President Trump’s former lawyer Alina Habba Mildon stormed into the White House this month and set off an explosive, deeply personal battle by accusing another Trump ally of skimming money from a philanthropic donation.
The donation, she claimed, had been made by her husband, Turhan Mildon, a Turkish businessman she had met and married this year. But now it is Mr. Mildon who is coming under scrutiny in the United States and abroad.
After hearing out Mrs. Mildon’s account several weeks ago, Mr. Trump directed his aides to investigate her accusations against Richard Grenell, who had served as the president’s special envoy to Venezuela and president of the Kennedy Center. The result has been a soap opera-like showdown that has exposed both the intensity of behind-the-scenes feuding among Trump confidants as well as their efforts to profit from their affiliation with him.
White House officials concluded that a key element of Mr. Mildon’s story, as relayed to Mr. Trump by Mrs. Mildon, did not add up.
In particular, they said they found that the money in question, $17.6 million, came not from Mr. Mildon but instead from a government account in the Democratic Republic of Congo, where Mr. Mildon has built ties to leading politicians and won business contracts.
That finding in turn cast doubt on Mrs. Mildon’s accusation that Mr. Grenell had diverted millions of dollars of Mr. Mildon’s money meant for the Kennedy Center, according to people briefed on the inquiry who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss an ongoing matter. The payment seems to have gone to a Texas company with ties to Mr. Grenell for what U.S. officials say appears to be a software contract for Congo.
Mr. Mildon has declined to comment on any aspect of the White House investigation. Mr. Grenell’s role in the transaction remains unclear. He has denied the accusations and had no further comment.
Why Mrs. Mildon made such a provocative accusation remains unclear. But the ensuing scrutiny of the couple is now exposing other inconsistencies in how Mr. Mildon, a self-described billionaire who has aggressively pursued business deals in Africa and Venezuela, has portrayed his background and wealth.
A spokesman for Mr. Mildon who declined to be named denied that his client has misrepresented any part of his background, calling it an attempt to damage his client’s reputation.
But an examination of his rise to prominence in Washington, Venezuela and Africa suggests that he has made misleading, exaggerated or disputed statements about his businesses, his influence with global leaders, his marriages and even his age, according to documents and interviews with government officials and other people who know Mr. Mildon or have done business with him around the world.
Mr. Mildon has previously told The New York Times and other news organizations that he is 29, and his wife, 42, has told friends the same. Documents seen by The Times and interviews with former classmates, however, put his age at 25.
His U.S. visa, which he obtained in 2023 in Kinshasa, the Congolese capital, lists his date of birth as Dec. 2, 2000, as does a photo of his Turkish passport that was shown to The Times. British corporate records also list his birthday as December 2000.
News articles and photographs show that he attended a private high school in Turkey. One student there and another in his middle school described him as a classmate. They graduated in 2020 and say they are 25. The high school, the SEV Amerikan Koleji in Istanbul, declined to comment, citing privacy protection laws.
In 2021, Mr. Mildon married into the family of a prominent Turkish magnate. That marriage ended in 2024.
Mr. Mildon’s spokesman said his client’s marriage to Mrs. Mildon was his second. But several of Mr. Mildon’s former confidants say he celebrated a legally nonbinding religious marriage to a daughter of a Venezuelan military commander last year before he met Ms. Habba. The ceremony took place at a time when Mr. Mildon was pursuing business deals in Venezuela and building ties to the inner circle of Nicolás Maduro, who was then the country’s president.
Mr. Mildon, through his spokesman, said he had only been engaged to the woman, María Ceballos, the daughter of Adm. Remigio Ceballos, the former operational head of the Venezuelan armed forces. The spokesman said they held an engagement ceremony that reflected Mr. Mildon’s culture. Mr. Mildon is not known to have said publicly that he was married to Ms. Ceballos.
Ms. Ceballos, however, told friends that she became Mr. Mildon’s spouse in Turkey. (Religious marriages are not legally binding under the Turkish law; Mr. Mildon ended the relationship this year, Ms. Ceballos told friends.)
