Billionaire Oil Magnate (Harry Sargeant III) Funded Travel by Lev Parnas

[Dennis Donovan]

https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2020/01/billionaire-oil-magnate-funded-travel-by-lev-parnas/

A lawyer for GOP donor Harry Sargeant says the money was a loan.

Dan Friedman
Reporter

A billionaire Republican donor helped to bankroll travel by Lev Parnas, the indicted associate of Rudy Giuliani, as Parnas maneuvered to press the Ukrainian government to announce investigations that would help President Donald Trump politically.

House Democrats on Wednesday released WhatsApp messages between Parnas and Harry Sargeant III, an oil and shipping magnate who lives in Florida, as part of a trove of material they recently obtained from Parnas. The messages show that Sargeant helped fund some of Parnas’ travel and was supportive of efforts by Parnas and Giuliani to convince Trump to remove US Ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch. Parnas and Giuliani have said they believed Yovanovitch’s removal would help them pressure Ukraine’s government to provide dirt on Trump’s foes. Sargeant, a financial backer of Giuliani’s 2008 presidential campaign, is friendly with the former New York mayor. Sargeant met Parnas through Giuliani, a source said.

In a statement Wednesday, Chris Kise, an attorney representing Sargeant, confirmed the billionaire had loaned Parnas money for some of his travel costs. Kise said that Sargeant had expected to be paid back and suggested that Sargeant had been duped by Parnas.

“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. “But despite repeated requests by Mr. Sargeant, and continual promises of repayment by Lev Parnas, Mr. Parnas never repaid these expenses.” Kise cited an August 26 message in which Sargeant urged Parnas to repay debts to him and to the owner of a charter flight company.

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We're going to hear more about Harry, I believe...

[gratuitous]

1. A loan, huh?

What was the term of the loan? Interest? Any penalty for early payoff? Got a signed original of the loan papers? Yes? No? Do you often loan money out without any documentation or collateral? Do you at least have receipts for the money advanced on these loans, Mr. Sargeant? Are any of the amounts in dispute?

This doesn't seem like a sustainable business model, even for a billionaire. I wonder if Mr. Sargeant was looking for a return on his loan that couldn't be quantified in repayments from Mr. Parnas?

[awesomerwb1]

2. "Repeated requests"

Yeah, a billionaire would make "repeated requests" to be paid back for something that is pocket change for him.
Riiiight.