Pages

Friday, January 17, 2020

Lev Parnas's Role in Impeachment of Trump

Nadene Goldfoot
                                                                       
Rudy Giuliani and Lev Parnas
Who is Lev Parnas? " The leader of the Orthodox Jewish organization that bestowed honors on two South Florida men sought for questioning in the congressional impeachment inquiry said Thursday he was unaware of the pair’s legal and political entanglements.
In a response to questions from McClatchy and the Miami Herald, Farley Weiss, president of the board of directors of the National Council of Young Israel, acknowledged his organization was “unaware of any potential issues” about Igor Fruman and Lev Parnas. They are Soviet-born emigrees living in South Florida who have since been thrust into the spotlight in the wake of stories about Rudy Giuliani’s efforts in Ukraine on behalf of President Donald Trump."
                                                     
Odessa, Ukraine
As we know, many Jews have lived in Ukraine.  "Ukraine had 840,000 Jews in 1959, a decrease of almost 70% from 1941 (within Ukraine's current borders). Ukraine's Jewish population declined significantly during the Cold War. In 1989, Ukraine's Jewish population was only slightly more than half of what it was thirty years earlier (in 1959). The overwhelming majority of the Jews who remained in Ukraine in 1989 left Ukraine and moved to other countries (mostly to Israel) in the 1990s during and after the collapse of Communism.  Lev Parnas and his family left in 1975 from Odessa, Ukraine and came to Florida.  As of 2012, Ukraine had the fifth-largest Jewish community in Europe and the twelfth-largest Jewish community in the world, behind South Africa and ahead of Mexico. The majority of Ukrainian Jews live in four large cities: Kiev (about half of all Jews living in Ukraine),[8] DniproKharkiv and Odessa.

"Lev Parnas (born February 6, 1972) ( will be 48 years old) and Igor Fruman (born 1966) are associates of Rudy Giuliani who allegedly aided him with a search in Ukraine for detrimental information on U.S. President Donald Trump's political opponents. This allegedly included looking for evidence for a narrative to counter Robert Mueller's Special Counsel investigation and information on former Vice President Joe Biden.  Both individuals are Soviet-born Florida real estate businessmen and naturalized American citizens.  As a result of their alleged activities, they are figures involved in the Trump–Ukraine scandal."

"Parnas was born in 1972 in OdessaUkraine, when it was still part of the USSR. His family brought him at the age of three to the U.S., first to Detroit, and then a year later to Brooklyn. He was a student at Brooklyn College and Baruch College. He also worked at Kings Highway Realty, where he sold Trump Organization co-ops. In 1995, Parnas moved to Florida, where he worked in several businesses. He became a broker, working with such organizations as Euro-Atlantic Securities, Mammoth Bullion and Monolith Bullion, and founding his own company, Parnas Holdings. After being involved in a failed film project, he partnered with Igor Fruman in an energy related venture. The Miami Herald maintains he "left a long trail of debts in Florida and beyond."

"Baruch is one of CUNY's senior colleges. It traces its roots back to the 1847 founding of the Free Academy, the first institution of free public higher education in the United States. The New York State Literature Fund was created to serve students who could not afford to enroll in New York City’s private colleges. 

"Parnas and Fruman were arrested on the evening of October 9, 2019, at Dulles International Airport, and charged with planning to direct funds from a foreign government "to U.S. politicians while trying to influence U.S.-Ukraine relations".  It has been reported that they were arrested while trying to leave the United States.  The reason for their arrest was described as a "complex web of financial and political interactions linking diplomacy to alleged violations of campaign finance law."  The head of the New York's FBI office described the investigation as "about corrupt behavior, deliberate lawbreaking."
                                                    "The charges have also allegedly connected Parnas and Fruman to the campaign to oust the United States ambassador to Ukraine, Marie Yovanovitch, from her post and have her recalled.  This occurred over many months.   In 2018, the operation included Parnas and Fruman donating funds and pledging further additional moneys to an unnamed Congressman, who was recruited for the "campaign to oust her."   Some of the funds violated campaign limits. The funds were funneled through a shell company, Global Energy Producers.  Parnas and Fruman were also charged with unlawful campaign contributions. Based on campaign finance filings, former congressional Representative Pete Sessions (R-Texas) has been identified as the unnamed Congressman. In 2018, as the Chairman of the House Rules Committee, Sessions wrote a letter to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo saying that Yovanovitch should be fired for privately expressing "disdain" for the Trump administration."

"Global Energy Producers was formed in April 2018; it made the political contribution a few weeks later, amounting to one of the biggest received by America First Action in 2018. The donation was made before the energy company had a working website."
                                                    
Jared Kushner, Parnas, Ivanka Trump
 A White House official told The Daily Beast the photo is not evidence of a relationship between them: “Jared and Ivanka don’t know Mr. Parnas. This was taken at an event in a photo line and is one of tens of thousands of pictures they take every year. “
Composite of Trump and Parnas

"Parnas, whom Giuliani has identified as his client, has enjoyed access to Trump and top Republicans as he sought to ramp up his energy company with Igor Fruman, his business partner. Parnas has been pictured dining with Trump and his son Donald Trump Jr., according to a report from the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project and BuzzFeed. The men also met with officials from Naftogaz, Ukraine's natural gas monopoly, to pitch their LNG business, according to news reports. They are being sued over a $100,000 unpaid loan to Global Energy Producers, according to the Miami Herald."

"Global Energy Producers was formed to capitalize on the burgeoning Ukranian energy market, as the country shifts away from its reliance on natural gas from Russia. Ukraine is trying to expand the production of its domestic resources while importing more oil and coal from the United States."

Lev feels Trump knows of him and Trump has been denying this.  Their connection is through Rudy, Trump's personal lawyer.  It's possible that Trump does not remember or know of him.  In the past year of 2019, Trump took 71 trips to different places in the USA; Virginia, Florida, Texas, New Jersey among the most visited, so he does get out of the Oval Office on occasion and no doubts meets many.  According to reports, business has been through Rudy.  

Update: 1/23/2020;  the impeachment process has started.  Democrats are speaking first against Trump.  "The text is sent to Rudy Giuliani and says, “trying to get us Mr. Z.” The full exchange is attached to Schiff’s letter.
Trouble is, Parnas wasn’t talking about President Zelensky. “Mr. Z” is a reference to Mykola Zlochevsky, the founder of Burisma. Ah, that’s very different!  But there’s no way to tell, as the version attached to Schiff’s letter has been redacted to remove any clue, including notes from a subsequent interview with...Zlochevsky."  from Mike Huckabee.  



Resource: https://www.mcclatchydc.com/news/investigations/article235776342.html
 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lev_Parnas_and_Igor_Fruman
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baruch_College
https://www.thedailybeast.com/lev-parnas-indicted-giuliani-associate-shown-in-photo-with-ivanka-trump-and-jared-kushner
https://www.eenews.net/stories/1061210883
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_Jews_in_Ukraine
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_presidential_trips_made_by_Donald_Trump_(2019)

No comments:

Post a Comment