Giuliani associate Lev Parnas convicted in campaign finance fraud case

The Ukrainian native was recruited to help Giuliani seek damaging information on President Biden — and his son Hunter — before the 2020 election.

October 22, 2021

Lev Parnas, a Florida businessman who is an associate of Rudolph W. Giuliani, was found guilty on Friday of using funds from a foreign investor to try to influence political candidates through campaign donations, The Washington Post reports.

It took the federal jury in U.S. District Court in Manhattan less than a day to find that Parnas committed fraud through donations to several state and federal candidates that were bankrolled by a Russian financier. Parnas was also found guilty on counts related to a $325,000 donation in 2018 to a joint fundraising committee that supported then-president Donald Trump.

Prosecutors told the jury that the illegal fundraising efforts documented in text messages and other trial evidence gave Parnas access to elected officials and candidates. They showed photos of Parnas with Trump and Giuliani, who was the president’s personal lawyer, schmoozing at high-end political fundraisers.

Prosecutors also said Parnas lied to the Federal Elections Committee about the source of the hefty 2018 donation, which he said in filings was from his start-up company Global Energy Producers. The company was in fact not profitable and not functioning as a real business, prosecutors argued. The donation was actually sourced through a mortgage refinance loan obtained by Parnas’s business partner, Igor Fruman, the jury found.