时代周刊:“善后者”的神秘资金(4)（在线收听）

Former Novartis CEO Joe Jimenez met with Trump in late January 2017.

2017年1月底，诺华集团前CEO江慕忠曾见过特朗普。

Starting in February that year,

从那年二月开始，

the company paid Essential Consultants $100,000 a month for services focused on “U.S. health care policy matters.”

诺华集团每月都会支付“必要咨询”10万美元，购买“美国的服务医疗政策事务”方面的服务。

After Novartis executives met with Cohen in March,

今年3月，诺华高管与科恩会面后，

the company “determined that Michael Cohen and Essentials Consultants would be unable to provide the services that Novartis had anticipated,”

该公司“发现，迈克尔·科恩和‘必要咨询’并不能提供他们预期的服务，”

a spokesman said on May 9.

一位发言人在5月9日说到。

Novartis nevertheless kept up the payments for a full year, until the contract expired.

尽管如此，诺华还是坚持支付了整整一年的费用，直到合同到期。

What, if anything, it received in return is unclear.

它得到了什么回报，如果有得到回报的话，还不清楚。

Last year, the FDA approved Rydapt, a mast cell disorder and leukemia drug,

去年，FDA批准了Rydapt这种治疗肥大细胞紊乱和白血病的药物，

and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services approved limited reimbursements for its rare-blood-cancer drug, Kymriah,

医疗保险和医疗补助服务中心也批准了对其罕见血癌药物Kymriah发放一定补助的申请，

which runs $475,000 for a course of a treatment.

而这种药物一个疗程的费用就高达47.5万美元。

Incoming chief executive Vasant Narasimhan was also invited to an exclusive sit-down dinner

2018年1月达沃斯世界经济论坛期间，

with Trump at the World Economic Forum in Davos in January 2018.

即将上任的新任诺华CEO瓦桑特·纳拉西姆汉也受邀和特朗普一起出席某独家晚宴。

On May 9, the company confirmed that its arrangement with Essential Consultants has attracted the attention of Mueller’s team,

5月9日，该公司证实，其与“必要咨询”的约定已经引起了穆勒团队的注意，

which questioned the company over its payments to Cohen.

后者对该公司向科恩支付的那些款项存疑。

“In hindsight, this must be seen as a mistake,” Novartis spokesman Michael Willi told Reuters.

“事后看来，这必须被视为一个错误，”诺华发言人迈克尔·威力在接受路透社采访时表示。

Perhaps most intriguing, though, are the $500,000 in payments to Essential Consultants from Columbus Nova,

也许，那些款项中最有趣的要数哥伦布诺瓦公司给“必要咨询”的那50万美元了，

a New York investment firm whose biggest client is the Renova Group,

哥伦布诺瓦是纽约的一家投资公司，其最大的客户是列诺瓦集团，

which is, in turn, controlled by the Russian oligarch Viktor Vekselberg.

而后者的控制权掌握在俄罗斯寡头维克托·维克塞尔伯格的手里。

Vekselberg and Renova are both under U.S. sanctions imposed in retaliation for Russia’s meddling in the 2016 election.

维克塞尔伯格和列诺瓦目前都在美国的制裁名单上，美国此举则是为了报复俄罗斯干预2016年美国大选一事。

Earlier this year, investigators with special counsel Mueller

据报道，今年早些时候，调查人员就和特别检察官穆勒

reportedly questioned Vekselberg about his investments in Columbus Nova’s private equity funds.

针对维克塞尔伯格在哥伦布诺瓦公司的私募股权基金中的投资传问了后者。