Two Florida fixers who connected Ukrainian government officials with Rudy Giuliani, President Donald J. Trump’s personal lawyer, as he pushed for investigations in Ukraine into ex-U.S. Vice President Joe Biden, have been arrested and charged in the U.S. with campaign-finance fraud.
The Soviet-born businessmen — Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman — are charged with counts of conspiracy, falsifying statements and falsification of records, by creating a shell company to illegally finance political campaigns with the purpose of enhancing their influence and gaining access to top politicians.
The two allegedly received between $1 and $2 million from an unspecified Russian national for political contributions to top federal and state political committees, according to the federal charges.
Those contributions appear to have allowed Parnas and Fruman to meet Trump and his lawyer Giuliani, subsequently helping the latter to find dubious Ukrainian officials that might help sink Biden, the democratic frontrunner in nominations for the upcoming 2020 presidential elections.
In January 2019, Parnas and Fruman then introduced Guiliani to two highly controversial former Ukrainian prosecutors — former General Prosecutor of Ukraine Viktor Shokin and his successor, Yuriy Lutsenko.
During these meetings, Lutsenko and Shokin alleged that Ukraine meddled in the 2016 U.S. presidential elections on Hillary Clinton’s behalf and that the U. S. Embassy in Ukraine, under the direction of U. S. Ambassador to Ukraine Marie L. Yovanovitch at the time, was secretly assisting.
Lutsenko also alleged without evidence that Yovanovitch had given him an “untouchables list” and ordered Lutsenko to close multiple investigations. He and Shokin also baselessly alleged that Yovanovitch was working for Biden.
The two charged men also appear to have contributed vast sums to an unspecified member of Congress to seek his assistance in removing Yovanovitch from office, according to the FBI charges. She was recalled from Kyiv in May, three months ahead of schedule.
The accusations against Parnas and Fruman also allege that the two were closely working with at least one unspecified Ukrainian government official and promoting his or her interests when asking for the removal of Yovanovitch.
The investigation
According to the charges, brought by a grand jury of the Southern District of New York, Parnas and Fruman conspired with each other between March and November of 2018 by making illegal contributions to independent expenditure committees, which later disbursed generous donations to U.S. lawmakers.
The two also founded Global Energy Producers LLC, a company registered as a liquid natural gas producer, but had no income or any assets, court filings state.
Parnas and Fruman appear to have deliberately made the political contributions through their company in order to evade the reporting requirements under the Election Act and to conceal the true sources of those contributions.
An unspecified Russian national made political contributions through the company as well, even though according to the Election Act foreign nationals are prohibited from making donations.
Generous contributions to pro-Trump candidates allowed them to gain access to the president and his lawyer. Back in July, the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP) published an investigation that revealed Parnas and Fruman were key actors behind Giuliani’s plan to investigate the president’s rivals.
A $325,000 payment, made on May 17, 2018, to America First Action, a pro-Trump Super Political Action Committee (commonly known as Super PACs) was the group’s largest donation.
On May 21, the two were dining with Donald Trump Jr., three weeks after meeting President Trump in person. Later photos suggest that the two became close to Giuliani, before becoming engaged in serving the latter’s political interests — finding dirt on Joe Biden.
In May, Giuliani acknowledged that he officially represented the two.
Sketchy prosecutors
Trump’s impeachment inquiry was triggered by a whistleblower complaint which was released after Trump, during a July 25 phone call, pressured President Volodymyr Zelensky to do the U.S. president “a favor” and investigate Joe Biden.
The whistleblower complaint also stated that back in May, U.S. officials “were deeply concerned” that associates of Giuliani were trying to make contact with Zelensky aides. Officials were concerned of Giuliani’s circumvention of national security decision making processes, the report reads.
Giuliani was forced to reveal supplied notes of the Jan. 25–26 conversations with Lutsenko to the U. S. State Department, which turned them over to Congress. The notes also included an account of a Jan. 23 phone call with Shokin.
These meetings were organized by Parnas and Fruman and as stated in the notes they were present during these conversations.
The account suggests that Lutsenko provided the basis for Giuliani’s accusations that Joe Biden abused his office during his time as vice president by pressuring then-Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko to fire Shokin in 2016 to protect his son, Hunter Biden, from criminal investigation in Ukraine.
Hunter Biden served five years as a board member of Burisma, a shady Ukrainian energy company that paid the vice president’s son at least $50,000 a month for five years to serve in an advisory role.
Lutsenko alleged that Artem Sytnyk, head of the National Anti-Corruption Bureau and Sergii Leshchenko, a Ukrainian journalist and then-lawmaker, meddled in the 2016 U.S. elections and Yovanovitch was assisting them by providing patronage.
Among all other claims, Lutsenko said that Sytnyk told his deputy during a trip to an anti-corruption event in Panama that he wants Clinton to win, while Yovanovych sees Sytnyk as the next president of Ukraine.
Two days before Lutsenko, Shokin was interviewed by Giuliani and claimed that Poroshenko “told Shokin not to investigate Burisma as it was not in the interest” of the Bidens. Shokin stated that the investigations stopped out of fear of the United States, and that he had been removed as prosecutor general at Biden’s request.
Shokin went on to allege that Yovanovitch is close to Biden, and he had been denied a visa to travel to the U.S. at Yovanovitch’s request.
Much of what the two told Giuliani amounted to unsubstantiated claims, later debunked as groundless by U.S. and Ukrainian officials, journalists, anti-corruption activists, and later by Lutsenko himself in multiple interviews.
In their later attempt to promote Giuliani’s agenda the two met with oligarch Ihor Kolomoisky, who is close to Zelensky and whose channel led to him being elected. The meeting occurred days after Zelensky was elected president.
OCCRP reported that Fruman and Parnas were introduced to the oligarch by Alexander Levin, a pro-Trump businessman, on the pretence that they wanted to talk about their plan to sell gas to Ukraine.
However, Kolomoisky said in an interview that the two wanted Kolomoisky to help them arrange a meeting between Giuliani and Zelensky.
Zelensky, during an Oct. 10 press conference, while answering a question on why he didn’t meet with Giuliani, said “it’s not a president’s level to meet a lawyer.”
Key documents in the impeachment inquiry of U.S. President Donald J. Trump:
Whistleblower’s complaint against Trump released on Sept. 26
Text messages released on Oct. 3 by chairmen of 3 U.S. House committees
Prepared remarks of ex-U.S. special envoy to Ukraine Kurt Volker to U.S. House committees on Oct. 3
Highlights of U.S. Vice President Joseph Biden’s 6 visits to Ukraine and key policy speeches
