On October 21, 2025, Mansimov published a Facebook post featuring a photo with Nicholas Muzin-a high-profile U.S. lobbyist and Republican strategist - adding the caption: “It’s always a pleasure to spend time with my dear brother Nick.”
This was not Mansimov’s first post about Nicholas Muzin. Earlier, on August 15 of the same year, he had shared another photo with Muzin, writing: “We always have a great time together with my dear brother Nicholas - we’ll be announcing our new company soon.”
It should be noted that the relationship between these two figures is not new. Back in 2020, when Mubariz Mansimov was arrested, social media accounts associated with him proudly claimed that “three global giants” - along with their respective legal organizations - had taken up his defense and signed an agreement. These were Cherie Blair, wife of former UK Prime Minister Tony Blair and founder of Omnia Strategy LLP (UK); Alan Dershowitz, a prominent American lawyer; and Professor Nicholas Muzin, described as one of the leading criminal defense attorneys in the United States.
The “Free Mubariz Mansimov” Facebook page even attached a copy of the alleged contract. In that attachment, Nicholas Muzin’s response to Mansimov’s arrest was presented as follows:
Who is Nicholas Muzin (Nick Muzin)?
Nicholas David Muzin is a Canadian-born American Republican political strategist, lobbyist, lawyer, and physician. He has served as Director of Coalitions for the Republican Conference in the U.S. House of Representatives and as Deputy Chief of Staff and Senior Advisor to Republican presidential candidate Senator Ted Cruz - a politician known for his pro-Armenian and anti-Turkish positions.
Prior to that, Muzin worked as Chief of Staff to then-Congressman Tim Scott. Following the 2016 U.S. presidential election, he founded Stonington Strategies, a lobbying and consulting firm that represented, among others, the State of Qatar and the Democratic Party of Albania.
Nicholas Muzin was born in 1975 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, into a Jewish family. He attended Ner Israel Yeshiva High School in Toronto and later the Talmudical Yeshiva of Philadelphia. After completing his religious and secondary education, he enrolled at Yeshiva University in Washington Heights, Manhattan — a private Jewish institution of higher learning.
During his time at Yeshiva University, he served as Editor-in-Chief of the student newspaper, The Commentator. Muzin went on to graduate from the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in 2001 on a full four-year scholarship.
After completing a one-year internship in internal medicine, he transitioned to law, enrolling at Yale Law School, where he served as Vice President of the Federalist Society. While at Yale, he was also a member of the Shabtai Jewish Leadership Society - an elite network of influential Jewish scholars and professionals.
According to a BBC investigation, Nicholas Muzin’s name surfaced in connection with the financing of Albania’s political opposition. The report revealed that, in November 2023, Lulzim Basha - Albania’s former Minister of Europe and Foreign Affairs - had secretly received funds from Russian sources, including entities linked to Vladimir Putin and Yevgeny Prigozhin.
The investigation found that $500,000 was transferred through a Scotland-registered company, Biniatta Trade LP, which had hired Republican strategist Nick Muzin to act as Basha’s lobbyist in the United States.
There are a number of mysteries surrounding Biniatta Trade. No one has ever worked at its registered address in Edinburgh - an address shared by hundreds of other shell firms. The company was in fact controlled through two entities registered in Belize, one of the world’s leading offshore tax havens.
According to the investigative outlet Finance Uncovered, a joint inquiry by the BBC and the Seychelles Broadcasting Corporation into how figures from the former Soviet Union have exploited UK limited partnerships identified the individual behind Biniatta Trade. politiko.al
That individual is Maksim Trofimets, a Russian national born in Moscow, who serves as the director of a company involved in helicopter sales.
He continues to live and work in Russia. According to publicly available Russian corporate records, Techproekt LLC (ООО «Техпроект») - registered at 2 Elektrodnaya Street, building 34, Apartment 4/2, Perovo District, Moscow - is officially listed under the name of Maksim Mikhailovich Trofimets, confirming his ongoing business activity in the Russian Federation. zachestnyibiznes
Documents obtained from the Pandora Papers reveal a series of confidential agreements indicating that Biniatta Trade’s two Belize-registered partners had effectively transferred management and ownership rights over the Scottish firm to Maksim Trofimets.
However, Trofimets’s LinkedIn profile makes no mention of Biniatta Trade. It lists him only as Sales Director at Exclases Holding, a Russian helicopter company, a position he has held since 2018.
It has been revealed that Exclases Holding, where Trofimets serves as Sales Director, had - prior to the sanctions imposed following the war in Ukraine - been purchasing civilian helicopters from Leonardo, Italy’s aerospace and defense group, and from AgustaWestland, a former British-Italian aviation consortium, and reselling them to Russia and other former Soviet states.
