Lobbyist Gets Probation for Failing to Disclose Work for Pro-Russia Forces in Ukraine

An American lobbyist was sentenced Friday to three years of probation and a $5,000 fine for failing to register as a foreign agent for a Russia-friendly political party in Ukraine and for helping a Ukrainian billionaire illegally purchase tickets to President Trump’s inauguration.

The case against the lobbyist, Samuel Patten, highlighted how the Ukrainian political party sought to gain influence in the United States by hiring American consultants who could lobby on their behalf and make connections to the new Trump administration.

Mr. Patten, a longtime Republican operative whose family was once part of Washington’s social elite, pleaded guilty to violating the federal Foreign Agents Registration Act, which requires lobbyists for foreign interests to disclose their work to the Justice Department. Federal prosecutors stepped up enforcement of the often-ignored law in lock step with the investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 election by the special counsel, Robert S. Mueller III.

“The crimes that I committed are a source of great shame and regret for me,” Mr. Patten, 47, wrote in a letter to Judge Amy Berman Jackson of the Federal District Court in Washington. In court on Friday, he said, “I behaved as if the law did not apply to me and that was wrong.”