Giuliani associates plead not guilty to campaign finance charges

close

Video

Fox News Flash top headlines for Oct. 23

Fox News Flash top headlines for Oct. 23 are here. Check out what's clicking on Foxnews.com

Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman, two associates of President Trump’s attorney Rudy Giuliani, pleaded not guilty Wednesday to campaign finance charges tied to political contributions, including hundreds of thousands of dollars to a pro-Trump super PAC.

An indictment filed in Manhattan federal court alleged that Parnas and Fruman used a limited liability company to make donations related to American elections, “to advance their personal financial interests and the political interests of at least one Ukrainian government official with whom they were working.” The indictment alleges the two men were in violation of restrictions against straw donors.

BUSINESSMEN PLEAD NOT GUILTY TO CONSPIRING WITH GIULIANI ASSOCIATES

Parnas and Fruman created Global Energy Producers (GEP) and allegedly funneled money through the company to a political committee “to obtain access to exclusive policital events and gain influence with politicians,” the indictment says. They allegedly incorporated GEP around the time the contributions were made.

According to Federal Election Commission records, GEP contributed $325,000 in May 2018 to pro-Trump super PAC America First Action.

In a statement, a spokesperson for America First Action noted that a complaint was filed with the FEC in July 2018 over this contribution, as well as separate litigation in Florida. The statement said that the money was placed "in a segregated bank account," was not used, and "will remain in this segregated account until these matters are resolved."

"We take our legal obligations seriously and scrupulously comply with the law and any suggestion otherwise is false," the statement said.

Parnas and Furman were hired by Giuliani to try and persuade Ukrainian officials to investigate former vice president and 2020 Democratic candidate Joe Biden and his son Hunter Biden for possible corruption. That relationship has now become another arm of the growing impeachment inquiry against President Trump, as Democrat-led House committees probe whether Trump tried to persuade Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to investigate the Bidens by withholding U.S. military aid during a July 25 phone call between the two leaders.

CLICK HERE FOR THE FOX NEWS APP

The indictment also lays out allegations of a separate "foreign national donor scheme" involving the two men and two other defendants, American David Correia and Ukrainian national Andrey Kukushkin, where they allegedly engaged in a conspiracy to make political contributions funded by an unnamed Russian national to obtain influence with political candidates regarding policies to benefit a recreational marijuana business venture, and to help obtain retail marijuana licenses.

Correia and Kukushkin pleaded not guilty last week.

Fox News’ Vandana Rambaran, Marta Dhanis and The Associated Press contributed to this report.