ALEXANDRIA, Virginia — President Trump’s former campaign chairman evaded taxes on $60 million he made working for a pro-Russia Ukranian pol and spent the…
ALEXANDRIA, Virginia — President Trump’s former campaign chairman evaded taxes on $60 million he made working for a pro-Russia Ukranian pol and spent the money on luxuries that included a $21,000 watch and a “custom, $15,000 jacket made from an ostrich,” a prosecutor told jurors on Tuesday.
During opening statements at Paul Manafort’s tax and bank fraud trial, Assistant US Attorney Uzo Asonye said Manafort’s illegally funded, “extravagant lifestyle” included “more than a half-million dollars in fancy clothes” and three of his seven homes.
Those properties — which he bought for $6 million in cash — included an apartment at 29 Howard St. in Manhattan and townhouse at 377 Union St. in Brooklyn, as well as a house in Arlington, Virginia, Asonye said.”There’s one thing this man did not do with these millions of dollars: pay the taxes he owed,” the prosecutor said.
Manafort allegedly hid the money from the feds in 30 bank accounts in three foreign countries, with Asnoye telling jurors they’d “read Manafort, in his own words” admitting that one overseas account “is my account.”
Asonye said former Ukranian President Victor Yanukovych was Manafort’s “golden goose” until Yanukovych was ousted by the country’s parliament in February 2014 amid massive protests in the capital of Kiev, where scores of demonstrators were killed by police snipers.
When Manafort’s consulting fees dried up, Asonye said, he “literally created cash out of thin air and debt” by scamming millions of dollars in loans from American banks.
“Shell companies don’t create themselves. Neither do fake loans. And the evidence will show that Paul Manafort orchestrated these crimes,” he said.
Defense lawyer Thomas Zehnle portrayed Manafort as a “talented political consultant” and a “good man” who was set up by his former right-hand man, Rick Gates, who’s expected to serve as the prosecution’s star witness.
Zehnle said Gates embezzled money from Manafort’s company by paying himself unearned bonuses and reimbursing himself for phony expenses before getting caught “with his hands in the cookie jar.”
Gates lied to prosecutors to cut a cooperation deal, avoiding the possibility of a lengthy prison term and massive fines, Zehnle said.
The defense lawyer didn’t dispute that Manafort “spent a lot of money and lived a lifestyle that most people can only dream about.”
But he said Manafort reported $30 million in personal income between 2005 and 2015, from $90 million in gross revenues to his companies.
Zehnle also described Manafort as the “driving force” behind “multiple US presidents.”
“Paul Manafort shouldn’t be here,” he said.
Manafort’s trial is the first of two he faces as a result of a probe by Justice Department Special Counsel Robert Mueller, who’s investigating Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election and suspected collusion with Trump’s campaign.
The prosecution’s first witness was political consultant Tad Devine, who was Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders’ chief strategist during his Democratic primary campaign in the 2016 presidential race.
Devine, who worked for Manafort in Ukraine, praised Manafort’s “tremendous discipline” and credited him with getting Yanukovych elected.
