Lev Parnas leaves federal court | AP Photo Judge rejects prosecutors' request to lock up Giuliani associate

NEW YORK — A federal judge rejected prosecutors’ request to lock up indicted Rudy Giuliani associate Lev Parnas Tuesday, allowing him to remain under house arrest in Florida.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office in Manhattan asked the judge to jail Parnas for lying about his finances, saying his bail should be revoked to prevent him from fleeing. They said in court Tuesday that a $1 million transfer Parnas received — which they accused him of concealing — came from a lawyer for Ukrainian oligarch Dmytro Firtash, who faces criminal charges in the United States.


But Judge Paul Oetken said he was not convinced Parnas intentionally misrepresented his financial situation.

“There’s no clear, direct misstatement,” he said during a hearing at federal court in Manhattan.

He added that the government had flagged “suspicious” transactions and Parnas “may have violated the spirit” of full disclosure, but his omissions did not rise to the level of “intentional misstatements warranting revocation of bail.”

The judge also rejected a request from Parnas’ lawyers to allow him to leave the house for some time each day, ruling that he should remain confined to his home. “The strict conditions that exist are appropriate,” Oetken said.

The Ukraine-born Parnas, along with Belarus-born businessman Igor Fruman, are awaiting trial on charges of illegally funneling foreign money into U.S. campaigns.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Rebekah Donaleski said Tuesday the source of the $ 1 million transfer was a lawyer for Firtash, who is fighting extradition to the United States. It came in the form of a loan to Parnas’ wife, Svetlana.

“Mr. Parnas poses an extraordinary risk of flight,” she said. “Parnas could cut off his [monitoring] bracelet and go to the airport and be gone before we could do anything about it.”

Prosecutors charged he had also failed to disclose income from a law firm when they agreed to his release on home confinement, secured by $200,000 in cash paid on a $1 million bond.

Parnas’ lawyer, Joseph Bondy, said his client had no interest in fleeing and had strong ties to the U.S., where he moved as a young child after his family won the green card lottery, and is now a proud U.S. citizen.

Instead, he hopes to cooperate with congressional investigators.

“He has a powerful incentive now to stay, not to flee,” Bondy said.

Bondy added that Parnas disclosed everything required of him, and a financial disclosure affidavit did not ask about his wife’s assets.

“There was no attempt to minimize his assets whatsoever,” he said. “There was no attempt whatsoever to deceive.”

Bondy said Parnas’ connections with Firtash have been severed since he offered to cooperate with a congressional subpoena. “He has burned that bridge, to the extent there ever was a bridge,” Bondy said.

Parnas and Fruman were arrested in October and charged with illegally routing hundreds of thousands of dollars into the U.S. political system, including money given to a super PAC supporting President Donald Trump.

The charges stem in part from an effort they worked on with Giuliani, Trump’s personal lawyer and the former mayor of New York City, to spread negative information about the U.S. ambassador to Ukraine with the goal of getting her ousted. The ambassador, Marie Yovanovitch, was ultimately removed.

Prosecutors have said new charges against the Giuliani associates are likely, and the investigation is ongoing.