Giuliani associate Igor Fruman expected to plead guilty Wednesday
(CNN) — Igor Fruman, a Rudy Giuliani associate charged in a campaign finance case, is scheduled to plead guilty during an appearance in Manhattan federal court on Wednesday, according to a court filing.
Fruman and another Giuliani associate, Lev Parnas, were originally charged in October 2019 in a case alleging they funneled foreign money to US campaign coffers, to which they pleaded not guilty.
In September 2020, prosecutors filed additional charges that appeared designed to increase pressure on the defendants to cooperate. Fruman and Parnas pleaded not guilty to those charges as well.
It’s not clear whether Fruman’s guilty plea will include a cooperation agreement. An attorney for Fruman didn’t immediately respond to CNN’s request for comment.
Any assistance by Fruman to prosecutors could threaten Giuliani, who has been the subject of a separate ongoing criminal investigation by Manhattan federal prosecutors for more than two years.
Giuliani has denied wrongdoing. An attorney for Giuliani didn’t immediately respond to CNN’s request for comment on Monday.
Prior to their indictment, Fruman and Parnas were closely linked to Giuliani, former President Donald Trump’s onetime personal attorney. For months, they assisted in Giuliani’s effort in Ukraine to compile what he has claimed was damaging information on Trump’s then-political rival, Joe Biden, whose son, Hunter Biden, was on the board of the Ukrainian energy company Burisma.
Federal prosecutors have been investigating Giuliani’s activities in Ukraine, including whether he conducted illegal lobbying for Ukraine officials while he pursued an investigation linked to the Bidens, CNN has reported.
After federal agents executed search warrants on Giuliani’s apartment and office earlier this year, an attorney for Parnas expressed concern in court filings that materials seized from Giuliani could be relevant to the associates’ case.
An independent review of the documents taken during the searches is now underway to determine whether any are subject to attorney-client privilege.