WASHINGTON _ In another twist to the bizarre political saga involving South Florida businessmen Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman, a recent court filing suggested that the pair might have drawn on foreign funds from South Korea in addition to Russian funds that federal prosecutors say the pair used as part of a straw donor scheme.
The reference to South Korean funds was buried in a 49-page court filing by a lawyer for Andrey Kukushkin, the Ukrainian-born co-defendant of Parnas and Fruman. Federal prosecutors say they, along with a fourth co-defendant, David Correia, were involved in a scheme to use money from a Russian businessman to make political donations in Nevada and elsewhere as part of an effort to win marijuana licenses and create a pot business.
McClatchy has previously reported that clues pointed to wealthy Russian businessman Andrey Muraviev as a possible source of the funds for that scheme.
Federal prosecutors also allege that Parnas and Fruman, who have come to prominence as associates of President Donald Trump's personal attorney, Rudy Giuliani, gave more than legally allowed and tried to obscure the source of funds they used to make donations to various political committees. A company connected to the pair, Global Energy Producers, made a $325,000 donation in May 2018 to America First Action, Inc., a super PAC supporting President Trump.
The filing by Kukushkin's lawyer, Gerald Lefcourt, was predominantly focused on whether the government had intercepted the defendants' oral or written communications through unauthorized surveillance.
But buried in Lefcourt's description of the background of the case was a reference to South Korea.
"Allegations of foreign sources of money, including from Russia and South Korea, being used for contributions to Republican-linked political committees, including those connected to the president, as well as campaigns of other high-ranking politicians and political candidates, in contravention of federal election laws, also abound," Lefcourt wrote.
It's not clear where that information came from. Lefcourt declined to comment on the filing and the suggestion that South Korean money was used in the alleged political scheme.
Lawyers for Parnas, Fruman and Correia also declined to comment, as did the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York, which brought the case.
It's the latest wrinkle in the strange tale of how Parnas and Fruman were reportedly able to gain entrance to the highest levels of government while simultaneously seeking to use this newfound access for their personal benefit and the benefit of their benefactors.
Wednesday, federal prosecutors requested that the court send Parnas to jail because he had not previously disclosed receiving $1 million in September 2019 from a Russian bank account and had understated the amount he had been paid to serve as an interpreter for a law firm. It's been reported that this interpreting work was done on behalf of two lawyers working for Ukrainian oligarch Dmitry Firtash, who lives in Vienna. Parnas and Fruman were arrested on Oct. 9 at Dulles Airport en route to Vienna, possessing one-way tickets.
Parnas and Fruman were reportedly involved with Giuliani in a campaign to oust the U.S. ambassador to Ukraine, Marie Yovanovitch, and dig up dirt in that country about Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden's son, Hunter, efforts which are connected to the impeachment charges brought this week in the House against President Trump.
