A New York jury on Friday convicted Lev Parnas, a former associate of Rudy Giuliani who gained close access to Donald Trump, of making illegal campaign contributions.
The verdict was returned in Manhattan federal court, where the Soviet-born Florida businessman was accused of using other people’s money to pose as a powerful political broker and cozy up to Trump and other leading Republicans.
The case drew interest because of the deep involvement of Parnas and a former co-defendant, Igor Fruman, in Giuliani’s efforts to get Ukrainian officials to investigate Joe Biden’s son, Hunter Biden, during the presidential election.
Trump was impeached for the first time over the scheme, leading to speculation over whether Parnas might have damaging information. Trump was acquitted in the Senate.
Giuliani remains under criminal investigation as authorities decide whether his interactions with Ukraine officials required him to register as a foreign agent. The former New York mayor has seen his licenses to practice law suspended in New York and Washington DC. But he was not alleged to have been involved in illegal campaign contributions and was not part of Parnas’s New York trial.
Giuliani has insisted that he knew nothing about illegal contributions by Parnas or Fruman. The former mayor says everything he did in Ukraine was done on Trump’s behalf and there is no reason he would have had to register as a foreign agent.
One part of the case decided on Friday alleged that Parnas and an associate made illegal donations through a corporate entity to Republican political committees in 2018, including a $325,000 donation to America First Action, a pro-Trump Super Pac.
Another part said Parnas used the wealth of a Russian financier, Andrey Muraviev, to make donations to politicians ostensibly in support of an effort to launch a recreational marijuana business.
Parnas, 49, was convicted on all counts. Through his lawyer, he said he never used Muraviev’s money for political donations. As the verdict was read, Parnas closed his eyes and shook his head.
A co-defendant, the Ukraine-born investor Andrey Kukushkin, was convicted of being part of the effort to use Muraviev’s money for contributions. He also denied wrongdoing.
“In order to gain influence with American politicians and candidates, [Parnas and Kukushkin] illegally funneled foreign money into the 2018 midterm elections with an eye toward making huge profits in the cannabis business,” US attorney Damian Williams said.
“Campaign finance laws are designed to protect the integrity of our free and fair elections – unencumbered by foreign interests or influence – and safeguarding those laws is essential to preserving the freedoms that Americans hold sacred.”
In addition to the $325,000 donation to America First Action, made through an energy company, prosecutors said Parnas and Fruman orchestrated donations to Pete Sessions, a Texas congressman, and to committees supporting other Republicans.
Giuliani and Trump were not much mentioned at trial. A video of Giuliani with Parnas was among exhibits jurors could view during deliberations. A photograph showing Parnas with the Florida governor, Ron DeSantis, was one of the first exhibits in closing arguments.
DeSantis was among those who received contributions prosecutors said were traced to $1m Parnas and Fruman received from Muraviev, who has been involved in several cannabis ventures. About $100,000 went toward contributions in what assistant US attorney Hagan Scotten called a conspiracy to secretly bring Muraviev’s “wealth and corruption into American politics”.
“The voters would never know whose money was pouring into our elections,” Scotten said.
The former Nevada attorney general Adam Laxalt, now a Republican candidate for US Senate, testified that Parnas suggested he could raise hundreds of thousands for him in 2018. He came through with a $10,000 check that Laxalt was advised to reject.
Joseph Bondy, a lawyer for Parnas, called the allegations “absurd” and insisted that Muraviev’s money went toward supporting legal marijuana businesses. Kukushkin’s lawyer, Gerald Lefcourt, sought to portray his client as an unknowing dupe.
Prosecutors asked for immediate incarceration of Parnas and Kukushkin, citing a risk of flight, but the judge allowed them to remain free on bail while awaiting sentencing.
Fruman pleaded guilty to a single count of solicitation of a contribution by a foreign national. He awaits sentencing. Another co-defendant, David Correia, pleaded guilty and was sentenced to a year in prison for crimes including defrauding investors in a company that paid Giuliani $500,000. Parnas awaits trial in connection with that scheme.
On Friday, the Democratic congressman Ted Lieu, of California, sought political capital from Parnas’s conviction by tying his name to Michael Cohen, Trump’s former fixer who was convicted in 2018, in part over payments to women who claimed affairs with Trump.
“Lev Parnas is going to prison for federal campaign finance crimes,” Lieu wrote. “Michael Cohen went to prison for federal campaign finance crimes … You know who else committed federal campaign finance crimes? Donald Trump.”
The former president is in various forms of legal jeopardy, amid investigations of his financial affairs in New York and his attempt to overturn election results in Georgia. But though Cohen implicated Trump in payments to women, referring to him as “Individual 1”, investigations have been dropped.