A Russian businessman dubbed “Putin’s cook” for his close ties to Russia’s president sought in a court filing on Wednesday to distance himself and his company from accusations by American prosecutors of meddling in the 2016 U.S. election. The filing by Evgeny Prigozhin marked the first time any corporate representative for St. Petersburg-based Concord Management and Consulting LLC had responded directly to accusations by the U.S. prosecutors that it had unlawfully defied subpoenas in a criminal case against it. Prigozhin and Concord were charged in 2018 with conspiracy to defraud the United States for their alleged role in election meddling aimed at sowing discord in the United States, helping Donald Trump win the presidency and harming his opponent Hillary Clinton.
