Manafort aide pleads guilty, details inauguration ticket scheme
WASHINGTON — A business associate of a co-defendant of former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort pleaded guilty Friday to failing to register as a foreign agent for a Ukrainian political party and admitted his role in a $50,000 donation scheme involving the presidential inauguration.
W. Samuel Patten entered his plea in federal court in Washington as prosecutors accused him of performing lobbying and consulting work in the United States but failing to register as a foreign agent as required by the Justice Department.
As part of his agreement with prosecutors, Patten admitted to lying to the Senate intelligence committee during its investigation into Russian election interference and of participating in a scheme to circumvent the ban on foreign donations to President Donald Trump’s inaugural committee by lining up a straw purchaser to pay $50,000 for four tickets to the inauguration.
Patten’s plea agreement specifically requires him to cooperate with the special counsel’s probe.
Patten’s attorney Stuart Sears declined to comment.
Patten was a business associate of Konstantin Kilimnik, a man U.S. authorities have said has ties to Russian intelligence. Kilimnik worked closely with Manafort, who was found guilty this month of eight financial counts. Kilimnik also is a co-defendant in a pending case against Manafort in Washington, brought by Mueller’s team, that accuses them both of witness tampering.
Court papers don’t refer to Kilimnik by name; he is identified only as “Foreigner A” in court papers.
The documents trace years of work Patten performed for a wealthy Ukrainian businessman and a Ukrainian political party known as the Opposition Bloc beginning in 2014. The goal all along, prosecutors say, was to influence U.S. policy. But they say Patten never filed under the Foreign Agents Registration Act.
Prosecutors say in 2015 Patten worked to set up meetings between the Ukrainian businessman and several U.S. officials including members of Congress and leaders in the State Department.
Later, Patten wrote talking points and letters used to lobby U.S. officials on behalf of the businessman, who is referred to as “Foreigner B.” Patten also drafted an op-ed for Foreigner B that sought to address concerns about Ukraine’s ability to work with the Trump administration.
Court papers say the op-ed was published in February 2017 in a “national United States media outlet,” but they do not name the media outlet or Foreigner B.
Although court papers do not identify Foreigner B, an op-ed published under the name of Serhiy Lyovochkin appeared in U.S. News and World Report. The oped identifies Lyovochkin as a “leader of the Opposition Bloc” and addresses the same topic as described in Patten’s case.
Prosecutors also revealed Friday that in January 2017, Patten lined up an American as a straw purchaser of four tickets to the inauguration for Foreigner B to circumvent the ban on foreign contributions to the inaugural committee.
Patten was informed in writing of the ban, court papers say.
Yet, to conceal that Foreigner B was paying for the tickets, court papers say Patten had the American front the $50,000 for the tickets.
The straw purchaser, who is not named, then was reimbursed by Patten’s company, which in turn received the same amount from Foreigner B via an offshore bank account in Cyprus.
Patten then attended the inauguration with Foreigner B.