Soviet-born businessman also attended Trump Jnr’s meeting with Russian lawyer

A California businessman born in a former Soviet republic attended Donald Trump Jnr’s controversial meeting with a Russian lawyer at the height of the US presidential campaign last year, adding a new level of intrigue to the political scandal roiling the White House.

Irakly “Ike” Kaveladze, 52, is the eighth person known to have taken part in the unusual Trump Tower meeting on June 9, 2016, the Los Angeles Times has learned. His identity was not previously disclosed.

Kaveladze, who lives in Huntington Beach, California, is an employee of a large Russian real estate development company. He was the focus of a scathing congressional inquiry in 2000 into alleged Russian money laundering through banks in California and New York but was not charged.

Investigators for special counsel Robert S. Mueller III, who is leading the federal probe into possible coordination between the Trump presidential campaign and the Russian government, have asked to interview Kaveladze, said Scott Balber, Kaveladze’s lawyer.

Balber said his client was “co-operating fully” with investigators. Mueller’s office declined to comment. No one answered the door or the phone at Kaveladze’s three-story home in a gated community in Huntington Beach. A dresser and other small pieces of furniture sat on the front lawn.

Kaveladze’s involvement is more evidence of the role that Moscow’s powerful Agalarov family played in arranging the meeting with Trump Jnr that is a key focus of Mueller’s probe. The former FBI director appears to be exploring the relationship between the Trumps and the Agalarovs, who were partners on a project for a Trump hotel in Moscow that was never built.