Paul Manafort led an opulent life, feds say.
Feds say Manafort hid millions from overseas lobbying
WASHINGTON — For decades before he was charged Monday with money laundering, tax evasion and fraud, President Donald Trump’s former campaign manager straddled a lucrative divide, shaping presidential politics while banking tens of millions of dollars as a lobbyist for despotic foreign clients.
Paul Manafort helped run no fewer than four successful presidential campaigns — those of Gerald Ford, Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush and Trump. His lobbying firm has represented U.S. corporate giants, including the tobacco industry, as well as dictators and other clients around the globe.
Manafort, 68, served as a strategist and advocate for Philippine strongman Ferdinand Marcos, Zaire’s ruthless ruler Mobuto Sese Seko, and Angolan guerrilla leader Jonas Savimbi, who fought a communist-backed government in one of Africa’s bloodiest civil wars. All three were backed by the U.S. government during the Cold War.
In the past decade, Manafort lobbied for and advised Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych, who was backed by the Kremlin.
Along the way Manafort got very rich — so much so that lawyers at his court arraignment Monday could not ascertain his total net worth.
After Manafort pleaded not guilty, the judge granted prosecutors’ request to impose a $10 million bail and ordered him under house arrest.
Manafort’s lawyer, Kevin Downing, derided the indictment as “ridiculous” but didn’t specifically deny the charges outlined in the 31page document.
The indictment does not mention one of Manafort’s properties, an apartment in glitzy Trump Tower in Manhattan. Nor do the charges refer to Manafort’s role, from March to August 2016, managing Trump’s presidential campaign.
He stepped down last year only when some of his unconventional financial dealings in Ukraine came to light, raising questions about whether he had laundered or properly reported tens of millions of dollars in foreign income — issues that form the basis for Monday’s charges.
In interviews, some consultants and lawyers who have dealt with Manafort said he grew indifferent to certain laws, or at least sloppy in his adherence to them, as he worked in Washington’s inner sanctums and with foreign miscreants around the globe.
“If you’re shooting fish in a barrel, one of them is going to be Paul Manafort,” said a Republican lawyer who has worked with him. He said Manafort has conducted himself as “an international man of mystery” whose fate now may resemble that of an iconic prey of American law enforcement.
“The obvious comparison here is between Manafort and Al Capone,” said the lawyer, who spoke on condition of anonymity. “He just didn’t pay his taxes.”
Manafort, described by acquaintances as circumspect about his methods, was always carefully coiffed and shod, so much so that the indictment alleges he spent about $1.4 million in laundered money just to pay men’s clothing stores in New York and California.
Millions more went for rugs, antiques, landscaping, housekeeping and cars — a Mercedes-Benz and Range Rovers, the indictment says.
To boost his income, Manafort rented out a condominium in Manhattan’s trendy Soho district via Airbnb and then lied about it to get a lower mortgage interest rate, the indictment says.
The federal indictment unsealed Monday in Washington alleges that Manafort failed to report or pay taxes on $75 million in income held overseas, while laundering about $18 million wired from offshore accounts to U.S. vendors.
From 2008 through 2012, for example, Manafort tapped five accounts in Cyprus to pay $520,400 to a clothing store in Beverly Hills. The indictment identified the store only as “Vendor H.” Other money went to vendors in New York, Florida, Virginia and elsewhere.
Manafort and his top deputy, Richard Gates, “laundered the money” through at least 25 U.S. and foreign corporations and shell companies or accounts they created in offshore banking havens, including Cyprus, Saint Vincent & the Grenadines and the Seychelles, the indictment states.
According to the indictment, Manafort and Gates “made a series of false and misleading statements” when confronted with evidence showing that they had not disclosed to the Justice Department their lobbying in Washington on behalf of the Ukraine government and its president and political parties.
On June 27, Manafort belatedly reported his work for Ukraine in filings he made under what is called the Foreign Agents Registration Act, or FARA.
His failure to comply in a timely way with FARA led to some of the charges he now faces.