Manafort, Gates face new charges
Mueller unveils more indictments, including tax and bank fraud
WASHINGTON – Special counsel Robert Mueller filed a barrage of new criminal charges Thursday against two of President Trump’s former campaign aides, accusing them of lying to banks to obtain millions of dollars in loans.
Former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort and his associate Rick Gates already faced charges over their work for a pro-Russian political faction in Ukraine. In an indictment revealed Thursday, prosecutors charged the men with tax fraud, bank fraud and failing to report overseas bank accounts, which they used to hide millions of dollars in income from U.S. authorities while paying for expensive cars and homes.
The spate of charges, filed in federal court in Virginia, could intensify the legal pressure on Manafort and Gates, who emerged as central figures in Mueller’s investigation of alleged Russian interference in the 2016 election.
Prosecutors charged that Manafort and Gates funneled millions of dollars in income from their work in Ukraine into foreign bank accounts, which they concealed from U.S. tax authorities. Instead, prosecutors said, Manafort “used his hidden overseas wealth to enjoy a lavish lifestyle in the United States, without paying taxes on that income.”
The indictment says that more than $75 million passed through the men’s offshore bank accounts and that they laundered more than $30 million of income to conceal it from the U.S. government.
Prosecutors said Manafort and Gates obtained more than $20 million in loans by lying about their business income and debts.
The charges make no reference to Manafort’s or Gates’ work on the Trump presidential campaign, but the indictment alleges that the fraud occurred during their time with the campaign and continued until January 2017.
One of Gates’ lawyers declined to comment on the case Thursday, citing a gag order issued by a federal judge in Washington.
Lawyers for Manafort did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Gates’ lawyers asked a federal judge in Washington for permission to withdraw from the criminal case there, citing “irreconcilable differences.”