New records shine light on Florida oil tycoon’s relationship with Lev Parnas

A Florida energy tycoon who has vehemently denied any connection to the Trump administration’s shadow campaign in Ukraine helped finance overseas travel for a key Trump emissary and corresponded with him about a controversial effort to remove the U.S. ambassador to the country, newly disclosed records show.

WhatsApp communications turned over this week to the committees leading the U.S. House impeachment investigation and sent to the U.S. Senate to be considered as part of President Donald Trump’s ongoing trial show that GOP donor Harry Sargeant regularly corresponded with South Florida businessman Lev Parnas about Ukraine, U.S. Ambassador Marie Yovanovitch and “Rudy” — almost certainly a reference to Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani.

The messages — some of which were redacted by the government — also show that Sargeant paid for at least some of Parnas’ travels at a time when the Ukrainian-born liaison was meeting and corresponding with Ukrainian officials in order to push the government to remove Yovanovitch and investigate former Vice President Joe Biden.

Sargeant, who has previously denied having any business in Ukraine or with Parnas, remained adamant Friday that the newly revealed communications do not contradict those assertions. His attorney, Chris Kise, said Sargeant loaned Parnas money under the belief that he “was broke,” and had no interest in Yovanovitch’s removal.

“As is evident from the texts, Mr. Sargeant loaned Lev Parnas small sums for travel expenses because Mr. Parnas claimed, perhaps falsely, he was broke, and promised to pay the funds back,” Kise said in a statement. “Despite repeated requests by Mr. Sargeant, and continual promises of repayment by Lev Parnas, Mr. Parnas never repaid these expenses.”

Sargeant and his lawyer did not respond to questions about the total value of loans, which Sargeant himself described as “expensive” in his chat with Parnas. Nor did they explain why Sargeant and Parnas discussed Yovanovitch at least six times in the six weeks leading up to her removal.

“As we have stated before, Mr. Sargeant was not part of any plan to remove the U.S. Ambassador,” Kise said.

The messages released this week by House Democrats between Parnas and Sargeant start March 21, less than two weeks after they met with a Ukrainian state energy executive at a massive global energy conference in Houston. As the Miami Herald has previously reported, Sargeant, Parnas and Parnas’ partner, Igor Fruman, met at CERAWeek with Andrew Favorov, second-in-command at Naftogaz, the national oil and gas company of Ukraine.

During that meeting, Favorov has said Parnas and Fruman pitched him on a plan to export large amounts of liquefied natural gas to energy-hungry Ukraine, but only after removing Yovanovitch and Favorov’s boss at Naftogaz. Parnas and Fruman had created a company called Global Energy Producers, which New York prosecutors now say was actually a pass-through for illegal campaign contributions and foreign money.

Parnas and Fruman have pleaded not guilty. Parnas has appeared this week in a series of national interviews detailing his contacts with Giuliani, the Trump administration and Ukrainian officials. Parnas’ attorney, Joseph Bondy, could not be reached for comment.

Sargeant says he attended portions of the meeting in Houston, but has been adamant that he did not participate in any discussions about Yovanovitch or any specific Ukrainian business venture with Favorov — an assertion Favorov confirmed last month in an interview with The Associated Press.

Still, just days after they met in Houston, Parnas felt comfortable enough to message Sargeant on WhatsApp and urge him to watch Sean Hannity’s prime-time show on Fox News. Journalist John Solomon of The Hill was on the program to discuss his interview with then top Ukrainian prosecutor Yurii Lutsenko and his since-recanted allegations that Yovanovitch had given Ukraine a “do-not-prosecute list.”

Parnas had helped Solomon set up the interview with Lutsenko, according to ProPublica.

In the days after, Parnas and Sargeant continued to discuss Yovanovitch by text until her removal became public knowledge in early May. Parnas told Sargeant “she’s gone” on March 23 and wrote him exactly one month later — the day before Yovanovitch was quietly recalled by the U.S. — to say “the bomb is dropping tomorrow.”

“Awesome!!” Sargeant replied when Parnas told him in May that Yovanovitch had indeed been pulled back to Washington.

The messages — detailed among hundreds of pages of Parnas’ correspondence with multiple people — also indicate that Sargeant was paying for some of Parnas’ travel during the first half of the year.

On April 2, Parnas messaged Sargeant to ask for approval to pay for “car service on cc ... they need cc on file,” perhaps a reference to a credit card.

And on April 10, Parnas messaged Sargeant after hearing that a trip to Vienna had been canceled.

“Just becoming expensive flying you guys everywhere LEV,” Sargeant responded.

Parnas answered with a reassurance.

“We are never expecting you to pay for it my brother that’s why we wanted to do the loan so we don’t have to bother you,” Parnas wrote, noting a half hour later that he was with “Rudy” downstairs having breakfast. He invited Sargeant, apparently located in the same building, to join them, one of several times he suggested the trio sit down together.

Parnas traveled on multiple occasions to Vienna, and held a one-way ticket to the Austrian capital in October when federal authorities arrested him on campaign finance fraud charges at Dulles airport outside Washington.

He has said he worked at times as an interpreter for attorneys representing Ukrainian oligarch Dmitry Firtash, who was living in Vienna while fighting extradition to the United States on bribery charges. Firtash, according to Parnas, was offering to trade damaging information on Biden if his case in the U.S. could be quashed.

A representative for Firtash also loaned Parnas’ wife $1 million last year, court records show.

In June, Parnas urged Sargeant to meet him in Ukraine, to which Sargeant responded, “I could leave Thur and be there Fri maybe.” But Kise, Sargeant’s attorney, said Friday that Sargeant didn’t make the trip and reiterated that he hasn’t been to the country “in more than a decade.”

“Mr. Sargeant did not plan to go or go to Ukraine with Parnas or otherwise,” Kise wrote.

Kise said Sargeant hasn’t been contacted by federal investigators in New York, where Parnas is being prosecuted on campaign finance charges and Giuliani is under suspicion of having lobbied a foreign country — Ukraine — under the table.

Neither, Kise said, have House investigators contacted Sargeant.

McClatchy DC reporter Ben Wieder contributed to this report.