Lev Parnas arrives at federal court for an arraignment hearing on October 23, 2019 in New York City. Image by Getty

By Ari Feldman October 31, 2019

If you start a fraud-insurance company in Florida, what might you call it? Fraud Protector, perhaps. Fraud Knight. Never-Fraud!

Yet Lev Parnas, one of the Ukrainian associates of Rudy Giuliani, who has been implicated in the Ukraine imbroglio that led to the impeachment inquiry, came up with an unusual name for his fraud-insurance firm: Fraud Guarantee.

The name was a source of confusion when the company was first publicized. The mystery was deepened by the fact that the company, founded in 2013, has had no customers and generated no revenue. It has become central to the Ukraine story because the company paid Giuliani, Donald Trump’s personal lawyer, half a million dollars in 2018. Giuliani said the payment related to business consulting. Earlier this month, Parnas and an associate, Igor Fruman — both of whom are Jewish — were arrested as they prepared to leave the country on charges that they were using donations to American politicians to illegally try to influence the U.S.-Ukraine relationship.

Forwarding the News

Thoughtful, balanced reporting from the Forward and around the web, bringing you updated news and analysis each day.

Terms(Required)

I agree to the Forward's Terms of Service and Privacy Policy

Email(Required)

Now, the Wall Street Journal has connected the dots on the name Fraud Guarantee. After several incidents in which Parnas was himself accused of fraud, he picked the name “in part to clean up his Google search results, ensuring that the word ‘fraud’ and his own name would be paired in a positive light,” unnamed sources told the Journal.

One source told the Journal that the strategy worked. Search results showing Parnas’ links to earlier frauds — including a failed penny-stock tech company and a half-million dollar “bridge loan” that was allegedly stolen from a wealthy New York family — were less visible.

Ari Feldman is a staff writer at the Forward. Contact him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter @aefeldman

The Forward is free to read, but it isn’t free to produce

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward.

Now more than ever, American Jews need independent news they can trust, with reporting driven by truth, not ideology. We serve you, not any ideological agenda.

At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.

Readers like you make it all possible. We’re near the end of our Passover Fundraising Drive, and we have a very ambitious goal of $127,000 by April 21.

This is a great time to support independent Jewish journalism you rely on. Make a Passover gift today!

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

Make a Passover Gift Today!

$90 $180

$360

Other amount