Giuliani cronies touted $125G donation to Cuomo in Russian-backed bid for N.Y. weed business
A pair of Rudy Giuliani associates told a Russian millionaire in 2018 they’d made a $125,000 straw donation to then-Gov. Cuomo as part of a seedy effort to launch a weed business in New York, federal prosecutors in Manhattan say.
The murky plan for a Cuomo contribution was revealed in Manhattan Federal Court papers filed late Tuesday in the criminal case against Lev Parnas, a former Giuliani crony who helped the ex-mayor in his bid to find political dirt on President Biden in Ukraine. The feds said they could find no record of the payout and suspect Parnas instead spent the Russian’s money on himself.
Parnas will face trial next month on charges that he and several business partners funneled cash from Russian investor Andrey Muraviev to U.S. politicians across the country, in violation of campaign finance laws barring donations from foreigners.
Parnas and his co-conspirators are accused of making the political contributions without revealing that Muraviev was the source. The money was intended to curry favor with politicians in states where the Russian hoped to legally sell recreational marijuana, prosecutors say.
Prosecutors said in the new court filing that Parnas and Giuliani associate Igor Fruman sent Muraviev a list of which politicians had received the Russian’s money.
“The list includes $125,000 ‘Paid’ to then-New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo,” the feds wrote.
However, prosecutors said there’s no evidence that Parnas, Fruman “or anyone acting at their behest actually made this payment” to Cuomo.
Rich Azzopardi, a spokesman for Cuomo, who resigned last month amid accusations of sexual misconduct, said the ex-governor’s team had never heard of the purported donation until asked about it by the Daily News.
“We have no knowledge and, as the government said, no record of any contributions connected to this,” Azzopardi said.
Fruman wrote in a text message obtained by prosecutors that it was especially important to give cash to Cuomo, who was at the time vowing to pass legislation legalizing recreational reefer.
“In NY we have to mention Andrew Cuomo,” Fruman wrote in the text to Parnas and Andrey Kukushkin, an intermediary for Muraviev, who’s also standing trial next month for the cannabis plot.
Fruman pleaded guilty earlier this month to soliciting illegal campaign donations from Muraviev in the pot business plan.
Prosecutors wrote Fruman and Parnas may have tried to trick the Russian investor.
“Although [they] agreed to use Muraviev’s money to fund their joint cannabis business — primarily by donating to U.S. politicians they believed would help the business — they did not in fact use all the money for that purpose,” the feds wrote. “Among other things, Parnas and Fruman used a portion of the money to cover expenses for luxurious hotel accommodations and airfare, and other personal expenses.”
Joseph Bondy, an attorney for Parnas, who has pleaded not guilty, declined to discuss specifics about the Cuomo cash, but claimed the feds are misinformed.
“They have it wrong. I will leave it at that,” Bondy said.
The Parnas and Kukushkin trial, set to start Oct. 12, is expected to feature plenty of politically charged testimony. Aspects of the case against Parnas overlap with Giuliani’s hunt for Ukrainian dirt on Biden, which triggered former President Donald Trump’s first impeachment.
Giuliani has not been charged with any crimes, but the FBI raided his Upper East Side apartment and office in May as part of a separate investigation into whether his Ukraine dealings violated foreign lobbying laws.
Since his indictment, Parnas has publicly broken with Giuliani and Trump, saying he regrets helping smear Biden.
In another indication of the explosive nature of Parnas’ trial, the feds revealed one of their witnesses will be Adam Laxalt, Nevada’s former Republican attorney general who’s running for U.S. Senate.
Laxalt, who served as the manager of Trump’s reelection campaign in Nevada, was among the politicians who did receive a contribution from Parnas that was bankrolled by Muraviev.
Laxalt returned the contribution after finding out Muraviev was the source, but prosecutors wrote that Bondy has expressed interest in cross-examining him at the trial about “political positions” in order to cast doubt on his credibility.
The feds asked a judge to block Bondy from grilling Laxalt about his political views.
“Given the fraught nature of modern politics, it can reasonably be expected that some jurors will strongly disagree with Laxalt’s political positions, and come to doubt his testimony for reasons entirely unrelated to its truth,” they wrote.
