A Ukrainian schoolteacher/currency-exchange tycoon with questionable political connections hires a convicted felon to lobby Congress. This isn't the opening scene of a made-for-TV movie - just another day in Washington.
Oksana Brodovska is the majority owner of FC Absolute Finance, which operates Ukraine's largest non-banking currency-exchange network. Her position with the company has raised eyebrows because of her connections to Ruslan Lukyanchuk, a member of Parliament who was once arrested for alleged involvement in an illegal currency operation.
Now, she's hired Adrian Plesha, a lobbyist with no shortage of his own eyebrow-raising moments. Plesha's criminal history includes a guilty plea to felony election charges and an arrest for illegally carrying a pistol, which he had used to shoot an intruder multiple times in the back.
A partner at Antonelli Wozny Plesha & Campa, the former Rep. Pete Sessions (R-Texas) communications director is lobbying the House of Representatives on "issues related to visiting and doing business within the United States," according to a disclosure form. Brodovska is paying the firm $30,000 for the work this quarter.
This isn't the firm time Plesha's lobbying work has received attention. In 2009, Politico reported that Sessions had directed $1.6 million in blimp-research earmarks to J.G. Ferguson and Associates, where Plesha worked as a lobbyist from 2006 until 2011. The firm had no government-contracting or blimp-related experience.
