Trump campaign chief ‘hid £45m in offshore accounts’
THE former chairman of Donald Trump’s election campaign orchestrated a multi-million-dollar conspiracy to evade US tax and banking laws, leaving behind a trail of lies as he lived a lavish lifestyle, prosecutors told a court.
During his opening statement in the case against the former Trump campaign chairman, assistant US attorney Uzo Asonye told a jury that Paul Manafort considered himself above the law as he funnelled tens of millions of dollars through offshore accounts.
That “secret income” was used to pay for personal expenses such as a £16,000 watch, an £11,400 jacket made of ostrich and more than £4.5 million of real estate paid for in cash, Mr Asonye said.
“A man in this courtroom believed the law did not apply to him – not tax law, not banking law,” Mr Asonye said as he sketched out the evidence gathered by special counsel Robert Mueller’s team in Mr Manafort’s bank fraud and tax evasion trial.
It is the first trial arising from Mr Mueller’s investigation into potential ties between Mr Trump’s presidential campaign and Russia. Mr Mueller was not present in the courtroom.
The government wants to show Mr Manafort funnelled more than £45 m in proceeds from his Ukrainian political consulting through offshore accounts and hid a “significant” portion of it from the tax authorities.
Defence lawyer Thomas Zehnle said in his opening statement that Mr Manafort trusted others to keep track of the millions of dollars he was earning from his Ukrainian political work.
He made clear that undermining the credibility of Rick Gates, his former business associate and the government’s star witness, was central to the defence strategy.
Mr Zehnle said Mr Manafort, earning millions as a political consultant helping officials in other parts of the world, relied on Gates and others, including a professional accounting firm, to keep watch over the money.
“Money’s coming in fast. It’s a lot, and Paul Manafort trusted that Rick Gates was keeping track of it,” Mr Zehnle said. “That’s what Rick Gates was being paid to do.” He said Mr Gates would say anything he could to save himself from a lengthy jail term and a crippling financial penalty.
Mr Gates, who spent years working for Mr Manafort in Ukraine and is also accused of helping him falsify paperwork used to obtain the bank loans, cut a plea deal with Mr Mueller earlier this year. The trial continues.