A Russian businessman with close ties to Vladimir Putin helped pay for major costs at Donald Trump Jr.’s wedding celebrations in the Bahamas earlier this year, according to a ProPublica investigation published on September 14, 2026.
The ProPublica findings
Umar Kremlev, head of the International Boxing Association and a longtime associate of the Russian president covered hundreds of thousands of dollars in expenses.
These included renting one of the two private islands used for the reception and overnight stays (around $100,000 a night) plus a large fireworks display launched from a barge (estimated at about $70,000).
His team also assisted with event planning. Payments went through a Dubai-based company linked to the boxing association.
The three-day event in May involved about 50 guests. Among them were Jared Kushner, Eric Trump and other Trump family members. Kremlev and a group of Russian associates also attended the wider celebrations, though he was not at the small private family ceremony itself President Donald Trump did not attend, citing official duties.
Who is Umar Kremlev
Kremlev had received honors from Putin including the Order of Friendship earlier in 2026 and was part of a Russian group traveling around the time of a Putin trip to China shortly before the wedding.
He faces Ukrainian sanctions over his Kremlin links. The boxing body he leads had received support connected to the Russian state energy company Gazprom.
The couple’s response
Trump Jr.’s wife, Bettina Anderson, posted on Instagram the same day. She said the private wedding ceremony was for family only. The following weekend had been planned earlier as a friends’ gathering.
When wedding plans shifted, the couple arrived as newlyweds and Kremlev hosted two nights of celebrations afterward as “an extraordinarily generous wedding gift from a friend.”
She called him “our dear friend,” rejected any political motive and described the coverage as mischaracterizing a personal event.
A Trump Jr. spokesman described Kremlev as a personal friend met through hunting and shared interests in boxing and the outdoors with no business ties. Kremlev’s office confirmed a friendly relationship that began a couple of years earlier and said politics were never discussed.
National security experts quoted in the report raised questions about a Putin-linked figure covering costs for the president’s son, though the family maintains it was simply a gift between friends. The story broke the same day many outlets reported the details.
