By Alex Daugherty and David Smiley
Miami Herald
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Two South Florida businessmen who peddled supposedly explosive information from Ukraine about corruption involving Joe Biden and Hillary Clinton to Trump’s personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, were arrested by federal authorities on campaign finance charges Wednesday night.
A spokesperson for the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York confirmed that Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman are in federal custody. Their arrest was first reported by the Wall Street Journal.
The Journal reported that the pair will appear in federal court on Thursday in Virginia.
Their attorney John Dowd did not immediately respond to a request for comment. When the Miami Herald called a number associated with Fruman in South Florida, a person who identified themselves as Fruman’s son said “we have no comment” when asked about the arrests.
The businessmen were asked to give depositions to impeachment investigators Thursday and Friday and hand over documents related to their dealings with Giuliani, but Dowd said Parnas and Fruman did not plan to appear before the House committees investigating President Donald Trump.
Democrats threatened to issue subpoenas in response.
Parnas hosted two fundraisers for Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis in the summer and fall of 2018, the Miami Herald learned. One of the events was an exclusive affair held at a South Florida residence with fewer than 30 people attending, including the governor. The other gathering was headlined by Donald Trump Jr.
State and campaign documents show that Parnas and Fruman’s contact with DeSantis’ campaign goes back at least to June 21, 2018, when they gave DeSantis’ political committee $50,000 through a company called Global Energy Producers. The donation, came one day before Trump officially endorsed DeSantis for Florida governor.
Fruman and Parnas were, at the time, raising and donating money to Republican politicians, in Florida and nationally.
Starting in 2017, the duo gave more than $400,000 to Republican candidates in Florida and Washington, including Sen. Rick Scott and DeSantis’ Republican primary opponent, Adam Putnam. The bulk of the money came in May of 2018, when Global Energy Producers was listed as the source of a $325,000 donation to Trump-aligned Super PAC America First Action.
Parnas told the Miami Herald last month that Ukraine’s government has access to information on alleged wrongdoing by Joe Biden and his son, Hunter, and other U.S. officials overseas — but that the U.S. government had shown little interest in receiving it through official channels. Parnas said his and Fruman’s friendship with Trump’s personal lawyer, Giuliani, was their avenue to get the information into the Trump administration’s hands.
“I got certain information and I thought it was my duty to hand it over,” he told the Miami Herald on Sept. 26.
Trump’s request to investigate Joe Biden, a political rival, during a July 25 phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky after withholding U.S. military aid to Ukraine is at the heart of the impeachment inquiry by House Democrats.
Parnas and Fruman are both from South Florida. Reports by McClatchy and the Miami Herald showed that Fruman is an exporter of luxury goods and Parnas has left a long trail of debts in Florida and beyond.
The two Soviet-born Ukrainians, now American citizens, acted as couriers for Giuliani, a prominent Trump surrogate and former New York mayor, who had acknowledged he was seeking dirt in Ukraine on Biden and his son, Hunter. Giuliani alleged, without proof, that Biden got his son a lucrative seat on the board of a Ukrainian energy firm called Burisma Holdings.
