Two Rudy Giuliani Associates Arrested
Two Soviet-born donors to a pro-Trump fundraising committee who helped Rudy Giuliani’s efforts to investigate Democrat Joe Biden were arrested late Wednesday on criminal charges stemming from their alleged efforts to funnel foreign money into U.S. elections and influence U.S. politics on behalf of at least one Ukrainian politician.
Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman, two Florida businessmen, made a brief appearance in federal court in Virginia Thursday, dressed in T-shirts. Both men are U.S. citizens born in former Soviet republics. They were arrested at Dulles Airport on Wednesday while awaiting an international flight with one-way tickets, according to people familiar with the matter, a day before one of them was scheduled to testify before House committees.
Mr. Giuliani said in an interview Thursday that Messrs. Parnas and Fruman were headed to Vienna on Wednesday evening for reasons related to their business. He declined to elaborate on those reasons. He said the two men had also left the country about two weeks ago and had traveled to Vienna between three and six times in the last two months. He said he had been scheduled to meet with the two when they returned to Washington within days.
A federal prosecutor told a judge the government remains concerned that the men will flee. Attorneys on both sides said they would reach an agreement about the conditions of their bail and would return to the judge later Thursday or Friday.
In a 21-page indictment unsealed Thursday, federal prosecutors in Manhattan alleged Messrs. Parnas and Fruman were engaged in political activities in the U.S. on behalf of one or more Ukrainian government officials—including a lobbying campaign, targeted at a Republican congressman, to remove the U.S. ambassador in Kyiv. President Trump ordered the ambassador, Marie Yovanovitch, removed from her post in May, the Journal has reported.
https://www.emptywheel.net/2019/10/10/doj-confirms-that-trumps-anti-biden-propagandists-were-in-the-employ-of-a-russian/
>At and around the same time PARNAS and FRUMAN committed to raising those funds for [Sessions], PARNAS met with [Sessions] and sought [his] assistance in causing the U.S. Government to remove or recall the then-U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine []. PARNAS’s efforts to remove the Ambassador were conducted, at least in part, at the request of one or more Ukrainian government officials.
Yes, the ambassador, “that woman”, “who’s going through some things”Report
There’s a fascinating story behind how this came to light, which had nothing to do with any government or congressional investigation, but a different swindle, in Hollywood, and the mark, who was bilked of half a million pushed back and did some investigation of his own.Report
“They were arrested at Dulles Airport on Wednesday while awaiting an international flight with one-way tickets”
I’m not an international financier/criminal… but if I were, I’d pop for the round trip tickets on my get-away flight… just in case.Report
That’s always been my thought, too.Report
I find myself laughing at this, but then seriously wondering if that’s just not how they manage all their travel, because they can never predict how long they are going to be anywhere, and they maybe don’t want anyone to be able to figure it out in advance.
It might cost more, but hey, they probably aren’t paying for it.Report
As soon as you mentioned it, the one-way ticket thing struck me as an “of course they do it like that.” Not even so much criminally, but being former Soviets.Report
To be fair, everytime I go through Dulles i swear itll be the last…Report
That’s what refundable tickets are for
One way tickets are a pain if you are a busy, harried, rich person (or important executive of a rich company). If you check in with a one way ticket, you need to demonstrate, first at the check-in counter, and then again to the immigration officer at your destination, that you are a legal permanent resident of the destination, or at least have right of abode (Europeans within the EU, basically). So you have to show them your exit flight reservations, or a permanent resident card that the counter agent might not be familiar with, or a special passport stamp that he also might not know about.. Plus, at least in USA carriers (both here and in foreign soil) you are flagged for extra screening, the dreaded SSSS mark in your boarding pass, where they will open and check all your luggage, carry on and checked, at the plane gate.
I’m too rich or too important for all that 🙂
Rich people buy (expensive) refundable tickets that can be exchanged infinite times without penalty, and, when you are finally away from the Federal authorities, you getReport
Dang, J_A was nabbed by the Rich/Important Person Cartel right when he was about to tell us what to do once we’re free of the Feds.
Ave J_A, farewell…Report
Damn we Rich & Important People have too many contracts to review and cannot properly waste time making smartalecky comments on the internet.
When you are free of the Feds, you can get the unused portion of your refundable tickets, you know, refundedReport
Two more completely normal reasons to be traveling on one-way tickets:
I believe that many US Visas do not cover re-entry. I seem to recall an international visiting co-worker saying he could not go to Canada because his visa may not cover re-entry to USA. I don’t know if there would be issues purchasing the ticket without a visa or visa application. I know the rules get quite strict for citizens of certain countries.
Also, some times a loop trip involves multiple tickets. On one trip through 6 cities in East Asia I was strongly advised to book multiple tickets. There were questions if the booking would even go through on a single ticket. The issue in this case was the trip included both Taiwan and PRC. Similar issues exist for travel including Israel and many countries in that region. In that case the issues are so severe that you can petition the state department to get a second passport so that travel to unfriendly neighbors can be hidden from each other.Report
Your reasons, and others’, for one-way tickets make sense to me.
However, I were actually an international criminal who was trying to escape detection, and one of the red flags for “hey, this guy might be trying to escape detection” is the purchase of a one-way ticket, then I might just buy a round trip ticket.Report