Bookkeeper: Paul Manafort ‘approved every penny’ of bills
ALEXANDRIA, Va. — Paul Manafort inflated his business income by millions of dollars and kept his bookkeeper in the dark about the foreign bank accounts he was using to buy luxury items and pay personal expenses, according to testimony and documents during his trial Thursday.
But he otherwise approved “every penny” of the personal bills bookkeeper Heather Washkuhn paid for him, she said during hours on the witness stand.
That testimony is important to special counsel Robert Mueller’s team as it looks to rebut defense arguments that Manafort can’t be responsible for financial fraud because he left the details of his spending to others. That includes his longtime associate Rick Gates, who pleaded guilty earlier this year and is expected to testify soon as the government’s star witness.
“I would say he was very knowledgeable. He was very detail-oriented. He approved every penny of everything we paid,” Washkuhn told jurors.
With Washkuhn on the stand, prosecutors showed jurors a series of documents submitted by Manafort to obtain bank loans, including one in which he appeared to inflate the net income of his business by roughly $4 million. Prosecutors say he tried to pass the documents o as coming from her accounting firm.
The fraudulent loan documents came after Manafort’s political consulting work in the Ukraine had dried up and as he had begun to financially struggle, prosecutors say. Jurors saw a series of emails Washkuhn sent him in 2016 warning that he was behind on his payments, including to her, and that money was swiftly needed.
Manafort faces charges of bank fraud and tax evasion that could put him in prison for the rest of his life.