Rudy pal tells court: Yes, I’m a liar & fraud

A businessman with close ties to Rudy Giuliani pleaded guilty Thursday to scamming investors in an insurance company aptly named “Fraud Guarantee.”

David Correia was charged last year alongside another Giuliani associate, Lev Parnas, and two other men with a web of campaign finance schemes and other crimes. Correia, 45, is the first of the four to plead guilty. He copped to illegally spending investors’ money in “Fraud Guarantee” and lying to the Federal Trade Commission.

Correia and Parnas had allegedly pitched Fraud Guarantee, which never launched, as providing insurance for investors in other companies in the event they were defrauded. At least seven people, who invested between $200,000 and $500,000, w e r e swindled.

Correia admitted he’d agreed to give “improper information” to investors in the startup. He and Parnas assured investors their money would only go toward the company, when in reality it was spent on Parnas’ rent, luxury cars and other personal expenses, prosecutors said.

Giuliani — who is reportedly under investigation in connection with the case but has not been charged — was reportedly paid hundreds of thousands of dollars by Fraud Guarantee for legal and business advice, according to an October 2019 article by the New York Times. At least one victim of the scam invested in Fraud Guarantee through Giuliani’s consulting firm, Giuliani Partners, a source close to the case told the Daily News.

Giuliani has denied wrongdoing. Correia’s plea did not include a cooperation agreement.

Correia also admitted he’d lied to the FEC about the origins of a $325,000 donation to a pro-President Trump super PAC, America First Action. Correia filed papers with the government showing the hefty donation came from a company, Global Energy Producers. Correia claimed the company was legit, when it didn’t even have a bank account, Assistant U.S. Attorney Doug Zolkind said.

In reality, the money had come from a mortgage taken out on the home of Igor Fruman, Zolkind said.

Fruman, yet another friend of Giuliani’s, is charged in the case and pleaded not guilty.

Prosecutors say Parnas, Correia, Fruman and Andrey Kukushkin broke campaign finance laws while trying to gain prominence in Trump’s orbit. Those efforts at times overlapped with Trump’s effort to dig up dirt on Joe Biden in Ukraine, evidence shows.

Correia will be sentenced on Feb. 8 and faces a likely sentence of around three years.