String of Charges Involves Numerous Actors in Complex Case

It’s a complex story of numerous alleged illegal actions involving President Trump’s attorney; illegal donations to a pro-Trump super PAC; Ukraine and Belarus-born defendants and a Florida golf pro; millions of scammed investors… and it’s not a movie.

Lev Parnas, a Ukraine national who helped Rudy Giuliani dig up dirt on then-candidate Joe Biden during the presidential campaign, was back in court again in yet another case charging him of fraud.

Facing charges in a superseding indictment for violating campaign finance laws plus other charges, Parnas and Belarus-born Igor Fruman, both former associates of President Trump’s attorney Rudy Giuliani, pleaded not guilty to fraud charges yesterday in a Manhattan courtroom.

Facing numerous charges in multiple Federal cases, Parnas and Fruman were previously arrested in October 2019 as they attempted to leave America with one-way tickets to Germany at Dulles International Airport.

Parnas and Fruman are accused of tricking investors to fund a start-up, aptly named Fraud Guarantee, by investing more than $2 million in the company, then spent most of the funds on political donations and for their own personal use. The accused are said to have spent the money on luxury cars, rent and shopping sprees.

The stated mission of the company was to protect investors against fraud.

In October 2019, Giuliani, who is currently leading the debunked legal attempts by Trump to overturn Biden’s landslide victory as president, was paid $500,000 by the accused duo for work he did for Fraud Guarantee. At this time, Giuliani has not been charged with any illegal wrongdoing for his participation as a consultant in this firm.

Also in October, a grand jury indictment was issued for Parnas and Fruman, who were accused of setting up Global Energy producers, LLC, a shell company hiding the foreign sourcing of about $325,000 donations to a pro-Trump super PAC. The pair were accused in court documents of conspiring “to circumvent the federal laws against foreign influence by engaging in a scheme to funnel foreign money to candidates for federal and state office so that the defendants could buy potential influence with candidates, campaigns, and the candidates' governments."

At the Monday hearing before U.S. District Judge Paul Oetken in Manhattan, the justice said Florida businessman David Correia, who also had been charged with making false statements to the Federal Election Commission and wire fraud conspiracy connected to Fraud Guarantee, had pleaded guilty. Correia is a former golf professional who had pleaded guilty remotely before Oetken last week. Now also a witness in the case, his role had been to hire Giuliani for Fraud Guarantee.

Correia agreed as part of his plea deal to serve about three years in prison and pay $2.3 million in restitution while also forfeiting another $43,650.

Parnas and Fruman’s charges include their work with Giuliani to attempt to persuade numerous Ukrainian officials to investigate President-elect Biden’s son Hunter Biden during the presidential campaign.

As per the Manhattan hearing this week, Oetken agreed to postpone the trial after defense attorneys argued that the pandemic and the prosecutor’s slow turnover of evidence make it impossible to be ready for the March 21, 2021 trial.