Authorities arrest pair who helped Giuliani in Ukraine sleuthing

At a press conference on Wednesday afternoon, U.S. Attorney Geoffrey Berman for the Southern District of New York, said that Parnas and Fruman were arrested at Dulles Airport on Wednesday evening “as they were about to board an international flight with one way tickets.”

(Alexandria Sheriff’s Office via AP)

Two other businessman — Andrey Kukuskin, who was also born in Ukraine, and David Correia, an American — were also charged in the scheme.

Bill Sweeney, the FBI’s assistant-director-in-charge, said that Kukushkin was arrested in San Francisco but that Corriea was not yet in custody.

Parnas and Fruman are both South Florida businessmen who have worked with Giuliani to push allegations of corruption related to Joe Biden’s actions as vice president while Hunter Biden received a lucrative position on the board of the Ukrainian energy company Burisma Holdings.

Prosecutors say that in 2018 Parnas and Fruman falsely claimed hundreds of thousands of dollars in campaign contributions were coming from General Energy Partners — purportedly a natural gas energy company. But in reality the funds were being funneled through the company to conceal the true donors.

Prosecutors claimed that “these contributions were made for the purpose of gaining influence with politicians so as to advance their own personal financial interests and the political interests of Ukrainian government officials.” This included raising thousands of dollars for an unnamed lawmaker, believed to be former Republican Congressman Pete Sessions of Texas, who they subsequently tried to rope into the effort on behalf of Ukrainian politicians to fire U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch, who was recalled by Trump in May.

The grand jury indictment included charges related to a conspiracy to obstruct the Federal Election Commission, a conspiracy to defraud the United States, making false statements to investigators, and the creation of false entity to obstruct an investigation. In the indictment, prosecutors for the Southern District of New York alleged that the businessmen violated the Federal Election Campaign Act which is, in part, designed to foreigners from interfering in U.S. elections, and investigators described two related schemes carried out by the businessmen — a straw donor scheme and a foreign national scheme.

Investigators further alleged that in 2018 Parnas, Fruman, Correia, and Kukushkin conspired to make political donations funded by a mysterious “Foreign National-1” to state and federal candidates “to gain influence with candidates as to policies that would benefit a future business venture” and that they falsely concealed the foreign donations by reporting the contributions in their names instead. The foreign national wired one million dollars from overseas to an account run by Fruman as part of this campaign scheme.

Parnas and Fruman were essential in helping Giuliani make connections in Ukraine as he pursued information related to the Bidens. One or both of the men accompanied Giuliani on many of his trips and meetings in Ukraine and in the United States throughout 2019. Giuliani and Parnas both met Kurt Volker, a special envoy to Ukraine, for breakfast in Washington, D.C., on July 19. Volker later testified to House committees that Giuliani “mentioned both the accusations about Vice President Biden and about interference in the 2016” and that Giuliani “stressed that all he wanted to see was for Ukraine to investigate what happened in the past and apply its own laws.” Trump’s July 25 phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky happened a week later. Parnas previously dined with Trump in 2018. Donald Trump Jr. has also been pictured at dinner with Parnas and Fruman, and Trump, Giuliani, Parnas, and Fruman have all been photographed together.

The two businessman were targets of the House Democrat impeachment inquiry, and they are both represented by former Trump lawyer John Dowd, who said his clients did not plan to respond to document requests nor appear for depositions.

Parnas and Fruman gave a total of $325,000 to America First Action, a pro-Trump super PAC, much of it through a separate company called Global Energy Producers. Federal investigators believe at least part of that were improper straw donations — contributions made to hide the names of the actual donors or to skirt federal rules on campaign contribution limits.

The Campaign Legal Center filed a complaint in June 2018 alleging a series of likely campaign violations and shady foreign connections related to Parnas, Fruman, Global Energy Producers, and America First Action.

Trump lawyer Jay Sekulow responded to the indictment by saying neither Trump nor the Trump campaign had anything to do with the criminal scheme.

“Read the indictment,” Sekulow said. “Neither the candidate nor the campaign have anything to do with the scheme these guys were involved in.”