Trump ballroom donor to lead state department’s $200m Armenia fund

Konstantin Sokolov, a Russian-born private equity investor in Chicago, will serve as chairman of a new state department enterprise fund overseeing more than $200m designated for a central Asia trade corridor, including investments in transportation, energy infrastructure and critical minerals, the Guardian has learned. The state department confirmed his appointment on Friday.

Sokolov was one of 36 donors, including 21 corporations and 15 individuals and family foundations, who Donald Trump said contributed over $350m to his ballroom project.
Two-thirds of the corporate donors have since received government contracts, according to research by Public Citizen, a government watchdog group. And several individual donors have received top advisory roles or political appointments, including Benjamin Leon Jr, a Cuban American healthcare magnate who was appointed US ambassador to Spain after his ballroom contribution, and Harold Hamm, an 80-year-old Oklahoma oil executive who successfully secured tax breaks for his company and has helped shape Trump’s energy policy.

Sokolov is the latest ballroom donor to receive a government position. The sum of his gift has not been disclosed. He has not held a previous government job.

Campaign finance records show that Sokolov has given more than $12m to Republican campaigns and political groups during Trump’s second term, including $11m to the president’s Super Pac Maga Inc, and $443,000 to the Republican National Committee. He was previously a modest Obama donor and contributed $3,600 to the former president’s 2008 campaign.

Sokolov declined a Guardian interview request and did not respond to a detailed list of questions about his appointment. The White House referred questions to the state department.

The Tripp+ enterprise fund, where Sokolov serves as founder and chair, takes its name from the Trump route for international peace and prosperity, a 27-mile trade corridor spanning southern Armenia and Azerbaijan. A state department spokesperson said the $201m fund is authorized to make loans, equity investments and grants promoting strategic private sector development in the south Caucasus and central Asia, including in Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan.