A Ukrainian linked to a fake “heiress” who had infiltrated Mar-a-Lago was shot dead outside a Quebec hotel.
Valeriy Tarasenko, 44, was shot dead outside an Estérel Resort Hotel in Estérel, Quebec, around 1 p.m. Friday. He was not a guest of the hotel.
Tarasenko, a businessman, was romantically involved with Inna Yashchyshyn, 33, who reportedly posed as a fake heiress to the Rothschild fortune to infiltrate Donald Trump’s home in Mar-a-Lago.
He has ties to Canada and Florida and had met with the FBI to turn over documents revealing his ex-lover’s infiltration and dealings. The documents showed that the couple owned two companies together.
The shooting on Friday left him with serious but non-life-threatening injuries. Another person involved suffered serious head injuries.
Three people opened fire on three others in the parking lot before driving away in a black SUV, CBC reported.
Mayor Frank Pappas believed the attack was targeted and local police are investigating.
Tarasenko, a businessman, had ties to Inna Yashchyshyn (pictured with Trump), who reportedly posed as a fake heiress to the Rothschild fortune to infiltrate Donald Trump’s home in Mar-a-Lago
Valeriy Tarasenko, 44, was shot dead outside an Estérel Resort Hotel in Estérel, Quebec, around 1 p.m. Friday. He was not a guest of the hotel
Yashchyshyn, 33, made headlines last month after a Pittsburgh newspaper published an exposure that delved into a murky past in which she rose from unknown origins to planing with America’s former president while sporting one of the wealthiest names in history .
Since the story broke, Yashchyshyn has been accused of being everything from a Russian spy to a member of an international crime syndicate, and Senate Intelligence Committee chairman Mark Warner has also called for an investigation into how someone with such a shady past got into one could invade the former president’s house unchecked
The FBI and Canadian law enforcement have both launched investigations into her past and finances, which are still ongoing.
But Yashchyshyn – who has passports, driver’s licenses and other IDs bearing the name of Anna de Rothschild – said the entire subterfuge was foisted on her by her abusive ex-lover, 44-year-old Valeriy Tarasenko, who forced her to don the fake identity and infiltrated high society to support his 18-year-old daughter’s music career.
“I was a hostage,” she told the Post Gazette this week, characterizing Tarasenko as a jealous lover who became manipulative and violent when she tried to leave him.
But Tarasenko insists otherwise, saying in a recent interview with the New York Post that Yashchyshyn is a “brilliant scammer.” He also said the two never had a romantic relationship and he only hired her as a nanny for his two daughters in 2014.
Federal agents first got wind of Yashchyshyn last winter after Tarasenko filed a criminal complaint accusing her of taking the name Anna de Rothschild to gain “access” to politicians “including but not limited to Donald Trump, Lindsey Graham and Eric Greitens”, former governor of Missouri.
In an affidavit filed in a Miami-Dade court, Tarasenko wrote that Yashchyshyn was “an active member of an international criminal organization.”
In the complaint, Tarasenko enclosed numerous international identification cards with Yashchyshyn’s face and the name Anna de Rothschild, including a Florida driver’s license that listed her address as an $18 million estate on San Marco Island.
Tarasenko said Rothschild wasn’t Yashchyshyn’s only powerful alias, and claimed she routinely adopted others, including Anna Kruger – who poses as a member of Canada’s paper and cardboard wealth family – and Inessa Cavalli of the $500 million Italian fashion empire.
He also claimed that Yashchyshyn worked for numerous Russian oligarchs and indirectly served Vladimir Putin.
Yashchyshyn vehemently denied the allegations, telling a Canadian court earlier this year that Tarasenko had always threatened her with a legal “nightmare” if she ever left him.
“If I run away, he will make my life a nightmare by filing bogus legal surprises against me,” she said in court, according to The Post.
Yashchyshyn claimed that Tarasenko forced her to adopt false names, open a series of limited liability companies in Miami and Montreal, and pose as Anna de Rothschild in order to cheat the powerful out of their wealth.
One such company was Rothschild Media Label Inc., which Yashchyshyn said was meant to boost the music career of Tarasenko’s 18-year-old daughter Sofiya, who goes by the online name Sofiya Rothschild.
“He felt that if Sofiya changed her last name to Rothschild, she would have a better chance of making it big in America,” she told the Post. Yashchyshyn added that Sofiya referred to her in public as “her aunt Anna de Rothschild”.
Sofiya’s Instagram page goes by the name of Sofiya Rothschild and includes videos promoting her music and photos of her posing in front of luxury cars with her face always covered. Yashchyshyn can be seen next to Sofiya in at least one photo.
Yashchyshyn also denied under oath ever using false names or breaking any law.
But numerous people who were present when she performed at Mar-a-Lago in May 2021 say she called herself Anna de Rothschild.
“Everybody ate it up,” said author and former Wall Street investor John LeFevre, who met Yashchyshyn at Trump’s resort.
LeFevre and other witnesses said that in addition to introducing herself as Rothchild, Yashchyshyn spoke about plans to open a Formula One circuit in Miami and spoke about days growing up in Monaco. Yashchyshyn was raised by a truck driver from Illinois, according to the Post Gazette.
“It was a near-perfect trick and she played the role,” LeFevre told the Post Gazette.
However, Yashchyshyn told the Post she never used false names in Mar-a-Lago and only went there because a friend of Sofiya’s invited her. She said she stayed May 1-2, 2021, had lunch and played a round of golf with a family she met.
During that golf session — the same day the resort was hosting a $25,000 a cap fundraiser — she met Trump and the infamous photo was snapped.
“I didn’t tell anyone my name, and nobody asked for ID,” she told the Post.
Despite her claims, footage from the day made available to the Post Gazette shows Yashchyshyn teeing off at a driving range in Mar-a-Lago while a man calls her Anna and jokes that she could afford it to donate $1 million for a photo with Trump.
“Anna, you’re a Rothschild – you can afford a million dollars for a picture with you and Trump,” the man was heard saying.