Two foreign-born businessmen linked to efforts by President Donald Trump's lawyer Rudy Giuliani to get Ukraine to investigate 2020 Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden have been arrested on charges of violating US campaign finance laws.
Lev Parnas, a US citizen who was born in Ukraine, and Igor Fruman, a US citizen who was born in Belarus, were taken into custody on Wednesday on charges brought by New York prosecutors and are to appear in court in Alexandria, Virginia, on Thursday.
Democrats in the House of Representatives, meanwhile, issued subpoenas for the two men, ordering them to produce documents and testify in the impeachment inquiry opened into Mr Trump for pressuring Ukraine to investigate Mr Biden and his son, Hunter Biden, who served on the board of a Ukrainian gas company.
Photos provided by the Alexandria Sheriffs Office shows booking photos of Lev Parnas, left, and Igor Fruman. Source: Alexandria Sheriff's Office
The 20-page indictment outlining the charges faced by the two men was released by Geoffrey Berman, the US Attorney for the Southern District of New York.
Foreign nationals are barred from contributing to US election campaigns and Mr Parnas and Mr Fruman are alleged to have funneled funds into Trump's 2020 reelection campaign and other campaigns from a person identified in the indictment as "Foreign National-1," a Russian citizen and businessman who was seeking to obtain retail marijuana licenses in the United States.
"Foreign National-1" is alleged to have given them a total of $1 million in two $500,000 installments in September 2018 and October 2018.
The indictment said the illegal contributions by Mr Parnas and Mr Fruman were made "to advance their own personal financial interests" and the political interests of "at least one Ukrainian government official."
"The defendants concealed the scheme from the candidates, campaigns, federal regulators, and the public by entering into secret agreements, laundering foreign money through bank accounts in the names of limited liability corporations, and through the use of straw donors," the indictment said.
$325,000 to Trump committee
According to the indictment, Mr Parnas and Mr Fruman created a straw company, Global Energy Producers (GEP), to funnel a $325,000 contribution to a fundraising committee identified as "Committee-1."
"Committee-1" is a pro-Trump fundraising committee known as America First Action, according to press reports.
"They falsely reported that the contributions came from GEP," the indictment said.
The indictment does not make any specific mention of Giuliani but it does make reference to efforts to remove the US ambassador to Ukraine, something the former mayor of New York was involved in.
A Facebook screenshot shows, from left, Donald Trump Jr., Tommy Hicks Jr., Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman, posted on May 21, 2018. Source: The Campaign Legal Center
Mr Parnas and Mr Fruman agreed to raise $20,000 or more for a US Congressman to seek his "assistance in causing the US Government to remove or recall the then-US Ambassador to Ukraine," the indictment said.
"Parnas's efforts to remove the Ambassador were conducted, at least in part, at the request of one or more Ukrainian government officials," it said.
The congressman was not identified in the indictment but press reports said it was former congressman Pete Sessions, a Republican from Texas.
Mr Trump has openly admitted that he sought the removal of the ambassador, Marie Yovanovitch, who is scheduled to give a deposition on Friday in the impeachment inquiry being conducted by the House.
The House last month sent letters to Mr Parnas and Mr Fruman asking them for testimony and documents related to their efforts to assist Mr Giuliani in investigating the Bidens but they did not respond and were subpoenaed on Thursday.
U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch, center, sits during her meeting with Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko in Kiev in March. Source: Presidential Press Service
Mr Parnas had been asked to give a deposition on Thursday and Mr Fruman on Friday but the White House has sought to block all cooperation with the House committees conducting the impeachment inquiry.
In issuing the subpoenas, the House committee chairmen conducting the impeachment inquiry insisted that they appear to testify.
"They are not exempted from this requirement merely because they happen to work with Mr Giuliani and they may not defy congressional subpoenas merely because President Trump has chosen the path of denial, defiance and obstruction," they said.
