WASHINGTON _ In another twist to the bizarre political saga involving South Florida businessmen Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman, a recent court filing suggested that the pair might have drawn on foreign funds from South Korea in addition to Russian funds that federal prosecutors say the pair used as part of a straw donor scheme.
The reference to South Korean funds was buried in a 49-page court filing by a lawyer for Andrey Kukushkin, the Ukrainian-born co-defendant of Parnas and Fruman. Federal prosecutors say they, along with a fourth co-defendant, David Correia, were involved in a scheme to use money from a Russian businessman to make political donations in Nevada and elsewhere as part of an effort to win marijuana licenses and create a pot business.
McClatchy has previously reported that clues pointed to wealthy Russian businessman Andrey Muraviev as a possible source of the funds for that scheme.
