Paul Manafort charges: Read his indictment in full
The charges include 12 counts of conspiracy and not reporting foreign bank and financial accounts
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Your support makes all the difference.President Donald Trump's former campaign manager Paul Manafort has turned himself to the FBI in the investigation conducted by Special Prosecutor Robert Mueller into possible collusion between campaign team members and Russian officials.
He is awaiting the arraignment hearing during which each of the charges will be explained and the associated maximum penalties.
The indictment also names Rick Gates, a longtime former business partner of Mr Manafort, for the same charges.
It includes 12 charges: conspiracy against the US, conspiracy to launder money, being an unregistered foreign agent - namely for Ukraine, lying on foreign agent registration forms, and seven counts of failure to file reports of foreign bank and financial accounts as well as not paying taxes on that money.
Here are some of the charges brought by the Department of Justice.
1. Defendants Paul J. Manafort, Jr. (MANAFORT) and Richard W. Gates III (GATES) served for years as political consultants and lobbyists. Between at least 2006 and 2015, MANAFORT and GATES acted as unregistered agents of the Government of Ukraine, the Party of Regions (a Ukrainian political party whose leader Victor Yanukovych was President from 2010 to 2014), Yanukovych, and the Opposition Bloc (a successor to the Party of Regions that formed in 2014 when Yanukovych fled to Russia). MANAFORT and GATES generated tens of millions of dollars in income as a result of their Ukraine work. In order to hide Ukraine payments from United States authorities, from approximately 2006 through at least 2016, MANAFORT and GATES laundered the money through scores of United States and foreign corporations, partnerships and bank accounts.
2. In furtherance of the scheme, MANAFORT and GATES funneled millions of dollars in payments into foreign nominee companies and bank accounts, opened by them and their accomplices in nominee names and in various foreign countries, including Cyprus, Saint Vincent & the Grenadines (Grenadines), and the Seychelles. MANAFORT and GATES hid the existence of the foreign companies and bank accounts, falsely and repeatedly reporting to their tax preparers and to the United States that they had no foreign bank accounts.
3. In furtherance of the scheme, MANAFORT and GATES concealed from the United States their work as agents of, and millions of dollars in payments from, Ukraine and its political parties and leaders. Because MANAFORT and GATES, among other things, directed a campaign to lobby United States officials on behalf of the government of Ukraine, the President of Ukraine, and Ukrainian political parties, they were required by law to report to the United States their work and fees. MANAFORT and GATES did not do so. Instead when the Department of Justice sent inquiries to MANAFORT and GATES in 2016 about their activities, MANAFORT and GATES responded with a series of false and misleading statements.
4. In furtherance of the scheme, MANAFORT uses his hidden overseas wealth to enjoy a lavish lifestyle in the United States, without paying taxes on that income. MANAFORT, without reporting the income to his tax preparer or the United States, spent millions of dollars on luxury goods and services for himself and his extended family through payments wired from offshore nominee accounts to United States vendors. MANAFORT also used these offshore accounts purchase multi-million dollar properties in the United States. MANAFORT then borrowed millions of dollars in loans ising these properties as collateral, thereby obtaining cash in the United States without reporting and paying taxes on the income. In order to increase the amount of money he could access in the United States, MANAFORT defrauded the institutions that loaned money...
Read the full text here.
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