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Lev Parnas, a former associate of Trump’s lawyer Rudy Giuliani, was sentenced to 20 months in prison after being convicted last fall on six accounts related to “influence buying” campaign finance schemes, wire fraud, and false statements.
Lev Parnas was found guilty of scheming to use Russian money to fund political donations to trade for political favors to help his business ventures.
President Donald Trump’s first impeachment investigation revealed that Parnas helped Rudy Giuliani connect with Ukrainian figures during his effort to convince Ukrainian officials to investigate President Joe Biden’s son, Hunter, before the 2020 election.
Parnas also has pleaded guilty to colluding to steal hundreds of thousands of dollars from investors in the company Fraud Guarantee. Parnas and a co-conspirator claimed that they would use the investors’ funds for legitimate business expenses, but actually withdrew many of the funds as cash to transfer to personal accounts. According to prosecutors, Parnas and his co-conspirator stole a total of over $2 million. Rudy Giuliani accepted $500,000 from Fraud Guarantee, sent by Parnas, to act as a consultant.
In addition to 20 months in prison, Parnas also has been sentenced to three years of supervised release and to pay restitution over $2.3 million.
Parnas has also been convicted for using money from Soviet-born Giuliani associate Igor Fruman, who has pleaded guilty to solicitation of a contribution by a foreign national and a fake company in order to direct hundreds of thousands of dollars of political contribution to GOP and pro-Trump committees, which he then lied to the Federal Election Commission about.
US attorney for the Southern District of New York, Damian Willaims, stated, “Parnas will now serve time in prison for his many crimes. Not content to defraud investors in his business, Fraud Guarantee, out of more than $2 million dollars, Parnas also defrauded the American public by pumping Russian money into US elections and lying about the source of funds for political contributions.”