God bless the Miami Herald and its gift for understatement.

The charges against Andrey Muraviev are the latest shoe to drop in a plot that includes South Florida-based Soviet émigrés Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman—two of the odder characters in the orbit of the last administration—President Donald Trump’s personal lawyer, a $1 million political fund and the peculiarly named company Fraud Guarantee.

Muraviev is also described as a “would-be Russian marijuana tycoon.” And, frankly, whoever works for the branding department of that company needs to be fired immediately.

Anyway, the Herald is quite correct in its assessment of Parnas and Fruman. Apparently, they are accused here of concocting a scheme by which the would-be Russian marijuana tycoon would launder some money for Parnas and Fruman, who would use it to grease the palms of politicians in pursuit of weed franchises in several states.

Among the beneficiaries of Parnas and Fruman’s political giving was the Friends of Ron DeSantis Political Action Committee, which took in the $50,000 donation from a company tied to Parnas and Fruman in June 2018.

Oh.

After DeSantis won, Muraviev texted his congratulations to Parnas and Fruman, the indictment says. Muraviev’s partner Andrey Kukushkin, who was also charged and found guilty in the scheme, added his congratulations on “victory in Florida “ and wrote “[w]hen can we get a license and look for the stores,“ according to the indictment…The same company also gave $325,000 a month earlier to a super PAC associated with then-President Trump.

Parnas and Fruman were bottom-feeders’ bottom-feeders, even by the standards of the previous administration. They are tied up with Rudy Giuliani’s alleged attempts to collect dirt on the Bidens in Ukraine.

Parnas and Kukushkin were found guilty of several campaign finance charges by a New York jury in October 2021 and are awaiting sentencing. Fruman pleaded guilty in September 2021. A fourth man charged as part of the scheme, David Correia, pleaded guilty in October 2020 and was released from prison in January 2022. Parnas was also charged in a separate scheme whereby he and Correia defrauded investors in the ironically named company Fraud Guarantee, which portrayed itself as a fraud prevention company but whose name became the butt of jokes. The money they raised was used to fund Parnas’ lavish lifestyle. Parnas is reportedly planning to plead guilty to a conspiracy charge related to that scheme.

Meanwhile, the would-be Russian marijuana tycoon is quite the piece of work himself.

Muraviev, who had made a fortune as the CEO of a Russian cement company and through his holdings in the Russian online payment company QIWI, had already invested in several California marijuana ventures with Kukushkin before the partnership began with Parnas and Fruman and he continued to be involved in numerous California marijuana ventures after Parnas, Fruman and Kukushkin were arrested, as the Herald has previously reported.

In this country, it should be recalled, people who make their fortunes with cement companies often draw the attention of law enforcement. (Linen services are also popular spots for wiretaps and, fictionally, olive oil companies are worth a look.) One of the gifts that I suspect will keep on giving here is how the previous administration* managed to import the wild-west kleptocracy that was/is Russia into our politics. In that effort, Parnas and Fruman were the gang that couldn’t bribe straight. “All the best people” never will stop being funny.

Headshot of Charles P. Pierce
Charles P. Pierce

Charles P Pierce is the author of four books, most recently Idiot America, and has been a working journalist since 1976. He lives near Boston and has three children.