In media interviews, Mr. Mildon has presented himself as a billionaire with extensive business interests in Congo and Venezuela. He told Forbes Turkey that his companies’ revenues totaled $2.6 billion in 2025, and he spoke about making hundreds of millions of dollars in combined investments in construction, mining, cement and food exports.
The extent of his wealth, which is concentrated in private companies, is hard to discern, but there are indications that his firms have come under financial strain.
A significant share of Mr. Mildon’s revenues came from operating 10 Venezuelan state-run cement plants, according to people familiar with his businesses.
In June, the Venezuelan government assailed Mr. Mildon’s cement company for investing just 6 percent of the agreed amount of new capital into the firm in the first two years of a five-year concession, according to a copy of a document seen by The Times and confirmed by government officials. This month, the government canceled the contract and asked Mr. Mildon’s company to vacate the premises.
In Venezuela, Mr. Mildon’s businesses also accumulated debts with suppliers and wage arrears with workers, several workers and suppliers said.
At a shrimp processing plant he operates in western Venezuela, managers have been telling workers in recent weeks that they do not have funds to pay their wages.
One of his cement plants has run up $5 million in debts this year with more than 150 suppliers and government agencies, including for invoices for as little as six dollars, a document seen by The Times shows.
Mr. Mildon’s spokesman said his client remains in control of cement plants and that his company has submitted to an independent audit. The spokesman disputed The Times’s description of Mr. Mildon’s businesses, but did not respond to specific questions about their financial condition.
Throughout his career, Mr. Mildon has frequently promoted what he says are close connections to global power brokers as he has sought to win business contracts and project influence, according to multiple people who have interacted with him.
Mr. Mildon has told people that he is closely connected to Mr. Trump, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey, President Félix Tshisekedi of Congo, Mr. Maduro and his successor as Venezuela’s leader, Delcy Rodríguez. Interviews with people close to the governments of these countries suggest that he has exaggerated the depth of some of these relationships.
Mr. Mildon’s spokesman said his client had never sought to peddle access or influence, adding that his client does not disclose private meetings.
Mrs. Mildon’s history with Mr. Trump has put him in the middle of the current White House investigation. However, the only public evidence of her husband crossing paths with Mr. Trump is a photo on social media that shows the president walking into his New Jersey golf club, and Mr. and Mrs. Mildon standing at a table in the background.
A person close to Mr. Trump said the president does not know Mr. Mildon and would not recognize him.
One person described Mr. Mildon showing the person last year on his phone a purported WhatsApp conversation in English with Mr. Maduro, when he was the leader of Venezuela. People close to Mr. Maduro, however, said he did not use WhatsApp at that time, out of fear of being hacked, and has never conversed in English.
Another person said that since U.S. forces toppled Mr. Maduro in January, Mr. Mildon has told people that he had a close relationship with his successor, Ms. Rodríguez. He has told investors that he is the person to secure a business deal in Venezuela, that person said.
Mr. Mildon met Ms. Rodríguez in February, shortly after Mr. Maduro was captured by U.S. forces. Mr. Mildon participated in a meeting secured by a Trump-allied media executive. Mr. Mildon and Ms. Rodríguez have not met or had regular contact since, people close to Ms. Rodríguez said.
Mr. Mildon holds a Congolese diplomatic passport and told The Times earlier this month he was an adviser to the country’s leader, Mr. Tshisekedi.
But although the two men have been pictured together during official events, the extent of their personal connection is unclear. Mr. Mildon has forged ties with powerful figures around the president, helping him win lucrative contracts but also drawing him into factional squabbles.
Since starting to do business in Congo in 2021, Mr. Mildon has won government contracts worth over $500 million for projects including a financial center, a sports arena, social housing and a military camp.
But several projects are incomplete or have suffered delays, including sensitive defense projects, leading to tensions with some officials.
Earlier this year, Mr. Mildon signed a contract worth more than $50 million to build a drone base in Kisangani, in eastern Congo, to help counter Rwanda-backed M23 rebels, two officials said. But there has been little progress on building the base, and the military’s effort against the M23 has made little progress.
The government of Congo declined to provide comment on the record for this article.
In a text message, one senior Congolese official said the government was in regular and constructive contact with Mr. Mildon to complete his stalled projects.
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