Giuliani associate pleads guilty in campaign donation case

Giuliani associate pleads guilty in campaign donation case

SeattlePI.com

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NEW YORK (AP) — A Florida businessman who made headlines for helping Rudy Giuliani seek damaging information on Joe Biden in Ukraine pleaded guilty Friday to a charge alleging he helped facilitate illegal foreign campaign contributions in an effort to build a marijuana business in the U.S.

Igor Fruman, 56, entered the plea at a federal court in Manhattan after reaching a deal reached with prosecutors. Fruman's plea agreement does not require him to cooperate in other cases, U.S. District Judge J. Paul Oetken said.

Initially charged in a wide-ranging indictment, Fruman pleaded guilty to a single count of solicitation of a contribution by a foreign national, who was not identified by prosecutors.

Federal sentencing guidelines call for a punishment of 37 to 46 months in prison, though Fruman could get up to five years, the judge said. Sentencing is scheduled for Jan. 21.

The plea leaves two men — including Lev Parnas, another Soviet-born Florida businessman and Giuliani associate — to face trial next month.

“Mr. Fruman is not cooperating with the government and has determined that this is the fairest and best way to put the past two years of his life behind him,” Fruman’s lawyer, Todd Blanche, said in a written statement after the plea hearing. “He intends to continue to work hard, as he has his entire life, and raise his family in this country that he loves. We will not have any further public communications."

Fruman was also charged with, but did not plead guilty to, arranging hundreds of thousands of dollars in illegal donations to Republicans and political action committees while trying to get Americans interested in investigating Biden’s son in Ukraine during the Democrat's successful run for president.

Fruman apologized in court. He said he was not aware of laws...

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