Paul Manafort, the former manager of U.S. President Donald J. Trump’s successful 2016 campaign and the former longtime adviser to ousted Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych, was indicted on twelve separate charges relating to his work for the Party of Regions.
Rick Gates, a Manafort protege who worked with him to burnish the image of exiled Yanukovych and the former Ukrainian president’s Party of Regions, has also turned himself in, U.S. media reports indicate.
The indictment, unsealed today, is available here.
U.S. federal prosecutors filed twelve separate charges against Manafort, including conspiracy against the United States, conspiracy to launder money, unregistered agent of a foreign principal, false and misleading FARA statements, false statements, and seven counts of failure to file reports of foreign bank and financial accounts
Jason Maloni, Manafort’s spokesman, did not immediately reply to an emailed request for comment. Manafort has strongly denied the allegations in the past.
Manafort and Gates began to work for the Party of Regions in 2005, through the firm Davis Manafort. Until the 2014 EuroMaidan Revolution that drove Yanukovych from power, Manafort served as a close aide to the party, helping to craft Yanukovych’s image in advance of the 2010 presidential election while advocating for the political party at the U.S. Embassy and in Washington.
The indictment, while focusing extensively on Manafort and Gates’ alleged laundering of Party of Regions cash, does not detail their involvement in the 2016 U.S. Presidential campaign.
“More than $75 million”
Federal prosecutors allege in the indictment that Manafort and Gates oversaw a vast conspiracy to launder the proceeds of their work with Yanukovych, totalling more than $75 million that moved through offshore accounts into the United States. Prosecutors separately accuse Gates of moving $3 million from offshore shell companies into accounts under his control.
The prosecution alleges that Manafort did not declare that he had offshore bank accounts to his tax preparer, leading them to charge him with tax fraud.
But the charges focus on Manafort’s work for Yanukovych and for Opposition Bloc, the Serhiy Lyovochkin-managed political party that arose from the ashes of the Party of Regions.
The indictment provides a list of 17 U.S. firms, 12 Cypriot companies, and three other entities that the two used to move money apparently received for their work on behalf of Yanukovyich.
The prosecutors then go on to accuse Manafort of laundering the money through various vanity projects, including extensive luxury improvements on his multiple homes, $934,350 on an antique rug store, $849,000 on a men’s clothing store, and $114,000 on four Range Rovers, among other payments.
In another portion, federal prosecutors write that Manafort used much of his allegedly ill-gotten gains on expensive real estate purchases.
One case sees Manafort allegedly move $1.5 million from a Cypriot company to buy a Manhattan property in New York City, which he then leased through AirBnb for thousands of dollars a week.
Selling influence
Manafort began working for the Party of Regions in 2005, after a stint with oligarch Rinat Akhmetov.
The 68-year old Connecticut native had gotten in start in Republican party politics in the 1970s and 1980s, before starting to market his political connections to foreign leaders, often those with abysmal human rights records and allegations of corruption.
Mueller’s team accuses Manafort and Gates of “engag[ing] in a multi-million dollar lobbying campaign in the United States at the direction of Yanukovych, the Party of Regions, and the Government of Ukraine” from 2006 to 2014.
Part of that campaign included a 2012 report commissioned by the Ukrainian government into whether the Yanukovych Administration’s prosecution of political opponent Yulia Tymoshenko met international standards.
“Manafort and Gates also lobbied in connection with the rollout of a report concerning the Tymoshenko trial commissioned by the Government of Ukraine,” the indictment reads. “Manafort and Gates used one of their offshore accounts to funnel $4 million to pay secretly for the report.”
The report – completed by Skadden, Arps, Meagher, & Flom law firm partner Gregory Craig – found that the Yanukovych Administration had followed international norms in its prosecution of Tymoshenko.
Craig, a former White House counsel under President Barack Obama, did not immediately reply to a request for comment.
The Ukrainian government has launched an investigation into former Justice Minister Oleksandr Lavynovych into how Skadden was paid for the investigation.
The indictment also details how Manafort and Gates allegedly developed a “cover story” in August 2016 to conceal their lobbying on behalf of the Yanukovych Administration.
The two had been involved with a Brussels-based NGO called the “European Centre for a Modern Ukraine,” which hired two firms in Washington, D.C. for representation.
In the exchanges, Gates and Manafort apparently coordinated how to distance themselves from the “European Centre” and lobbying efforts for Yanukovych in general, including saying that Davis Manafort’s work “did not include meetings or outreach within the U.S.”
Schadenfreude in Kyiv
News of Manafort’s indictment has already sparked positive reactions in Kyiv.
Bloc Petro Poroshenko Deputy Serhiy Leshchenko tweeted “great news,” in reponse to the development, adding “hope next gonna be Firtash and Akhmetov” in a later tweet.
Phil Griffin, a political consultant who worked with Manafort on the Party of Regions contract from 2005 to 2011, said, “I am sure that Paul and Rick will be vindicated by the ongoing judicial proceedings in the U.S. I’m still very proud of the work we did here in Ukraine.”
Party of Regions adviser, dealmaker
During his time in Ukrainian politics, Manafort was also involved in his own business deals in the country.
One such deal – over an Odessa telecoms company in 2008 – involved Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska investing at least $19 million into a fund jointly managed by Manafort. According to documents from a later court dispute, the money disappeared.
The former Yanukovych adviser also entered into a $10 million annual contract with Deripaska starting in 2006 and ending in 2009 to influence Western media coverage and politicians in a way to “greatly benefit the (Vladimir) Putin government,” the Associated Press reported in March.
And the so-called “black ledger” of Party of Regions accounts released in May 2016 showed at least $12 million in payments next to Manafort’s name, leading to his resignation as Trump’s campaign manager in August 2016.
After 2014, Manafort returned to Kyiv to work with kingmaker Serhiy Lyovochkin, reportedly coining the name “Opposition Block” for the political party.
Mueller was appointed to lead an investigation into Russian influence on the 2016 U.S. presidential election amid additional probes in the U.S. Congress.
Leaked emails from Manafort’s personal account also appear to show him contacting members of Deripaska’s entourage during the presidential campaign.
In one such exchange, in July 2016, Manafort offered Deripaska’s team “private briefings” on the campaign, according to emails obtained by the Washington Post. That email was addressed to Konstantin Kilimnik, a longtime political operative in Ukraine, who sparked controversy during the campaign after reports emerged suggesting that he had had connections with Russian intelligence.
