, a lack of transparency in its finances.