But he got caught and arrested and then made the interesting decision to yap.
His criminal wrongdoing did not go unpunished.
Parnas was later convicted, and spent time in prison for laundering illegal donations to the Trump campaign.
Lev Parnas and his wife Svetlana Parnas depart federal court on October 23, 2019 in New York City.Drew Angerer/Getty Images
The award winning director of the documentary is Billy Corben (known for the filmCocaine Cowboy).
The Parnas saga mixes international intrigue with strangely agreeable slapstick, Corben says.
Parnas had aptly and hilariously been linked to a company called Fraud Guarantee, for example.
Corben refers to the films genre asFlorida Men Behaving Badly with World-Changing Geopolitical Stakes.
It will gain a wider airing in theaters and on the online grid later that month.
Touting the Parnas movie, Maddow describes his story as un-put-down-able.
But it takes someone like Lev Parnas, Maddow says, to be brave enough to speak up first.
