Ex-Giuliani ally is convicted in campaign finance scheme
NEW YORK — Lev Parnas and his business partner, Igor Fruman, were at Dulles International Airport near Washington two years ago, holding one-way tickets for a Lufthansa flight to Frankfurt, Germany, when the FBI caught up with them.
The two Soviet-born businessmen, who had climbed to prominent places in the orbit of President Donald Trump, were arrested before boarding the flight and charged with several campaign-finance violations, including conspiring to funnel a Russian tycoon’s money into American politics.
In the years that followed, Parnas began to open up about his role in events connected to Trump’s first impeachment. He provided material to House investigators and acknowledged participating in an effort by Trump’s personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, to pressure Ukrainian officials to investigate Joe Biden, a leading Democratic presidential candidate at the time who subsequently beat Trump.
Still, the campaign-finance charges loomed. Even as Fruman and David Correia, a second man charged in the case, pleaded guilty, Parnas and a fourth defendant, Andrey Kukushkin, maintained their innocence. Last week, the two men went to trial in U.S. District Court in Manhattan. On Friday, Parnas' activity
as a political donor caught up with him as a jury convicted him on all six counts he was facing. Kukushkin was also found guilty.
In a statement, Damian Williams, the U.S. attorney in Manhattan, said Parnas and Kukushkin had conspired to manipulate the American political system to enrich themselves.
”Campaign finance laws are designed to protect the integrity of our free and fair elections — unencumbered by foreign interests or influence,” Williams said. “Safeguarding those laws is essential to preserving the freedoms that Americans hold sacred.”
Speaking outside court after the verdict was read, Parnas’ lawyer, Joseph Bondy, said his client planned to appeal and seek to have the conviction vacated.
Prosecutors outlined a two-part scheme, saying Parnas had lied to the Federal Election Commission about certain campaign donations he had made and that he and Kukushkin had tried to gain favor among candidates with contributions tied to the Russian tycoon, Andrey Muraviev, with whom they were involved in a cannabis business.
Throughout the trial, Bondy presented his client as an enterprising businessman who was a longtime proponent of legalizing marijuana and who also wanted to lead a company that would bring natural gas from the United States to Europe to help prevent a Russian “stranglehold” on energy.