Jonathan Stempel

NEW YORK (Reuters). Lev Parnas, who was convicted last October of campaign finance offenses, will plead guilty in a conspiracy count regarding his activities at a fraud-insurance company for which Rudy Giuliani, a former ally, also worked.

Parnas, a Ukrainian-born citizen of Manhattan, asked U.S. district Judge Paul Oetken for a scheduling hearing to change the plea. He had pleaded not guilty in November 2020 in connection to wire fraud conspiracy.

Parnas was accused by the prosecution, along with David Correia, of conning investors into investing over $2 million in Florida’s start-up Fraud Guarantee. However they then withdrew large amounts of that money for their personal use and political donations.

Giuliani is a former U.S. president’s lawyer who claimed that he received $500,000 in compensation to perform work for Fraud Guarantee.

Parnas, who was accused of using Russian businessman Andrey Muravev’s money to support candidates during the 2018 U.S. midterm election campaign with a view to building legal cannabis businesses, was sentenced last October 22.

Parnas’ and Andrey Kukushkin’s requests for Oetken to drop their convictions were denied Monday by Oetken.

That case had been thrown out of the conspiracy trial. Parnas conviction would have to be combined with a guilty plea.

Joseph Bondy, Joseph Parnas’ lawyer, stated in a statement that “Mr. Parnas feels the right time for him now is to take responsibility” for conspiracy charges.

There has not been a set date for sentencing.

Manhattan U.S. Attorney Damian Williams’ office declined to comment.

Bob Costello who is a Giuliani attorney, declined to comment. Giuliani denied any wrongdoing.

Parnas traveled abroad to Ukraine in search of damaging information regarding Joe Biden, Democrat, before he was able to break with Giuliani. He later became president and Hunter.

Parnas’ Belarusian-born ex-business partner Igor Fruman was sentenced to 1 year and 1 day imprisonment on January 21 after plead guilty to campaign finance violations.

Correia was sentenced by Oetken to the exact same sentence in February 2021, after having pleaded guilty to the conspiracy charge.

Oetken stated that Fraud Guarantee had real victims and that the irony in the name of the company, Fraud Guarantee is difficult to overlook.”