The Money Behind America's Best F1 Prospect Helped Fund the Trump-Ukraine Scandal
Logan Sargeant celebrates his second-place finish at the Formula 2 feature race in Baku, Azerbaijan, 2022.Photo: Clive Rose (Getty Images)
Formula 2 racer Logan Sargeant has been hailed by many as the next great hope for an American driver in Formula 1. Out of all the potential candidates — and honestly, there aren’t many — Sargeant is the best on the junior series ladder, and while he hasn’t necessarily been a barn-burner, he’s been pretty damn good. His family money, though, has certainly been some places.
See, Logan Sargeant’s grandfather is Harry Sargeant III, a former fighter pilot who operates a multibillion-dollar conglomerate that includes aviation companies, oil refineries, oil trading operations, alternative fuels development, and oil and asphalt shipping. He owns the International Oil Trading Company, which supplies aviation fuel to the U.S. military in Iraq. He also heads Sargeant Trading, founded by his father, which boasts the largest fleet of asphalt tankers and barges in the world. Harry Sargeant III has his fingers in a lot of pies, and has amassed quite a fortune — exact numbers are hard to pin down, but he’s estimated to be worth somewhere between $2 and $3 billion.
As with many monied folks, the elder Sargeant has gotten very involved in politics. And recently, his donations have put him under the microscope as part of broader investigations into former President Donald Trump.
See, Harry Sargeant III donated money to Lev Parnas at a time in 2020 when Parnas, the now-indicted associate of Rudy Giuliani, was attempting to convince Ukraine and other countries to publicize damaging stories about the U.S. Democratic party in an attempt to make Trump’s 2020 re-election campaign look more legitimate. From Mother Jones:
House Democrats on Wednesday released WhatsApp messages between Parnas and Harry Sargeant III, an oil and shipping magnate who lives in Florida, as part of a trove of material they recently obtained from Parnas. The messages show that Sargeant helped fund some of Parnas’ travel and was supportive of efforts by Parnas and Giuliani to convince Trump to remove US Ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch. Parnas and Giuliani have said they believed Yovanovitch’s removal would help them pressure Ukraine’s government to provide dirt on Trump’s foes. Sargeant, a financial backer of Giuliani’s 2008 presidential campaign, is friendly with the former New York mayor. Sargeant met Parnas through Giuliani, a source said.
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Parnas’ attorney claimed that Sargeant was simply loaning money to Parnas and had no idea how that money would be used. Sargeant had expected to be repaid, the attorney said. However, the WhatsApp messages frequently show Sargeant voicing support for Parnas and Giuliani’s plans, including the ousting of the U.S. ambassador to Ukraine, Marie Yovanovitch.
We’re publishing this revelation not as an indictment of Logan Sargeant, who ultimately has little influence over how members of his family earn or spend their money. This is not meant to dissuade you from being a fan of the driver. Rather, we write this to highlight the fact that motorsport — whether we like it or not — is an inherently political sport, largely because it’s so expensive to compete at the very top levels. No matter who you’re rooting for, it’s always instructive to look at who is funding a certain driver’s career, and where else that financial backer spends their money. You never know what kind of stories you’ll dig up along the way.
