US launches probe to investigate access of 'Rothschild heiress' to Trump's Florida resort

Fears over security lapses during and after Donald Trump's presidency have increased as US authorities look into the access of a second foreign national to his Mar-a-Lago resort. The former US President's Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida is the focus of an FBI investigation into missing classified documents.

An article from the Organized Crime & Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP) claims that a Ukrainian woman who entered the private members club under false pretences and claimed to be a member of the Rothschild banking dynasty is currently being investigated by the bureau. Inna Yashchyshyn, 33, allegedly told members she was a Rothschild heiress while socialising with Trump, South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham, and others at Mar-a-Lago events.

Yashchyshyn reportedly showed "the ease with which someone with a fake identity and shadowy background" could get past security at Trump's club," according to the article published in OCCRP and the Pittsburgh Gazette. The FBI obtained a search warrant for Mar-a-Lago earlier this month as part of a criminal investigation into Trump and his staff's unauthorised retention of government secrets. Despite repeated requests, the staff failed to return the allegedly improperly retained documents.

The chairs of the House intelligence and oversight committees, Adam Schiff and Carolyn Maloney, announced on August 27 that the US intelligence director, Avril Haines, had confirmed that her deputies would assess whether the improper storage of classified documents at Mar-a-Lago had put national security at risk or had harmed it in any way. The search was conducted a month after the heads of the FBI and MI5, Britain's domestic security agency, issued a stern warning about the systemic threats that Chinese espionage poses to western economies and governments.

Yashchyshyn, the daughter of an Illinois truck driver, claimed to be a Rothschild heiress while serving as president of United Hearts of Mercy, a Canadian charity founded in 2015 by Florida-based Russian oligarch Valery Tarasenko. According to OCCRP and the Post-Gazette, "both the FBI's Miami office and the Canadian provincial police Surete du Quebec have launched investigations that touch on her dealings." Although the FBI declined to comment, the Canadian equivalent acknowledged that Yashchyshyn was the subject of an investigation by its major crimes unit earlier this year.

(Image: AP)