2 men linked to U.S.-Ukraine scandal nabbed
WASHINGTON/NEW YORK — Two foreign-born Florida businessmen who’ve been helping President Donald Trump’s personal lawyer investigate political rival Joe Biden have been arrested on charges of funnelling foreign money to U.S. political candidates and a pro-Trump election committee, authorities said Thursday.
The arrests were the latest dramatic development in a political saga that threatens Trump’s presidency.
They come as the Democratic-led U.S. House of Representatives conducts an impeachment inquiry into Trump centred on the Republican president’s request in a July phone call for Ukraine’s president to investigate Biden.
The businessmen, Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman, were arrested in connection with a New York federal case involving campaign finance laws, the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Manhattan said.
The two men were donors to a pro-Trump fundraising committee and the president’s personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, has said they helped him as he sought to investigate former vice-president Biden, a leading Democratic contender in the 2020 presidential election.
Parnas is a Ukrainian businessman. Fruman is a real estate investor born in Belarus. Both, according to various media accounts, helped introduce Giuliani into top Ukrainian political circles.
The two men had been planning to fly to Vienna Wednesday night, according to a source familiar with the matter.
Parnas and Fruman conspired to “funnel foreign money to candidates for federal and state office,” according to a federal court filing in New York. The two men made illegal contributions using straw donors, according to the indictment.