NEW YORK (Reuters) – An ex-business partner of Lev Parnas, a onetime associate of former U.S. President Donald Trump’s personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani, was sentenced on Monday to one year and a day in prison for duping investors in a start-up insurer and lying to the Federal Election Commission.
David Correia, 45, had pleaded guilty in October to wire fraud conspiracy over his role in Fraud Guarantee, a Florida-based company created ostensibly to protect consumers from being defrauded.
Prosecutors said Correia and Parnas conned victims into investing more than $2 million, but then withdrew much of it for family or personal use, including political donations.
Correia also admitted to making false statements concerning what prosecutors called an illegal $325,000 donation that Parnas and Igor Fruman, another Giuliani associate, made toward Trump’s unsuccessful 2020 reelection campaign.
The defendant was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Paul Oetken in Manhattan.
(Reporting by Jonathan Stempel in New York; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama and Paul Simao)
