A new report suggests that one of President Trump's hotels benefited from a Russian state-owned bank under U.S. sanctions.

The Wall Street Journal reports that the bank, Vnesheconombank (VEB), helped finance the Trump International Hotel and Tower in Toronto.

"Alexander Shnaider, a Russian-Canadian developer who built the 65-story Trump International Hotel and Tower, put money into the project after receiving hundreds of millions of dollars from a separate asset sale that involved the Russian bank," the Journal reported.

"Mr. Shnaider sold his company’s share in a Ukrainian steelmaker for about $850 million in 2010, according to S&P Global Market Intelligence. According to two people with knowledge of the deal, the buyer, which hasn’t been identified publicly, was an entity acting for the Russian government. VEB initiated the purchase and provided the money, these people say."

Vladimir Putin was chairman of the bank's supervisory board at the time of steelmaker deal.

Shnaider's lawyer Symon Zucker originally told the Journal in April that roughly $15 million from the asset sale went into the Toronto hotel project but quickly audibled. "I am not able to confirm that any funds' from the deal 'went into the Toronto project,'" he wrote in an email the next day.

Zucker later told Business Insider that the Journal "got their facts all wrong."

"Trump was never a partner," he said. "He never had an equity interest. We licensed his name and there was a contract for him to manage the hotel."

The Trump Organization backed up Zucker's explanation in a statement to the Journal, telling the publication that it "merely licensed its brand and manages the hotel and residences."

According to Zucker, Shnaider "borrowed $350 million from an Austrian bank and invested some of his own" money into the hotel.

The five-star hotel opened in 2012 but has been plagued by financial problems from the start. A Canadian judge approved its $220 million sale to California investment firm JCF Capital ULC in March.

The property houses 211 hotel rooms and 74 private residences in addition to a restaurant, spa and bar.

The Journal report comes amid an investigation by the Senate Intelligence Committee into Trump's potential ties to Russia and just two days after artist Robin Bell projected "Pay Trump bribes here" onto the president's Washington, D.C. hotel.

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