David Correia was charged with duping investors in a start-up he founded with Lev Parnas, an associate of Rudolph W. Giuliani.

By William K. Rashbaum

A business partner of Lev Parnas, who helped Rudolph W. Giuliani, President Trump’s personal lawyer, dig up dirt on the president’s political rivals is expected to plead guilty on Thursday to defrauding investors in a start-up, according to two people with knowledge of the case.

The partner, David Correia, will admit in Manhattan federal court to duping investors in a company he founded with Mr. Parnas, Fraud Guarantee, that offered a kind of insurance against swindles, one of the people said.

Mr. Correia, a former golf pro, and Mr. Parnas were first indicted in October 2019 on federal campaign finance charges, accused of participating in a conspiracy to conceal the source of hundreds of thousands of dollars in political contributions.

New charges filed last month accused the men of duping their investors in Fraud Guarantee, which they had founded in 2012. Prosecutors said investors had pumped $2 million into the concern, but it never got off the ground.

Mr. Correia and Mr. Parnas had hired Mr. Giuliani in 2018 to endorse and promote Fraud Guarantee.

After that introduction, Mr. Giuliani teamed up with the Soviet-born Mr. Parnas and another of Mr. Parnas’s business associates, Igor Fruman, to try to find information in Ukraine that would discredit one of the president’s political rivals, Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr.

Mr. Correia was not involved in that effort, and he is not expected to cooperate with Manhattan federal prosecutors in their examination of Mr. Giuliani and Mr. Parnas’s hunt for dirt.

Mr. Giuliani is not accused of any wrongdoing in connection with Fraud Guarantee and he has denied any impropriety in the mission in Ukraine.

Mr. Parnas, who has since broken with Mr. Giuliani and Mr. Trump, has pleaded not guilty.

Mr. Correia is also expected to plead guilty on Thursday to making a false statement to the Federal Election Commission in connection with the campaign donations.

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