The @WSJ is reporting that two Giuliani associates have been arrested on campaign finance charges. Here’s a thread of fun facts about this Florida duo (and it’s not just about campaign finance stuff). /1
Lev Parnas, 47, once ran an electronics business that was successfully sued for its role in a fraudulent penny stock promotion scheme (though he wasn't personally charged). He also has a history of unpaid debts, including $500k owed to a Hollywood movie investor. /2
Igor Fruman, 53, has spent much of his career in Ukraine, and has personal ties to Volodymyr Galanternik, a powerful operator known as the “Grey Cardinal” of the notoriously corrupt port city of Odessa. /3
Since late 2018, Fruman and Parnas have introduced Giuliani to three current and former senior Ukrainian prosecutors to discuss allegedly damaging information about the Bidens. This is what Giuliani has been trumpeting since then. /4
(In the interests of not accidentally promoting false narratives, I will note here that most of the allegations raised by the prosecutors and relayed by Giuliani are at best unfounded, and at worst deliberate disinformation.) /5
Fruman and Parnas appear to enjoy a measure of access to other influential figures. They’ve dined with President Trump, had a “power breakfast” with his son Donald Jr., met with U.S. congressmen, and mixed with Republican elites. /6
Months before their earliest known work with Giuliani, they also lobbied at least one congressman — former U.S. Rep. Pete Sessions — to call for the dismissal of the U.S. ambassador to Ukraine, Marie Yovanovitch. (They also donated to his campaign). /7
Want more? Read our story from July, which we did in collaboration with @BuzzFeedNews, on these two characters. occrp.org/en/investigati…
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