Old connections between Debbie Mucarsel-Powell’s husband and Ukrainian oligarch resurface

Debbie Mucarsel-Powell and Robert Powell. Image via Facebook.

The business relationship between Senate candidate Debbie Mucarsel-Powell’s husband and a Ukrainian oligarch is drawing renewed attacks from Republicans as she mounts another political campaign.

Lawyer Robert Powell, the former Congresswoman’s spouse, worked as an attorney for several firms owned at least in part by billionaire Ihor Kolomoisky, one of the richest people in Ukraine. The Daily Beast reported in 2018 that Powell earned almost $700,000 over two years from a firm connected to the oligarch.

National Republicans highlighted that relationship in ads thrashing Mucarsel-Powell both in 2018, as Mucarsel-Powell ran successfully and unseated GOP U.S. Rep. Carlos Curbelo in a South Florida seat, and in 2020, when she lost a re-election bid to now-U.S. Rep. Carlos Giménez.

Immediately after Mucarsel-Powell announced she would challenge Republican U.S. Sen. Rick Scott for his seat representing Florida, the National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC) again raised the relationship.

“Socialist Debbie Mucarsel-Powell lost her Congressional seat after questions were raised about why a warlord accused of bribery, embezzlement, and contract killings paid her family nearly $700,000,” said NRSC spokesperson Philip Letsou. “She still hasn’t answered those questions, and Floridians will reject her again.”

Kolomoisky’s notoriety has only grown since the last time Mucarsel-Powell appeared on a ballot. Under pressure from European Union nations, Ukrainian President Volodymr Zelensky earlier this year launched an anti-corruption investigation that included raiding Kolomoisky’s home, the BBC reported in February.

That came years after the FBI raided a number of U.S. properties associated with Kolomoisky and two Miami-based associates, Mordechai Korf and Uriel Laber. Authorities reportedly sought information on whether the American firms were being used to launder millions from a bank connected to Kolomoisky.

While nobody ultimately faced charges in that federal investigation, the Miami Herald reported in 2020 that the Justice Department sought forfeiture requests for properties in Texas, Kentucky and Ohio.

Nearly a decade ago, Russian investigators accused Kolomoisky, then governor of Ukraine’s Dnepropetrovsk district, of murder and human rights violations in connection to the death of more than 100 individuals. Kolomoisky, who had financed a private army to fight Russian forces during a conflict in Crimea, dismissed the accusations as Russian propaganda, The Times of Israel reported in 2014.

A year later, another Ukrainian billionaire, Viktor Pinchuk, accused Kolomoisky in open court of arranging an ultimately unsuccessful murder plot on a lawyer, the Evening Standard reported in 2015. Attorneys for Kolomoisky at the time denied all allegations and a judge refused to consider them in court proceedings.

Powell, for his part, has long downplayed any relationship directly to Kolomoisky. “I have never worked for, represented, answered to, or received any payment from Mr. Kolomoisky at any time,” he said in a statement reported by The Daily Beast in 2018.

The Mucarsel-Powell campaign declined to address the matter the day of her candidate launch.

Powell worked as counsel for Miami-based Georgian American Alloys from January 2008 to December 2017, and the company’s website listed him as Chief Legal Officer in 2012. Powell also served for a period as General Counsel for Optima Acquisitions, Felman Production and Felman Trading, all companies that have been connected through court filings to Kolomoisky.

Mucarsel-Powell’s financial disclosures show Powell received $695,000 from Felman Trading in 2016 and 2017.