Giuliani associate sentenced to a year in prison in campaign finance case

A federal judge on Friday sentenced Igor Fruman, an associate of Rudy Giuliani’s, to a year and a day in prison for helping to funnel foreign money to the campaigns of Republican officials in the U.S., according to The Associated Press.

The sentence from U.S. District Judge J. Paul Oetken, which also includes a $10,000 fine, came after Fruman pleaded guilty in September to a single charge of soliciting foreign campaign contributions. Fruman and another man, Lev Parnas, had been charged together in the scheme in 2019.
 
Both men had also reportedly been enlisted by Giuliani during the Trump administration to dig up dirt on President Biden and his son, Hunter Biden, in a scandal that was the subject of former President Trump’s first impeachment but unrelated to the federal charges both had faced.

Federal prosecutors had asked a judge to sentence Fruman to more than three years in prison, partly because of the central role he was said to have played in the scheme.

As part of his plea agreement, Fruman admitted to soliciting $1 million from a Russian oligarch, disguising the source of the funds through straw donors and other means, then contributing the money to various GOP candidates in order to buy influence.

Fruman’s defense lawyers had urged the judge not to include any prison time in the sentence.

Parnas was convicted by a federal jury in October of last year on six counts related to the scheme and is awaiting sentencing.