Giuliani associate Lev Parnas convicted in campaign finance fraud case
By Shayna Jacobs
Today at 3:38 p.m. EDT
NEW YORK — Lev Parnas, a Florida businessman who is an associate of Rudolph W. Giuliani, was found guilty on Friday of using funds from a foreign investor to try to influence political candidates through campaign donations. It took the federal jury in U.S. District Court in Manhattan less than a day to find that Parnas committed fraud through donations to several state and federal candidates that were bankrolled by a Russian financier. Parnas was also found guilty on counts related to a $325,000 donation in 2018 to a joint fundraising committee that supported then-president Donald Trump.
Prosecutors told the jury that the illegal fundraising efforts documented in text messages and other trial evidence gave Parnas access to elected officials and candidates. They showed photos of Parnas with Trump and Giuliani, who was the president’s personal lawyer, schmoozing at high-end political fundraisers. Prosecutors also said Parnas lied to the Federal Elections Committee about the source of the hefty 2018 donation, which he said in filings was from his start-up company Global Energy Producers. The company was in fact not profitable and not functioning as a real business, prosecutors argued.
The donation was actually sourced through a mortgage refinance loan obtained by Parnas’s business partner, Igor Fruman, the jury found. Fruman — whose alleged role in the events was regularly discussed in testimony at the trial — pleaded guilty last month to one count of soliciting foreign campaign contributions. He’s due to be sentenced early next year. Parnas is also slated to face a second trial in U.S. District Court in Manhattan for charges related to defrauding investors in what prosecutors say was another sham company — Fraud Guarantee.
The venture purported to offer a service to other companies that protected them from fraud. But prosecutors allege that Parnas and another man, David Correia, were actually stealing from their investors. Correia has pleaded guilty to charges related to his role in that case. Parnas’s ties to Giuliani when Giuliani was Trump’s personal attorney played prominently in the ex-president’s first impeachment trial. The Ukrainian native was recruited to help Giuliani seek damaging information on President Biden — and his son Hunter — before the 2020 election.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/lev-parnas-verdict/2021/10/22/1c6e2bbc-327c-11ec-93e2-dba2c2c11851_story.html
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