In addition to supplying equipment and products to the offshore oil and gas industry, as well as to law enforcement agencies and private “VVIP” and “VIP” clients, Exclases Holding also sold Leonardo helicopters — under the designation of “special security missions” - to at least one undisclosed Russian state agency, according to Politiko.al.
According to the BBC, the Seychelles-based company Alpha Consulting has facilitated the creation of more than 900 UK-registered firms that exploited legal loopholes to conceal their true owners. Among these entities, one was found to be operating an oil tanker in violation of international sanctions, while others were implicated in tax evasion and financial crimes.
The BBC, in collaboration with Finance Uncovered and the Seychelles Broadcasting Corporation, revealed that Alpha Consulting not only provided services to individuals close to Russian President Vladimir Putin, but also became one of the most prolific “shell company factories”, helping clients exploit loopholes in UK legislation.
Most of the firms it assisted were involved in fraud and tax evasion schemes, and at least one was accused of interfering in foreign elections.
The investigation also found that Alpha Consulting was managed by Viktoria Valkovskaya, a Russian citizen. repost.news
It is true that this individual engaged in lobbying activities for the State of Qatar until 2018; however, what kind of lobbying services he now intends to provide in connection with Mubariz Mansimov remains unclear. Considering the current complex geopolitical environment, Mansimov’s decision to publicize this meeting with such fanfare raises further suspicions.
At the same time, Mubariz Mansimov’s remark about Nicholas Muzin - “we will soon announce our new company” - cannot go unnoticed. It is worth recalling how Mansimov’s previous attempt at cooperation with another American lobbyist ended not so long ago.
In September 2020, investigative journalists published an extensive report on Mansimov’s connections with another lobbying firm operating in the United States, as well as with certain individuals of questionable reputation who had arranged that meeting.
An investigation by Courthouse News Service and NBC News uncovered details surrounding the signing of a contract ostensibly aimed at representing Turkey’s legitimate interests in the United States. The report also exposed the involvement of intermediary figures with ties to Russia — individuals who had orchestrated a large-scale financial fraud scheme — as well as key players in the “Ukraine kompromat scandal” that triggered impeachment proceedings against Donald Trump during the final months of his first presidential term.
The events appear to have taken place in late 2016, during the U.S. presidential election period, and in January 2017. According to media reports, on the eve of Donald Trump’s inauguration, representatives of several foreign states met for lunch at the Watergate Hotel in Washington, D.C., in an effort to establish contacts with the incoming U.S. administration.
According to media reports, the meeting at the Watergate Hotel had two organizers: Lev Parnas, a Florida businessman whose behind-the-scenes dealings in Ukraine would contribute, about three years later, to Donald Trump’s impeachment; and Mubariz Mansimov, who was subsequently arrested over his murky activities and alleged links to FETÖ.
In an interview with journalists, Lev Parnas recalled that Mubariz Mansimov introduced Bryan Ballard - Deputy Chair of Trump’s Inauguration Committee - as “the number one among Trump’s people.” Politico also described the Florida-born Ballard as “the most powerful lobbyist in Washington during the Trump era”.
During that period, lobbying agreements were negotiated with the involvement of Lev Parnas, Mubariz Mansimov, and Farhad Akhmedov. Later, neither Mansimov nor Akhmedov responded to journalists’ inquiries regarding their participation.
Under these lobbying deals, Ballard’s firm agreed to represent the interests of Halkbank, Turkiye’s state-owned bank, for $125,000 per month. Notably, this bank had previously been blacklisted in the U.S. for fraud, money laundering, and sanctions violations.
Parnas received $45,000 for his role in arranging the contracts. He claimed that the payment was intended “to ensure Ballard’s silence,” though Ballard Partners categorically denied this.
Pay special attention here: “When Mansimov met with Michael Flynn, Donald Trump’s former national security advisor, one of Flynn’s partners was simultaneously associated with members of the Mormon polygamist sect and an Armenian-American mobster - who was later convicted for his role in a $511 million fraud scheme in the U.S.”
According to Lev Parnas, he was introduced to Mansimov through Mansimov’s close friend, Igor Fruman, a Florida-based businessman of Belarusian origin. Their first meeting took place on December 5, 2016, at a high-end Asian-style nightclub called “Buddha Bar” in Kyiv, owned by Fruman, during a dinner event.
According to Parnas, the main topic of conversation with Mansimov at the Buddha Bar centered on Parnas’s connections with Ballard, who was regarded as an influential figure within Trump’s political circle. Parnas recalled meeting Ballard in October 2016 at an event in South Florida for Trump’s VIP donors. Mansimov, for his part, was eager to be formally introduced to Ballard - at least, that is how Parnas describes it.
