New York prosecutors asked a judge to detain the Rudy Giuliani associate, arguing that he lied to the government about his income and is a flight risk.
Lev Parnas, an associate of Rudy Giuliani, received a $1 million payment from Russia a month before he was charged with conspiring to funnel foreign money into Republican campaigns in the United States, federal prosecutors said Wednesday.
Prosecutors for the U.S. Southern District of New York asked a federal judge to detain Parnas without bail, arguing that he lied to the government about his income and assets and could potentially flee the country.
“Parnas failed to disclose, in describing his income to the Government and Pretrial Services, the fact that in September 2019, he received $1 million from a bank account in Russia into Account-1,” prosecutors wrote in its court filing. “While the majority of that money appears to have been used on personal expenses and to purchase a home, as discussed below, some portion of that money existed in Account-1 at the time Parnas submitted his financial affidavit.”