Manafort trial: Former bookkeeper Heather Washkuhn testifies she did not know about off-shore accounts as she details former Trump aide's
Prosecution are laying out their case - Mr Manafort denies all the charges against him
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Your support makes all the difference.Paul Manafort's former bookkeeper has testified that the former Donald Trump campaign chairman kept her in the dark about the foreign bank accounts he was using to allegedly buy millions in luxury items and personal expenses.
Mr Manafort, facing trial on back fraud and tax charges otherwise approved “every penny” of the personal bills she paid for him, said Heather Washkuhn of the accounting firm NKFSB.
Washkuhn's testimony on the third day of the trial appeared to undercut an argument by Manafort's attorneys that he can't be responsible for financial fraud because he left the details of his spending to others, including his longtime associate Rick Gates. Washkuhn said Gates was involved only in Manafort's business dealings, not his personal expenses.
When it came to personal expenses, Mr Manafort - who denies all the charges against him “approved every penny of everything we paid,” Ms Washkuhn told jurors.
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Earlier, prosecutors asked the judge to allow photographs of his lavish lifestyle to be shown to jurors, arguing it is crucial to their case.
Judge TS Ellis has so far stopped the prosecutors from showing photos of Mr Manafort’s luxury purchases to the jury. Mr Ellis has reminded the lawyers and Northern Virginia jurors multiple times that it is not a crime for a person to be rich.
Prosecutors spent the first two days of the trial attempting to portray Mr Manafort as a tax cheat and a liar who hid much of the $60 million he earned from political work in Ukraine by stashing it in undisclosed overseas accounts.
Mr Manafort routed millions of dollars to the United States by putting it in real estate, and spending it on expensive suits, cars and home renovations, according to half a dozen witnesses who testified on Wednesday.
Prosecutors allege that Mr Manafort evaded taxes through this scheme. Five of the 18 counts he faces relate to filing false tax returns. Mr Manafort has pleaded not guilty to all charges.
In a new filing, prosecutors wrote: “Manafort had an expensive lifestyle that required lots of money to maintain is important proof as to why he would commit the bank frauds” after lobbying work in Ukraine declined in 2014.
The trial is the first stemming from Special Counsel Robert Mueller's 14-month investigation of Russia's apparent meddling in the 2016 US presidential election and potential coordination between the Trump campaign and Moscow, though none of the charges against Mr Manafort involve this issue.
Prosecutors are due to question the head of a landscaping firm and one other vendor on Thursday before moving on to call accountants and a “series of tax preparers” to the stand.
After suggesting on Wednesday that their potential star witness, Mr Manafort's former associate Rick Gates, may not take the stand, the prosecution have also clarified they do intend to call him.
“We have every intention of calling him as a witness,” Greg Andres, a member of Mr Mueller's team said in a federal court in Alexandria, Virginia, outside Washington.
Mr Gates pleaded guilty to making false statements after being indicted by Mr Mueller and took a plea deal. Defence lawyers have sought to paint Mr Gates as an untrustworthy business partner who dealt with the funds from Mr Manafort's consulting firm.
Mr Mueller has indicted or secured guilty pleas from 32 people and three companies as part of his investigation. President Trump has repeatedly called Mueller's investigation a witch hunt and on Tuesday, he called on Attorney General Jeff Sessions to end it.
Additional reporting by AP and Reuters
Ms Washkuhn, who prepared ledgers of Manafort’s finances, testified that she was specifically unaware that Mr Manfort controlled firms in Cyprus that loaned him money or gave him payments, including a 2011 $2 million loan from Yiakora Ventures.
She said she would have asked for documentation on that kind of loan but did not recall getting it.
We are now on a lunch breaker, but Ms Washkuhn will return for more testimony soon.
Paul Manafort was a big spender when it came to computers and entertainment — spending millions on audio-video home installations, and $10,000 on a karaoke system for his Hamptons mansion, according to prosecutors.
Prosecutors read details about wire transfers that Mr Manafort sent to pay for the karaoke system in 2010 during a stream of testimony from vendors who sold high-end goods and services to Mr Manafort.
Prosecutors have also read to the jury descriptions of Mr Manafort's personal purchases that Mr Manafort's defense team agreed are true.
Paul Manafort's longtime bookkeeper Heather Washkuhn said in court that Mr Manafort paid himself a salary of $1.99 million in 2012, according to her testimony about his finances from his political consulting firm.
Ms Washkuhn also said Mr Manafort paid his longtime deputy Rick Gates a salary of $240,000 in 2012. Mr Gates made the same salary in 2013 and 2014.
Mr Gates is expected to take the stand for the prosecution in the next few days.
The prosecution have argued that Mr Manafort illegally lied to banks to get loans after consultancy work in Ukraine dried up.
Prosecutor Greg Andres highlighted Manafort's dire financial straits as they turned to the bank fraud portion of their case.
After the income from foreign lobbying in Ukraine dried up, Paul Manafort found himself in serious financial trouble. By early 2016, Mr Manafort was falling behind on bills and maxing out a bank credit line, his longtime bookkeeper Heather Washkuhn told jurors.
Mr Manafort denies all the charges against him.
Prosecutors are now laying out part of their argument over the bank fraud charges faced by Mr Manafort. They showed Mr Manafort's former associate Rick Gates sent financial documents to two banks indicating Mr Manafort's firm made $4.5 million in 2015.
Bookkeeper Heather Washkuhn testified that was “four million more than what was reported on the documents that we created.” Her firm recorded the company making about $400,000 that year.
More on that testimony from the Associated Press:
"Paul Manafort's longtime bookkeeper is testifying that profit and loss statements the former Trump campaign chairman submitted to obtain bank loans contained false information — and, at times, obvious misspellings.
"Heather Washkuhn of accounting firm NKFSB says one of the false statements was inflated by as much as $4 million. She says she could tell the document was falsified because the fonts were off and words were misspelled, including the month of September."
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