Federal Prosecutors Guarantee Lev Parnas and Co-Conspirators More Fraud Charges
Rudy Giuliani’s former business associates have received some more bad news: actions related to the company “Fraud Guarantee” has guaranteed them more fraud charges. Federal prosecutors in the recently castigated Southern District of New York said that a grand jury returned a superseding indictment on Thursday, tacking on additional charges against Lev Parnas, Igor Fruman, David Correia, and Andrey Kukushkin.
Ukraine-connected Parnas and Fruman were initially charged with two counts of conspiracy, one count of making false statements, and one count of falsification of records. The charges stemmed from alleged campaign finance violations—or, as prosecutors put it, a “Straw Donor Scheme” in support of various Republican election campaigns. Correia and Kukushkin had been facing a lone conspiracy charge, but the charging status of each defendant has changed.
Parnas and Correia, the co-founders of Fraud Guarantee, were hit with wire fraud charges “based on conduct not previously charged in the original indictment,” prosecutors said. The superseding indictment added a seventh count charging Parnas and Correia with “conspiracy to defraud multiple victims by inducing them to invest in their company, ‘Fraud Guarantee,’ based on materially false and misleading representations, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1349.”
Correia was also charged for alleged false statements and falsifications records, as Parnas and Fruman were, in order to “obstruct the administration of a matter within the jurisdiction of the Federal Election Commission.” In addition, Correia, Fruman, and Parnas were charged for soliciting a foreign national to contribute to U.S. elections.
Nor did Kukushkin, a Ukrainian businessman and aspiring cannabis mogul, escape unscathed. Kukushkin, Parnas, and Fruman were charged for “aiding and abetting the making of donations and contributions by a foreign national in connection with federal and state elections.”
The defendants pleaded not guilty to the original charges.
https://lawandcrime.com/high-profile/federal-prosecutors-guarantee-lev-parnas-and-co-conspirators-more-fraud-charges/