Welcome to Pay Dirt—exclusive reporting and research from The Daily Beast’s Lachlan Markay on corruption, campaign finance, and influence-peddling in the nation’s capital. For Beast Inside members only.
One of the most influential lobbying firms in Donald Trump’s Washington, D.C. cut a five-figure check late last year to a Ukrainian-born businessman who has assisted the president’s team in efforts to dig up dirt on leading Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden.
The firm, Ballard Partners, wrote a check for $22,500 in September to Lev Parnas, an executive at the firm Global Energy Producers. Parnas and his partner at the company, Igor Fruman, have teamed up with Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani to solicit damaging information in Ukraine about Biden and his son Hunter. Giuliani confirmed that he’s worked with both men in an interview with PAY DIRT last week.
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“This transaction has nothing to do whatsoever with Mr. Parnas’ reported efforts related to Ukraine and Rudy Giuliani,” Ballard spokesman Raj Shah told PAY DIRT.
Global Energy Producers was formed last year to try to get a piece of U.S.-backed plans to construct a new energy-trading infrastructure in Ukraine, which the Trump administration is seeking as a means of blunting Russian influence in the region. The company quickly began writing five- and six-figure checks to prominent Republican political groups.
Parnas, meanwhile, has ingratiated himself with prominent Republicans beyond Giuliani: In the last year, he’s been spotted rubbing shoulders with former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, U.S. Ambassador to Israel David Friedman, and GOP lobbyist Matt Schlapp, the husband of top White House communications aide Mercedes Schlapp.
It’s not clear exactly why Ballard, which has an extensive roster of foreign and domestic clients, wrote the check to Parnas, or what services he provided in return. A spokesman for Parnas didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment.
Ballard Partners was initially focused on Florida politics. But it is now one of the fastest-growing lobbying firms in the nation’s capital, boosted by the political ascendance of Trump, a former Ballard client. The firm signed its first federal lobbying client on Jan. 1, 2017, and has brought on more than 130 additional clients since then. It’s also hired top Trumpworld talent, including Shah, a former senior White House communications aide, and former Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi.
Ballard’s payment to Parnas was revealed in federal court proceedings in Florida, where a former Parnas business partner is attempting to recoup more than $500,000 that he’s owed from a prior federal civil judgment over a movie deal gone bad.
Lawyers representing that business partner, Michael Pues, have moved to subpoena Ballard for information related to the Parnas payment. Those lawyers are seeking “employment contracts, correspondence, or parol evidence of oral contracts regarding employment or functions (formal or informal) to be performed by Parnas on behalf of Ballard Partners, Inc., the president of the United States of America Donald J. Trump, Rudolph Giuliani, or any other affiliated entity or political party.”
Shah said the firm “is not a party to the case and not aware of the circumstances around it and has not received any information from a court,” but declined to specify what services Parnas provided in exchange for the payment last year.
Pues’ lawsuit was prompted by PAY DIRT’s reporting that revealed Parnas and Fruman were behind Global Energy Producers, which donated hundreds of thousands of dollars to Republican political committees last year. That included a $325,000 contribution to America First Action, a super PAC that Trump has since designated as his re-election campaign’s official “independent” political supporter.
Pues filed suit last year to determine whether Parnas was using money that should’ve gone toward repaying his years-old debt to instead finance supportive political organizations. Pues’ attorneys recently won a fight in a separate proceeding in Palm Beach County that will allow them to depose Fruman.
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