Eric Trump, the son of U.S. President Donald Trump, was not paid for the February 2009 work he undertook in Ukraine for the Miss Ukraine Universe beauty pageant, the pageant’s president Anna Filimonova told the Kyiv Post.
Miss Ukraine Universe is the official license holder and franchisee in Ukraine for the global Miss Universe beauty pageant, which was owned and operated by Donald Trump between 1996 and 2015 before he sold the organization.
On Dec. 7, a video and a photo from the Kyiv Post archive of Eric Trump judging the annual beauty contest in Kyiv resurfaced online in a tweet by Scott Dworkin, a Democratic campaigner and co-founder of the Democratic Coalition, a Washington-based advocacy group.
“Eric Trump’s Ukrainian ties need to be investigated immediately,” he wrote in a post that later went viral.
BREAKING: Here’s video we just dug up of Eric Trump in Ukraine. Let’s make this viral. pic.twitter.com/MyRrjW2Jvd
— Democratic Coalition (@TheDemCoalition) 7 December 2019
Sons in Ukraine
The image’s reemergence comes amid an ongoing scandal around the Ukraine-linked impeachment of President Trump, who has strongly criticized the son of his main Democratic rival, Joseph Biden, for undertaking paid work at an energy firm in Ukraine.
Hunter Biden served on the board of Burisma Holdings, a controversial gas company with alleged links to corrupt individuals. There is currently no evidence of wrongdoing by either Hunter Biden or Eric Trump.
On Feb. 22, 2009, the Kyiv Post reported that Eric Trump had been a judge at the Kyiv final of the Miss Ukraine Universe event. Winners from national pageants go on to compete at the global level in the Miss Universe competition.
Here’s a picture I found of Eric Trump in Ukraine. Eric Trump’s Ukrainian ties need to be investigated by Congress NOW. pic.twitter.com/PeZd5TkBI4
— Scott Dworkin (@funder) 6 December 2019
Was Trump paid?
Filimonova said that celebrity judges from outside of Ukraine are often paid fees and have their transport paid for and arranged, but this was not the case with Trump, she claimed.
“I know that Eric Trump was here as a celebrity. He was invited by Oleksandra Ruffin (formerly Oleksandra Nikolayenko, the wife of Trump friend and business partner Phil Ruffin), along with her husband,” she said.
“Their families are friends and he flew over to Ukraine. He was definitely not paid by anybody,” Filimonova added.
The 84-year-old U.S. billionaire Phil Ruffin has businesses in real estate, casinos and oil. Donald Trump was best man at Ruffin’s 2008 wedding to the 38-year-old Ukrainian model, Oleksandra Nikolayenko. She won Miss Ukraine Universe in 2004.
U.S. billionaire Phil Ruffin is the husband of Ukrainian model Oleksandra Ruffin (formerly Oleksandra Nikolayenko). She allegedly owned Miss Ukraine Universe in 2009 and invited Eric Trump to the country. Phil Ruffin is a long time friend and business partner to U.S. President Donald Trump. (Kyiv Post)
Onyshchenko and Miss Ukraine
Miss Ukraine Universe and another pageant, Miss Ukraine, are also connected to the politician, businessman and equestrian champion Oleksandr Onyshchenko who was arrested on Dec. 6 in Germany after three years of evading arrest warrants throughout Europe.
Russian-born Onyshchenko served as a member of parliament with ex-President Viktor Yanukovych’s Party of Regions until the 2014 EuroMaidan Revolution ousted Yanukovych from power. He is suspected of organizing a $125-million fraud scheme in the country’s natural gas sector.
A few days prior to his arrest, Onyshchenko claimed to have dirt on the Burisma company in Ukraine.
The Kyiv Post could not reach Onyshchenko by phone on Dec. 9. He is understood to be incarcerated while awaiting arraignment.
Between at least 2009 and 2015, Onyshchenko owned the company TOP Ukraine. According to multiple media reports, it has organized the Miss Ukraine and Miss Ukraine Universe pageants.
Onyshchenko appears to have directly owned Miss Ukraine between 2010 and 2015.
On Nov. 15, Onyshchenko told the Kyiv Post by phone that, from 2009 to 2012, he owned the Miss Ukraine beauty pageant and organized the Trump-licensed Miss Ukraine Universe.
Speaking to the Kyiv Post on Dec. 9, Anna Filimonova strongly denied this and said that Onyshchenko had owned Miss Ukraine but had not organized Miss Ukraine Universe between 2009 and 2012.
In a second phone call, Filimonova reversed her earlier statement and said that Onyshchenko and his company had co-organized and sponsored the pageant in 2011 but not in other years.
“After that year, he did not do anything (with Miss Ukraine Universe)… He had his pageant, Miss Ukraine. He conducted it, I don’t know for how long. Then he sold it,” Filimonova said.
“In 2009, when Eric Trump was on the jury, Oleksandr Onyschenko did not have anything to do with us, he did not have even the slightest relationship with us,” said Igor Nikolayev, a lawyer for Miss Ukraine Universe. Nikolayev called the Kyiv Post with veiled threats of legal action after the second conversation with Filimonova.
Nikolayev also said that Miss Ukraine Universe was owned by Oleksandra Ruffin in 2011, the wife of Donald Trump’s business partner Phil Ruffin.
“She was the only legal owner of the enterprise and the brand. At that time, those rights were not given to anyone. Onyschenko was a major sponsor… that’s why we gave him the opportunity for his personnel to participate in the organization of the event,” he said.
In a 2016 press release, Miss Ukraine Universe announced that Oleksandra Ruffin had sold the pageant to a “foreign-owned international company” with “foreign capital” without disclosing the identity of the new owner.
That owner is likely Filimonova, who said she has been the pageant president and license holder since 2016.
Trump fan
While there are conflicting accounts of Onyshchenko’s connection to Miss Ukraine Universe, he is clearly a supporter of Donald Trump and admits to having met with him.
Before his arrest in Germany, he periodically waded into the online debate surrounding the Ukraine-linked impeachment of the U.S. president.
He also posted attacks against Hillary Clinton on social media and furthered a debunked theory that the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU) and its head, Artem Sytnyk, had somehow aided the Democratic nominee in her 2016 U.S. presidential campaign.
Onyshchenko also told the Kyiv Post that he met with Donald Trump twice in 2010 or 2011 when he participated in an equestrian competition at Trump’s Florida-based resort, Mar-a-Lago.
He also believes that the black ledger of the Russia-backed Party of Regions, his former party, that implicated Trump’s former campaign manager Paul Manafort in receiving undeclared payments in Ukraine, was forged.
The controversial former lawmaker also said that Ukraine interfered in the 2016 U.S. election and even claims that former Vice President Biden personally canceled his U.S. visa.
He declined to elaborate on this claim.
