In a murky arena, differing accounts
KIEV, Ukraine — Paul J. Manafort, President Donald Trump’s former campaign chairman, recently filed financial reports with the Justice Department showing he earned nearly $17 million for two years of work for a Ukrainian political party with links to the Kremlin.
Curiously, that was more than the party itself reported spending in the same period for its entire operation — the national political organization’s expenses, salaries and other incidentals.
The discrepancies show a lot about how Manafort’s clients — former President Viktor F. Yanukovych of Ukraine and his Party of Regions — operated.
Yanukovych was driven from office in the Maidan Revolution of 2014, after having stolen, according to the current Ukrainian government, at least $1 billion. In the years before his fall, Manafort took lavish payments to burnish the image of Yanukovych and the Party of Regions in Washington, even as the party acknowledged only very modest spending.
In 2012, for example, the party reported annual expenses of about $11.1 million, based on the exchange rate at the time, excluding overhead. For the same year, Manafort reported income of $12.1 million from the party, the Justice Department filing shows.
In 2013, the Party of Regions reported expenses of $3.7 million, while Manafort reported receiving payments of $4.5 million.
Handwritten ledgers that surfaced last year indicated the party had actually spent about $2 billion over the past decade or so, much or most of it illegally. Some outlays, such as payments to an election official, possibly amounted to criminal bribery.
Manafort has not been charged with breaking any laws regarding the reporting of income derived from his efforts on behalf of the party.
In a statement, Manafort’s spokesman, Jason Maloni, suggested the Party of Regions was accountable for the contradiction between the two disclosures. “Any questions about the reporting obligations of the Party of Regions should be directed to those within the party responsible for such reporting,” the statement said. Manafort’s work “was widely known and the firm was paid only for the work it performed. In fact, just last month Ukraine officials indicated that there is no proof of illicit