FILE PHOTO: Ukrainian-American businessman Lev Parnas and his wife Svetlana arrive at United States Courthouse in Manhattan, New York City, New York, December 2, 2019.REUTERS/Mike Segar/File Photo
NEW YORK (Reuters) – Federal prosecutors on Wednesday asked a judge to jail Lev Parnas, an associate of U.S. President Donald Trump’s personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani, while he awaits trial on campaign finance charges.
In a motion filed in federal court in Manhattan, the prosecutors said Parnas had lied about his assets and posed an “extreme risk of flight.”
Parnas was released on bail after his arrest in October and has been living under house arrest in Florida. His lawyers could not immediately be reached for comment.
Ukraine-born Parnas was charged alongside another Florida businessman, Belarus-born Igor Fruman, with illegally funneling money to a pro-Trump election committee and other politicians. Both men have pleaded not guilty.
Prosecutors accused Parnas and Fruman of using a shell company to donate $325,000 to a pro-Trump election committee and of raising money for former U.S. Representative Pete Sessions of Texas as part of an effort, that was ultimately successful, to have the president remove Marie Yovanovitch as ambassador to Ukraine.
Reporting by Brendan Pierson; Editing by Bill Berkrot