A search warrant and affidavit unsealed in U.S. federal court sheds new light on how Paul Manafort received millions of dollars for his work in Ukraine as an advisor to ex-President Viktor Yanukovych.
The documents also reveal a new $10 million loan from Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska to a company controlled by Manafort and his wife, issued at the start of the 69-year old politico’s work for Yanukovych’s Party of Regions in 2005-2006.
Manafort is fighting off charges of tax evasion, failing to file as a foreign agent, and money laundering in the investigation of Special Counsel Robert Mueller into Russian meddling in the 2016 U.S. Presidential Election.
Manafort began work in Ukraine in 2002 working for oligarch Rinat Akhmetov’s System Capital Management. From there, he began to consult for the Party of Regions and its head Yanukovych, who fled Ukraine after the 2014 EuroMaidan Revolution.
The documents, which were unsealed with large parts redacted from public viewing, offer new details on how Manafort and his associate Rick Gates were paid for their work.
‘Legitimate activities that were totally legal’
Much of the information in the documents is based on interviews conducted with Manafort and Gates in July 2014, as well as the product of search warrants executed on Manafort’s homes and a storage unit.
But there are also suggestions that an unnamed employee of Manafort is cooperating with the investigation, with prosecutors relying on interviews of a redacted person who is only identified as an employee of a Manafort organization.
Other parts chronicle the tens of millions of dollars paid to Cyprus bank accounts by the Party of Regions for Manafort and Gates’ services.
“Gates admitted he was directed to open accounts in Cyprus by President Yanukovych’s Chief of Staff Boris Kolesnikov,” prosecutors write. “Gates said that various oligarchs would chip in to pay them for their consulting work.”
Manafort withdrew money from the accounts to pay for a $49,000 dollar stay at a “villa in Italy,” for example, as well as $400,000 and $360,000 on two separate clothiers.
But the extravagant purchases and unknown origins of the money raised questions as early as 2014. At that time, First Republic Bank, an American financial institution that Manafort was using, moved to close his accounts.
The court filing cites the bank’s reasoning as “based on its anti-money laundering policies and concerns about incoming international wires.”
Manafort fought back against the loss of his accounts, writing that the money he used to buy, among other things, a $3,745 Bijan Royal Way Black Titanium Watch, came from “legitimate activities that were totally legal.”
All of the extravagant purchases appear to have left Manafort deep in debt. At least some of his work was financed through debt, like the $10 million loan from Deripaska. Manafort had additional business relationships with Deripaska at the time, at one point pursuant to a flubbed agreement to help Deripaska look for investment opportunities in Ukrainian media.
One section of the affidavit suggests that prosecutors may be investigating Manafort’s relationship with Dmytro Firtash, a Ukrainian gas oligarch currently in Vienna awaiting extradition to the U.S.
“Gates admitted that Manafort met with another oligarch, REDACTED, to discuss a New York real estate transaction they would undertake together and to pitch other ideas,” the document reads. “Manafort also admitted approaching REDACTED to propose the New York deal, which according to business records publicly filed in a New York litigation was initiated in 2008.”
A lawsuit by former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko filed in New York accusing her political opponents of racketeering alleges that Manafort met with Firtash in 2008 to scout New York real estate opportunities, specifically a plan to renovate the city’s Drake Hotel for $850 million.
