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The executives of a high-dollar corporate donor to President Donald Trump’s official super PAC told at least one major investor in their company that their donations would win the firm political support that would translate into a financial windfall, according to a lawsuit filed by that investor.
Global Energy Producers executives Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman bragged to that investor, Felix Vulis, that they maintained strong relationships with key figures in Trump’s orbit, Vulis claims. They included Trump’s personal attorney Rudy Giuliani, leading Trumpworld lobbyist Brian Ballard, and Nick Ayers, the former chief of staff to Vice President Mike Pence.
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Global Energy Producers had solidified its political standing with the administration through its political contributions, including its $325,000 donation to pro-Trump super PAC America First Action, Vulis says Parnas and Fruman told him. Vulis’ lawsuit says Parnas and Fruman assured him those donations had “garnered substantial goodwill with various powerful political allies that would greatly assist the business of Defendant GEP.”
GEP was incorporated just weeks before it began writing huge checks to high-profile political groups, suggesting that doing so was integral to its business model. That recollection of events by a major GEP investor is nonetheless striking for its matter-of-fact description of political access and favor—and the campaign contributions used to win it—as a purely financial proposition.
GEP’s goal, Parnas and Fruman told Vulis, was to create “the largest exporter of liquid natural gas in the United States.” Parnas and Fruman hoped to parlay their Trump connections into major business deals involving Trump’s plans to boost U.S. natural-gas exports to Europe as a way of blunting Russian influence in the region.
A lawyer for GEP flatly denied that any such claims were made. “It is my clients’ position that the allegations made in the complaint are false and that neither Mr. Parnas nor Mr. Fruman made any statements regarding political contributions as alleged in the complaint,” wrote Michael Marder of the firm Greenspoon Marder. “These allegations are purely a product of a political agenda designed to paint them in a negative light in order to leverage a resolution.”
“To be clear,” he added, “it is my clients’ position that these conversations never occurred.”
Vulis eventually ponied up $100,000 in investment, and he now claims that he was stiffed. Parnas, Fruman, and GEP deny the allegations.
That characterization has other legal ramifications for GEP. The Campaign Legal Center, a nonprofit watchdog group, has filed a complaint with the Federal Election Commission alleging that GEP’s contribution to America First was a “straw donation,” or a donation made in GEP’s name on another person’s behalf in order to mask the true origin of the funds.
All parties involved have denied those allegations as well. But in his lawsuit, Vulis says Parnas and Fruman individually contributed to America First “in Defendant GEP’s name,” potentially supporting claims of a straw donation.
Wire transfer records revealed in a separate lawsuit in Florida show the America First contribution came not from GEP itself, but from a different Parnas-run company called Aaron Investments I LLC. In an amendment to its FEC complaint, CLC said that revelation bolstered its allegations that Global Energy Producers was acting as an illicit pass-through for the donation.
Vulis’ allegations “seem to support the allegations in our complaint,” said Brendan Fischer, CLC’s director of federal and FEC reform programs.
“If the funds used for Global Energy Producers’ contribution to America First Action actually came from Fruman and Parnas, then Fruman and Parnas should have been listed on the super PAC’s FEC reports,” Fischer explained. “Fruman and Parnas would have violated the law by making political contributions in the name of another entity.”
As for Parnas and Fruman’s alleged brags about their extensive Trumpworld connections, Fischer said, “it is a reminder of how those with the deepest pockets seem to get privileged access.”
