Lev Parnas, a Rudy Giuliani associate with ties to Ukraine, arrives for a bail hearing in the Southern District court on Tuesday, Dec. 17. (Photo: Mark Lennihan/AP)

A federal judge on Tuesday declined to revoke the bail of Lev Parnas, the Rudy Giuliani associate charged in Manhattan with campaign finance violations, finding that he had not intentionally tried to hide assets from prosecutors.

U.S. District Judge J. Paul Oetken of the Southern District of New York acknowledged several "concerning" statements Parnas made about his financial condition but said they did not rise to the level of intentional deception, as prosecutors from the Manhattan U.S. Attorney's Office had claimed.

"There's certainly lots of suspicious information here … but I don't know that that's clear and intentional misstatements such that bail should be revoked at this point," Oetken said following about 90 minutes of argument.

Federal prosecutors asked Oetken to revoke Parnas' bail package after they discovered alleged misstatements and omissions he made after his arrest in October at Washington Dulles International Airport. When taken into custody, Parnas was waiting to board a plane with a one-way ticket to Vienna.

Earlier in December, Parnas' attorney, Joseph Bondy, asked the court to modify his client's bail terms so that he could leave the house during the day, as long as he stayed away from "airports, boat docks or train terminals."

Prosecutors said last week that they learned about previously undisclosed assets while preparing their response to the request, including payments from a law firm, a contract to purchase a $4.5 million house and a $1 million loan deposited into his wife's bank account from a Swiss lawyer for indicted Ukrainian oligarch Dmytro Firtash.

Parnas was charged alongside fellow Giuliani associate Igor Fruman in a scheme to funnel foreign money into U.S. elections in order to buy political influence. Both men were released on $1 million bond, secured by $200,000 cash, and were ordered to submit to electronic monitoring ahead of trial.

Parnas' attorney, Joseph Bondy, earlier in the month requested a modification to his client's bail terms that would allow him to leave the house during the day, on the condition that he stay away from "airports, boat docks or train terminals."

Oetken's ruling Tuesday afternoon denied that request.

Prosecutors said last week that in preparing their response they had learned about previously undisclosed assets, including loans from a law firm, a contract to purchase a $4.5 million house and a $1 million transfer to his wife's bank account from a Swiss lawyer for Firtash.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Rebekah Donelseki said on Tuesday that the "lies" and "omissions," combined with Parnas' connections overseas, made his an "extraordinary risk of flight" in the Southern District.

"We still have serious questions about where Mr. Parnas is getting his money," she said.

Bondy countered that most of the information the government cited was available to prosecutors when they agreed to modify his initial terms of Parnas' release in October. Parnas, he said, had complied with every condition of his bail and was trying to cooperate with a congressional subpoena for material related to its impeachment inquiry of President Donald Trump.

"No one was trying to hide that … no one from the government apparently asked," he said. "Every one of these transactions was right in front of them."

Bondy explained that Firtash's lawyer, Ralph Oswald Isenegger, made the "loosely papered" loan of $1 million to Parnas' wife, Svetlana, in September but pulled it after Parnas was indicted in the U.S. He said the pretrial services form Parnas completed upon his arrest in Virginia did not specify the assets of Parnas' spouse, and the bank records were later turned over at the request of prosecutors in New York.

Donaleski said that by that time it was too late, because prosecutors at that point had already agreed to reduce the amount Parnas had agreed to post in order to appear in Manhattan federal court. She argued that Parnas and his wife, who is unemployed, had both treated the loan as income and that it was really a payment to Parnas from a foreign benefactor.

"Much of his travel this fall was paid by a Ukrainian oligarch who is fighting extradition," Donaleski said, referring to Firtash.

"There are people abroad in Ukraine that don't want Mr. Parnas sitting here in New York," she said.

Bondy, however, said Parnas had no remaining connections overseas and feared for his safety in Ukraine. Parnas, he said, had "no interest" in maintaining a relationship with Firtash, who has been indicted in Illinois for his role in trying to bribe Indian officials.

"Mr. Parnas has completely burned those bridges," Bondy said.

Oetken said Tuesday that Parnas' foreign ties were not a factor in his bail decision because those connections were well known at the time of his bail agreement. Instead, Oetken said he looked to the severity of Parnas' omissions and Bondy's explanations to prosecutors' "reasonable application" to revoke bail.

"It may have violated the spirit" of Parnas' bail, "but I don't know that it rises to the level of intentional misstatements," he said.

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