(New York) Lev Parnas, a former associate of Donald Trump’s ex-lawyer Rudy Giuliani, was found guilty in Manhattan federal court on Friday of illegal political financing in the United States in the midterm elections of 2018.
The arrest of Ukraine-born American citizen Lev Parnas at Washington airport on October 10, 2019, had heightened suspicions about Rudy Giuliani, then in turmoil because he was accused of exerting pressure on power politician in Kiev to deliver compromising information about Joe Biden.
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Rudy Giuliani and Lev Parnas at the Trump International Hotel in Washington, September 2019
This case was at the origin of the first impeachment proceedings against Donald Trump.
On Friday, in a separate file, a federal jury found Lev Parnas and one of his associates, Andrey Kukushkin, “unanimously guilty” of several violations of election financing laws, according to a statement from the Federal District Attorney for the Southern District. from Manhattan, Damian Williams. Mr. Parnas was convicted of six separate counts.
“To gain influence with American politicians and candidates, they [Lev Parnas et Andrey Kukushkin] illegally funneled foreign money into the 2018 midterm elections with the aim of making huge profits in the cannabis industry, ”which they planned to invest in, the prosecutor said. The penalties will be decided later.
Lev Parnas, who pleaded not guilty and appeared free, was accused of concealing the real origin of donations made in 2018 to several candidates for local and federal elections in the United States. One of the donations, $ 325,000 to Donald Trump’s support club America First Action, had been falsely claimed to come from an energy import-export company.
For the prosecution, behind other fraudulent donations to Republican candidates in Nevada was hiding a Russian businessman, in violation of the ban on campaign funding from abroad.