Two Giuliani Associates Used Washington Connections to Chase Ukraine Gas Deal

Last fall, as Igor Fruman and Lev Parnas barnstormed Ukraine on behalf of President Trump’s personal lawyer, cajoling officials to investigate Joe Biden and his son, the two Florida businessmen were also pursuing a side effort to cash in on the country’s dire need for natural gas.

The men had no experience in the energy sector—Mr. Fruman had run a beach bar in Odessa and an import-export operation, while Mr. Parnas had left a trail of foundering businesses. But with the Trump administration pushing to export U.S. natural gas, Messrs. Parnas and Fruman sensed an opportunity to leverage their connections to the president’s attorney, Rudy Giuliani, and other power brokers in the U.S. and Ukraine.

So, toward the end of 2018, Mr. Fruman reached out to Andrew Favorov, an old social acquaintance who had recently been named to a top job at Naftogaz, Ukraine’s state oil-and-gas company.

In subsequent months, Messrs. Fruman and Parnas repeatedly told Mr. Favorov they had access to Mr. Trump, and pressed him to cut them in on a gas deal. In one encounter, at the Trump International Hotel in Washington this May, Mr. Fruman asked Mr. Favorov to sign an agreement authorizing the two Florida businessmen to broker sales of U.S. liquefied natural gas, or LNG, on the company’s behalf.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/two-giuliani-associates-used-washington-connections-to-chase-ukraine-gas-deal/ar-BBYhjMG?li=BBnb7Kz

Rudy Colludey.