Lev Parnas, an associate of President Trump’s personal attorney Rudolph W. Giuliani, received a $1 million payment from a Ukrainian oligarch who faces criminal charges in the United States, prosecutors said Tuesday.
The revelation came during a bail hearing for Mr. Parnas, a Ukrainian businessman who faces criminal campaign finance violations in the United States.
Prosecutors at the federal courthouse in Manhattan said Mr. Parnas concealed the payment from an attorney for oligarch Dmytro Firtash.
When Mr. Parnas was arrested in October, he told authorities that he had roughly $450,000 in total assets and income. But prosecutors insist he’s hiding his assets, including a $1 million transfer from a Russian bank account in September.
That money came from Mr. Firtash’s lawyer, prosecutors said.
A lawyer for Mr. Parnas said the money was a loan to purchase a house.
Prosecutors also pressed a federal judge to revoke Mr. Parnas’ bail, saying he violated his pretrial agreement by failing to disclose all of his assets.
“We assumed that we were proceeding in good faith. … Now we know that the representations made to us pre-trail were totally false,” said Rachel Donaleski, an assistant U.S. attorney.
Mr. Parnas and Igor Fruman, another Giuliani associate, are accused of violating federal campaign laws by funneling foreign money to federal and state offices.
U.S. District Judge J. Paul Oetken rejected prosecutors’ bids to detain Mr. Parnas ahead of a trial. The Judge said he did not believe the defendant intentionally misled the government.
“There’s certainly lots of suspicious activity here … but I don’t know if that’s a clear and intentional misstatement,” he said.
“The question before me really is if there’s a set of conditions that can guarantee the appearance of the defendant,” Judge Oetken said. “The government points to several factors and they are concerning. They focus on the financial statements and alleged misstatements made.”
• This article was based in part on wire service reports.
• Jeff Mordock can be reached at jmordock@washingtontimes.com.
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