The former business partner of the Ukrainian woman who infiltrated former President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago report under a fake identity is expected to survive after he was shot on Friday outside a Canadian resort.
Valeriy Tarasenko, a 44-year-old businessman linked to an FBI investigation and recent headlines of a “fake heiress” who infiltrated Mar-A-Lago, sustained “serious injuries” in a shooting outside a resort in the Québec town of Estérel, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reported.
A 53-year-old man was arrested in connection with the shooting Saturday, according to the Montreal Gazette. He was released from custody Sunday, set to appear in court at a later date.
The shooting, which took place at 12:45 p.m., was a “targeted attempted murder,” Estérel Mayor Frank Pappas said he was told by police, as reported by the Montreal Gazette.
Tarasenko recently gave the FBI documents and photos related to an investigation into Inna Yaschyshyn, a Russian-speaking Ukrainian immigrant who last year impersonated a Rothschild heiress to meet with Trump and his inner circle at Mar-A-Lago, according to the Post-Gazette.
She visited Mar-A-Lago at least five times, the Post-Gazette reported, and was pictured in May 2021 on Trump’s private golf course, giving a thumbs-up beside Trump and Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC).
The investigation also concerns suspicious business activity, some in connection with Tarasenko.
Yaschyshyn was an officer in two Florida companies founded by Tarasenko, neither of which had any assets, the Post-Gazette reported.
Beginning in 2015, the two ran United Heats of Mercy, a Miami charity allegedly for impoverished children that was a front for organized crime, according to FBI information reported by the Post-Gazette.
Their relationship began when Tarasenko hired Yashchysyhn in 2014 to live in his Miami condo and watch his two daughters while he traveled for business, the Post-Gazette reported.
Since then, the two have fallen into a legal dispute, with each filing a restraining order against the other in South Florida, according to the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project.
