Two associates of Rudy Giuliani made their initial appearance before a federal judge on Thursday, less than 24 hours after they were arrested on campaign finance violations while trying to board an international flight with one-way tickets at Dulles International Airport outside of Washington D.C.
Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman appeared in federal court in Alexandria, Va. to face a four-count indictment alleging that they, along with two other co-defendants, conspired to violate a ban on foreign donations and contributions in connection with federal and state elections.
The two men remained mostly silent during their appearance before U.S. Magistrate Judge Michael Nachmanoff, who set their bond at $1 million each. Nachmanoff said he was reluctant to agree to a bond package but noted the mens’ defense team and the government had agreed on it.
Terms of bond included $1 million per suspect and the surrender of passports and all other travel documents, as well as travel restricted to the Southern District of Florida and Southern District of New York. They also will be subject to home detention and GPS monitoring, according to the agreement.
Both Parnas and Fruman are expected to remain in custody for at least the remainder of the day, until the terms of the bond are met.
“You will be stuck here in limbo if the terms of the bond are not met,” Nachmanoff said.
The next hearing was scheduled for Oct. 17 in the Southern District of New York, where their indictments originated.
“Protecting the integrity of our elections and protecting our elections from unlawful foreign influence are core functions of our campaign finance laws,” Manhattan U.S. Attorney Geoffrey Berman said at a news conference Thursday.
Berman added: “As this office has made clear, we will not hesitate to investigate or prosecute those who engage in criminal conduct that draws into question the integrity of our political process, and I want to add that this investigation is continuing.”
Parnas, 47, and Fruman, 53, created Global Energy Producers (GEP), and allegedly funneled money through the company. This included contributions of $325,000 and $15,000 to committees in May 2018, “to obtain access to exclusive political events and gain influence with politicians,” the indictment says. They allegedly incorporated GEP around the time the contributions were made.
According to Federal Election Commission (FEC) records, GEP contributed $325,000 in May 2018 to pro-Trump super PAC America First Action. In a statement, a spokesperson for America First Action noted that a complaint was filed with the FEC in July 2018 over this contribution, as well as separate litigation in Florida. The statement said that the money was placed “in a segregated bank account,” was not used, and “will remain in this segregated account until these matters are resolved.”
President Trump said Thursday afternoon he does not know Parnas and Fruman, but might have met them at a fundraiser at one point.
“I don’t know those gentlemen,” Trump said. “Now, it’s possible I have a picture with them, because I have a picture with everybody.”
Parnas and Fruman were featured in a photo alongside the president’s son, Donald Trump Jr., at a table apparently at the Beverly Hills Polo Lounge. The photo was posted on Parnas’ Facebook page on May 21, 2018.
Both men are accused of making false statements related to the nature of GEP and the contribution in response to the FEC complaint.
Additionally, before Parnas and Fruman were trying to manipulate U.S.-Ukrainian politics to aid President Trump in 2020, they made time for a little side venture to allegedly rake in some green.
>According to the explosive indictment dropped Thursday, the two, plus businessmen David Correia and Andrey Kukushkin, allegedly funneled money from an unnamed foreign national to candidates for political office in Nevada who could change state laws about recreational marijuana licensing. The group intended to set up a recreational marijuana business and wanted to change licensing laws in multiple states to build the weed empire.
They wanted to conceal the identity of the foreign funder due to what Kukushkin allegedly described as “his Russian roots and current political paranoia about it,” per the indictment.
According to state election records, Fruman made donations to Nevada state candidates Adam Paul Laxalt and Wesley Karl Duncan, both Republicans. Laxalt, who received $10,000 from Fruman, ran unsuccessfully for governor of Nevada in 2018. Duncan, the recipient of another $10,000 donation, lost his 2018 election to be Attorney General of Nevada.
Before Rudy Giuliani associates Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman were trying to manipulate U.S.-Ukrainian politics to aid President Trump in 2020, they made time for a little side venture to allegedly rake in some green.
According to the explosive indictment dropped Thursday, the two, plus businessmen David Correia and Andrey Kukushkin, allegedly funneled money from an unnamed foreign national to candidates for political office in Nevada who could change state laws about recreational marijuana licensing. The group intended to set up a recreational marijuana business and wanted to change licensing laws in multiple states to build the weed empire.
They wanted to conceal the identity of the foreign funder due to what Kukushkin allegedly described as “his Russian roots and current political paranoia about it,” per the indictment.
According to state election records, Fruman made donations to Nevada state candidates Adam Paul Laxalt and Wesley Karl Duncan, both Republicans. Laxalt, who received $10,000 from Fruman, ran unsuccessfully for governor of Nevada in 2018. Duncan, the recipient of another $10,000 donation, lost his 2018 election to be Attorney General of Nevada.
The gang allegedly planned to implement their scheme in both New York and Nevada and Correia drew up a table in September or October 2018 to estimate the amount of money they’d need to make inroads with the various state and federal political candidates. They calculated that to execute a “multi-state license strategy,” they would need between $1 and $2 million. The foreign funder wired two $500,000 deposits to a U.S. bank account controlled by Fruman and another unnamed individual, one on September 18 and one on October 16.
However, according to the indictment, the crew overlooked one small detail in their pot plot: the licensing application deadline in Nevada was back in September. By the point they started to put their plan into action, they were two months too late. The indictment alleges that they “did not timely apply for a recreational marijuana license in September 2018, the then-deadline for such applications in Nevada.”
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