Former Giuliani associates plead not guilty to fraud charges

NEWYORK >> A Ukraine-born businessman who once helped Donald Trump’s personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani gather information about President-elect Joe Biden pleaded not guilty to cheating investors in a fraudinsurance company, even after his former partner in the venture pleaded guilty.

At a hearing on Monday before U. S. District Judge Paul Oetken in Manhattan, Lev Parnas and another former Giuliani associate, Belarus-born Igor Fruman, also pleaded not guilty to violating campaign finance laws and other charges in an amended indictment.

Prosecutors accused Parnas and his partner of conning people into investing more than $2 million in their Floridabased startup, Fraud Guarantee, only to withdraw much of it for personal uses, including political donations.

Giuliani, now leading the Trump legal team’s push to overturn Biden’s presidential election win, told Reuters in October 2019 he was paid $500,000 for work he did for Fraud Guarantee. He has not been criminally charged and has denied wrongdoing.

Oetken also agreed to postpone the trial, after defense lawyers said the COVID-19 pandemic and prosecutors’ being too slow to turn over evidence made the planned March 1, 2021, date unworkable.

The judge said the pandemic had created a backlog of “dozens and dozens” of cases in the Manhattan court, and that while trials have begun the chief judge asked “not to do anything in the courthouse unless we really, really have to.”

Oetken asked both sides to propose a new trial date between June and October 2021.

Parnas and Fruman also face charges of concealing an illegal $325,000 donation they made to support Trump’s reelection.