NEW YORK - Igor Fruman, who helped Donald Trump's former personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani collect damaging information about Joe Biden before he was elected, was sentenced on Friday to one year in prison for violating campaign finance law.
In handing down the sentence of 12 months and one day, U.S. District Judge Paul Oetken said that Fruman's solicitation of money from a Russian businessman to donate to U.S. political campaigns was serious because it undermines democracy, but that the Belarus-born businessman was unlikely to commit a similar offense.
This is a crime that is serious, not because it involves any particular financial victims, but because it undermines the integrity of elections in our country, Oetken said. It adds to cynicism in the eyes of the public and to the perception that the system may be corrupt. Fruman, 55, who pleaded guilty last year, said he had a chance to reflect on his actions after the two years he spent in home confinement gave him a chance to reflect on his actions. I can assure you, my family, the government that I will never appear before yourself or another courtroom, before Oetken read the sentence.
Fruman, whose four children were present in the federal courtroom in Manhattan on Friday, must surrender on March 14.
He was ordered to pay $10,000 in fines.
Fruman was not allowed to spend 37 to 46 months in prison, according to the sentence.
Fruman, who had pleaded guilty last year, had sought no time behind bars, he said he had already accepted responsibility and spent more than two years in home confinement since his October 2019 arrest.
The Belarus-born Fruman and another former Giuliani associate, Ukraine-born Lev Parnas, were charged with concealing an illegal $325,000 donation to Trump's 2020 bid to be re-elected.
Fruman's plea was related to an effort to get legal, recreational marijuana distribution licenses by donating to candidates in the U.S. states where he wanted to do business.
In the last year, Fruman said he was aware that foreign nationals could not contribute to U.S. political campaigns, but he also sent a list of officials that he planned to donate to a foreign national backing the cannabis venture.
Parnas was convicted of violating campaign finance laws in an October trial.
Before the charges against Fruman and Parnas were brought up, Giuliani had enlisted the pair to help uncover dirt on Biden and Biden's son Hunter during Trump's re-election bid.
Giuliani has not been charged with any wrongdoing.