13 October 2019
Two Soviet born Americans, Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman, were arrested by the federal prosecutors as they tried to flee from the country. They evaded campaign finance regulation, while campaigning for Trump. Both are close associates of Trump’s personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani(in picture). It was alleged that they were funnelling foreign money to U.S. politicians. They have also been the key figures in Giuliani’s attempt to get Ukraine to investigate Hunter Biden. They introduced Giuliani to several current and former senior Ukrainian prosecutors to discuss the Biden case.
Marie L. Yovanovitch, American ambassador to Ukraine, was recalled by Trump from her position because Mr. Giuliani told Trump that she was undermining him abroad and hindering efforts to investigate Mr. Biden.  In May 2018, Mr. Sessions, a Republican, sent a letter to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo asking the removal of Ms. Yovanovitch, saying he had been told the ambassador was displaying a bias against the president in private conversations.
She testified before three House committees on Friday. Her testimony has given grounds to Democrats for impeachment of Trump.
Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman made 5 and 6 figure donations to support their various political and business interests. They were charged with conspiracy, falsification of records, and lying to the FEC about their political donation as part of an alleged scheme to “funnel foreign money to U.S. politicians in a bid to affect U.S.-Ukraine relations and launch a marijuana business,” according to the Washington Post.
ABC News reported that federal authorities in New York, have been investigating the business relationship between Giuliani and Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman for some time. Parnas owns a club called Mafia Rave and Fruman runs a company called Fraud Guarantee.
Giuliani is also facing fresh scrutiny over reports that he tried to secure the release of one of his clients in a prisoner swap with Turkey. In an Oval Office meeting in 2017, Giuliani pushed for Reza Zarrab to be released as part of a potential prisoner swap with Turkey, the New York Times reported on Friday. Zarrab, an Iranian Turkish gold trader accused of helping a state-owned Turkish bank funnel more than $10bn worth of gold and cash to Iran in defiance of US sanctions. Giuliani, who was not yet Trump’s lawyer at that time.
Trump hired Giuliani to fend of the Mueller probe but in the end steered Trump into more problems.
Trump’s previous personal lawyer, Cohen, is currently serving out a three-year prison sentence in New York after pleading guilty to campaign finance violations, tax evasion and bank fraud. The campaign finance violations were related to hush payments made to Stormy Daniels and Karen McDougal. Those payments are still causing the president  problems in Manhattan.
Vanityfair reported.