Ex-Giuliani friend Lev Parnas received significant financial help for a project he was working on from a Ukrainian official who attended the 2017 inauguration and met with President Trump, the Wall Street Journal reported.
Former Ukraine tax chief Roman Nasirov reportedly helped fund a $10 million loan Parnas received for a real estate project that the South Florida businessman was attempting to undertake.
That project ultimately failed, and culminated in a lawsuit in which Parnas has demanded reimbursement from a developer for, among other things, the cost of Cadillac Escalades leased for the aborted project.
It’s unclear how much Nasirov contributed to the loan. He did not return multiple requests for comment from TPM.
But the tax official — who was indicted in 2018 on embezzlement charges in Ukraine — managed to gain access to both the Trump inauguration and to the President himself.
Parnas attorney Joseph Bondy tweeted a video of Nasirov briefly meeting Trump at Mar-a-Lago in December 2016.
Here’s the “I don’t know him at all, don’t know what he’s about, don’t know where he comes from, know nothing about him” guy, w Lev Parnas & Roman Nasirov, former head of Ukrainian Fiscal Service, at Mar-a-Lago 12/16. @POTUS .@realDonaldTrump @Acosta #LevRemembers #LetLevSpeak pic.twitter.com/5B5QY2DJEg
— Joseph A. Bondy (@josephabondy) January 16, 2020
Weeks later, Nasirov was photographed at Trump’s inauguration, wearing large aviator sunglasses with a blue, fur-lined, Ukraine-branded coat.
Here's Nasirov pictured at Trump's inauguration. Whether he used state funds to travel there briefly set off a minor scandal in Ukraine https://t.co/1tleBagnJo pic.twitter.com/Skj2liZLTh
— Josh Kovensky (@JoshKovensky) January 16, 2020
After fighting off the embezzlement charges in Ukraine, Nasirov launched a presidential campaign in the country’s 2019 election. He finished last.
