Pressure on Manafort grows as feds track more income, possible money laundering
Peter Stone, McClatchy Washington Bureau on Aug 21, 2017
Published in News & Features
Peter Stone, McClatchy Washington Bureau on Aug 21, 2017
Published in News & Features
WASHINGTON --
Two sources familiar with the inquiry tell McClatchy that investigators are working to confirm information indicating that Manafort and the consulting firms he led earned between $80 million and $100 million over a decade from pro-Moscow Ukrainian and Russian clients.
Mueller's expanded focus on Manafort's complicated financial picture is zeroing in on whether he may have evaded taxes or engaged in any money laundering schemes, the sources say, and the hunt for his financial records through a labyrinth of offshore bank and business accounts has become an important prong of the investigation.
But clearly the heat is on. Last month, although many Manafort bank and business records previously had been subpoenaed, FBI agents raided his home in Alexandria, Va. seeking more details of his finances and turning up the heat.
In order to conduct the raid, prosecutors had to obtain a search warrant by showing a judge probable cause that criminal evidence would be found at the house. Cohen noted that the special counsel's office could have used a grand jury subpoena or tried to obtain the records from Manafort's lawyer; the use of a search warrant signals prosecutors were concerned evidence might be destroyed.
Besides looking for hidden income and accounts, much of this activity is part of an effort to document signs that Manafort may have been involved in money laundering. People knowledgeable about the probe say investigators are looking intently at whether any of the millions he received from oligarchs and politicians came from corrupt sources, as well as his purchase almost a decade ago of three homes in New York and Florida -- including a $3.7 million condo in Trump Tower--for almost $8 million in cash.
Manafort made a fortune working in Ukraine from 2004 to 2015 for a mix of pro-Moscow Ukrainian oligarchs and political figures, most notably ex-president Viktor Yanukovych, who was ousted and fled to Moscow in early 2014, and Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska, a billionaire with good ties to Vladimir Putin. Manafort had a $10 million a year contract to provide business and political advice to Deripaska that was signed in 2006 and ran for a few years, according to the Associated Press.
Manafort also had longstanding business dealings with pro-Moscow steel mogul Rinat Akhmetov, Ukraine's richest man and Manafort's first client in the country. Manafort also had old ties with Dmytro Firtash, who made billions in energy deals with Russia; U.S authorities are trying to extradite him on separate corruption charges. Firtash is known to have organized crime links.
Manafort's sudden departure from the campaign last August 19 came after a New York Times story about a "secret ledger" in Ukraine disclosing that he had received $12.7 million in off the books payments from Ukraine's Party of Regions for a five year period, a charge that Manafort has flatly denied.
by: Stone is a McClatchy
MORE: https://www.arcamax.com/currentnews/newsheadlines/s-1989781?fs
https://www.arcamax.com/currentnews/newsheadlines/s-1989781?fs
Two sources familiar with the inquiry tell McClatchy that investigators are working to confirm information indicating that Manafort and the consulting firms he led earned between $80 million and $100 million over a decade from pro-Moscow Ukrainian and Russian clients.
Mueller's expanded focus on Manafort's complicated financial picture is zeroing in on whether he may have evaded taxes or engaged in any money laundering schemes, the sources say, and the hunt for his financial records through a labyrinth of offshore bank and business accounts has become an important prong of the investigation.
But clearly the heat is on. Last month, although many Manafort bank and business records previously had been subpoenaed, FBI agents raided his home in Alexandria, Va. seeking more details of his finances and turning up the heat.
In order to conduct the raid, prosecutors had to obtain a search warrant by showing a judge probable cause that criminal evidence would be found at the house. Cohen noted that the special counsel's office could have used a grand jury subpoena or tried to obtain the records from Manafort's lawyer; the use of a search warrant signals prosecutors were concerned evidence might be destroyed.
Besides looking for hidden income and accounts, much of this activity is part of an effort to document signs that Manafort may have been involved in money laundering. People knowledgeable about the probe say investigators are looking intently at whether any of the millions he received from oligarchs and politicians came from corrupt sources, as well as his purchase almost a decade ago of three homes in New York and Florida -- including a $3.7 million condo in Trump Tower--for almost $8 million in cash.
Manafort made a fortune working in Ukraine from 2004 to 2015 for a mix of pro-Moscow Ukrainian oligarchs and political figures, most notably ex-president Viktor Yanukovych, who was ousted and fled to Moscow in early 2014, and Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska, a billionaire with good ties to Vladimir Putin. Manafort had a $10 million a year contract to provide business and political advice to Deripaska that was signed in 2006 and ran for a few years, according to the Associated Press.
Manafort also had longstanding business dealings with pro-Moscow steel mogul Rinat Akhmetov, Ukraine's richest man and Manafort's first client in the country. Manafort also had old ties with Dmytro Firtash, who made billions in energy deals with Russia; U.S authorities are trying to extradite him on separate corruption charges. Firtash is known to have organized crime links.
Manafort's sudden departure from the campaign last August 19 came after a New York Times story about a "secret ledger" in Ukraine disclosing that he had received $12.7 million in off the books payments from Ukraine's Party of Regions for a five year period, a charge that Manafort has flatly denied.
by: Stone is a McClatchy
MORE: https://www.arcamax.com/currentnews/newsheadlines/s-1989781?fs
https://www.arcamax.com/currentnews/newsheadlines/s-1989781?fs
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