Longtime Manafort deputy Gates admits embezzlement.
ALEXANDRIA, VA. >> The government’s star witness in the financial fraud trial of Paul Manafort testified Monday that he embezzled hundreds of thousands of dollars from the former Trump campaign chairman — and told jurors that he and Manafort committed crimes together.
Rick Gates, described by witnesses as Manafort’s “right-hand man,” calmly related his criminal conduct as prosecutors looked to provide jurors with damning testimony from a co-conspirator they say carried out an elaborate offshore tax-evasion and fraud scheme on behalf of his former boss.
Gates, who is expected to continue testifying for several hours today, has been regarded as a crucial witness for the government ever since he pleaded guilty this year to two felony charges and agreed to cooperate in special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into possible ties between Russia and the Trump campaign.
The courtroom testimony brought Gates faceto-face with Manafort, his longtime boss and fellow Trump campaign aide, for the first time since his plea deal. His testimony, given in short, clipped answers as Manafort rarely broke his gaze from the witness stand, follows that of vendors who detailed Manafort’s luxurious spending and financial professionals who told jurors how the defendant hid millions of dollars in offshore accounts.
Gates told jurors that he siphoned off the money without Manafort’s knowledge by filing false expense reports. He also admitted to concealing millions of dollars in foreign bank accounts on Manafort’s behalf and to falsifying documents to help his former boss obtain millions of dollars more in bank loans.
“We didn’t report the income or the foreign bank accounts,” Gates told jurors, noting that he knew he and Manafort were committing crimes each time.
Under questioning from prosecutors, Gates read off the names of more than a dozen shell companies he and Manafort set up in Cyprus, St. Vincent and the Grenadines and the United Kingdom to stash the proceeds of Ukrainian political consulting work.
Asked whether the money in the accounts was Manafort’s income, Gates said, “It was.”