A federal jury on Friday convicted Lev Parnas, a one-time associate of former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani, of violating U.S. campaign finance laws during the 2018 election cycle.
Parnas was charged with violating federal laws prohibiting foreigners from contributing to U.S. election campaigns and barring donors from making contributions in the names of others. “You saw the wires from Muraviev,” Assistant U.S Attorney Hagan Scotten told the jury during closing arguments on Thursday. “You saw how that money came out on the other side, finding its way into American elections, where the defendants thought they had bought influence to further their business.”
Muraviev associate, Andrey Kukushkin, a California resident who was tried alongside Parnas, was found guilty of campaign finance violations.Giuliani’s attorney has said the Parnas case is separate from a probe into whether he violated lobbying laws while representing Trump.