The Kyiv nightclub where Mansimov and the others socialized is owned by Igor Fruman, Lev Parnas’s business partner. Mansimov’s first meeting with Parnas also took place at this venue. In the accompanying photo, from left to right, are Fruman, Mansimov, Turkish businessman Fikret Orman, and Parnas.
Parnas acknowledged that, much like with Ballard, he and Mansimov quickly became friends during their time in Kyiv.
In early January 2017, while Mansimov was in Washington, Parnas requested invitations from Ballard for both himself and Mansimov to the inauguration VIP events. According to Parnas, Ballard provided the tickets free of charge.
The photo was taken at a reception following the inauguration ceremony.
To Mansimov’s left stands Moldovan businessman Emmanuel Grinshpun, while to his right are Kazakh oligarch Alexander Mashkevich and Lev Parnas.
Based on photos circulated online by Mansimov and employees of his Palmali company, it appears that he attended at least two VIP events at the time. The moment when President Trump seemingly ignored Mansimov and walked past him was misleadingly presented online as evidence that “Mansimov met with Trump.”
Two days after Trump’s inauguration, the Luna – one of the world’s largest ocean yacht, owned by Farhad Akhmedov - docked at Miami ports. During Akhmedov’s stay in the U.S., the superyacht remained moored for several months near Miami Museum Park.
At Mansimov’s request, Parnas met with Akhmedov aboard his roughly half-a-billion-dollar superyacht. Speaking with journalists, Parnas praised Akhmedov’s yacht and highlighted that Akhmedov had high expectations for establishing connections with Ballard.
Parnas also claimed that he and Ballard later introduced Akhmedov to gambling billionaire and Republican “megadonor” Steve Wynn, though Ballard Partners has denied this.
Parnas said the meeting took place on March 4 at the Republican National Committee headquarters in Palm Beach, Florida. A photo published by journalists shows Parnas, Wynn, and Akhmedov together at the event. Wynn’s attorney, Reed Weingarten, confirmed their presence but said Parnas and Akhmedov were “strangers” to Wynn.
Four days later, on March 8, Parnas and Akhmedov flew to Washington, D.C., on Akhmedov’s private jet to meet Ballard.
The screenshots are from Lev Parnas’s correspondence with Brian Ballard.
According to information obtained by journalists, Ballard’s firm made two payments totaling $22,500 to Parnas in 2018, a little over a year after it had helped arrange the lobbying deals.
Two names appear frequently in this investigation: businessman Sezgin Korkmaz and Lev Aslan Dermen (also known as Levon Termendzhyan), an Armenian-American mobster.
The article also notes that, despite Mansimov’s denials, he in fact maintained close ties with both individuals. The website even published a photo showing them together at a wedding ceremony in Istanbul in 2016.
The article notes that, in addition to serving as “intermediaries” in cultivating ties between the United States and Turkiye, Mansimov and Korkmaz were also business partners of Dermen - a figure widely known as a mobster and fraudster.
It further supports evidence of Mansimov’s partnership with Dermen through a document dated October 2016, which shows that the two jointly established the U.S. branch of the Palmali company. businesssearch
Daniel McDair, a former associate of Levon Dermen, told journalists that the plan by Mansimov and Dermen to establish a subsidiary company for transporting crude oil - without first securing an agreement with the Turkish authorities - ultimately failed.
“It might have been promising if it had been backed by a formal contract with the Turkish government or if Ankara had actively supported the deal. But that never happened,” said the former associate of the Armenian-American mobster.
In his conversation with journalists, Lev Parnas claimed that he knew very little about Dermen’s business relationship with Mansimov, adding that it was Mansimov himself who had introduced him to the criminal figure.
The final detail in this regard is a screenshot of a message Mansimov sent to Parnas on January 22, 2017, in which he asked Parnas to persuade Ballard to “make an effort” in the Reza Zarrab case. No further information has been disclosed about Mansimov’s possible motives or connections concerning Zarrab’s release.
Thus, nearly a decade later, Mansimov once again finds himself entangled in dubious dealings that follow a familiar pattern. Ten years ago, he sought proximity to the new U.S. administration through Lev Parnas; now, he appears to be cultivating ties with Nicholas Muzin, a figure reportedly connected to covert links with Russia. The true purpose of this new relationship remains an open question.
Nearly a decade later, Mansimov once again finds himself entangled in dubious dealings that follow a familiar pattern. Ten years ago, he sought proximity to the new U.S. administration through Lev Parnas; now, he appears to be cultivating ties with Nicholas Muzin, a figure reportedly connected to covert links with Russia. The true purpose of this new relationship remains an open question…
