Paul Manafort Trial

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Paul Manafort Trial

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If Manafort is found guilty, it will be interesting to see if Trump pardons him.

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Re: Paul Manafort Trial

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Trump Tweet wrote:Paul Manafort worked for Ronald Reagan, Bob Dole and many other highly prominent and respected political leaders. He worked for me for a very short time. Why didn’t government tell me that he was under investigation. These old charges have nothing to do with Collusion - a Hoax!
Just in case Trump forgot, Manafort is not on trial for anything having to do with collusion.


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Re: Paul Manafort Trial

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Re: Paul Manafort Trial

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Manafort fraud trial: His tax returns don't show foreign accounts

August 3, 2018

Friday marks day four of the bank fraud trial for former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort, and the trial is moving through witnesses swiftly. Manafort is charged with four counts of bank fraud and five counts of conspiracy to commit bank fraud, among other things.

On Thursday, the court heard testimony from four witnesses -- two vendors, Manafort's bookkeeper and the managing shareholder from the accounting firm he used to prepare his taxes, CBS News' Clare Hymes reports. Manafort's bookkeeper testified she was not aware of any foreign accounts that Manafort held and used to pay for millions in luxury purchases for himself.

What you need to know about the Paul Manafort trial
Day 1: Defense says Manafort trusted wrong person, Rick Gates
Day 2: Manafort accused of amassing "secret income"
Day 3: Manafort's bookkeeper didn't know about foreign accounts

Prosecutor Greg Andres said it is the government's "intention to call Rick Gates as a witness" at some point in the trial. Gates was Manafort's business associate.

Counsel for the government still feels confident they will be able to rest their case next week. The judge in the case, T.S. Ellis, has said that he doesn't think it will need to go longer than three weeks and would like it to wrap up in two. Manafort's trial is the first to stem from special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into Russian election meddling and any ties to Trump associates.

CPA says Rick Gates adjusted loan so Manafort paid less in taxes

Cindy Laporta, a CPA and one of the five witnesses granted immunity for testimony against Manafort, testified that Manafort associate Rick Gates looked to change the amount of a loan so Manafort would pay less in taxes.

Laporta discussed loans from DMP International, Manafort's company, to groups represented to her firm KWC as clients, that were actually under Manafort's purview. The prosecution on Friday showed emails between Gates and KWC employees from 2015 in which he said he wanted to change the amount of a loan after he was provided a summary of a tax return.

"I will have to change the amount of the loan agreement," Manafort says in one exchange.

A KWC employee agrees it can be changed, and the final amount of the loan is $900,000 -- Laporta says that's the amount selected because it resulted in a tax amount due that Manafort could pay. Classifying income as loans rather than as income, Laporta said, would allow Manafort to pay less in taxes. Laporta was given immunity because she could be charged with perjury.

Manafort's New York properties

This morning the government finished its questioning of Phil Ayliff, and when they return from lunch the defense will begin their cross examination of Manafort's former accountant.

Phil Ayliff, Manafort's former accountant went through four years of his individual and business tax returns, from 2010 to 2014, and he told the court he had repeatedly asked over the years about foreign transactions so that he could determine whether they involved taxable income. Among them was a $1 million dollar payment from a LOAV Advisors. The money came from a Deutsche Bank account through another account at Marfin Bank in Cyprus.

Ayliff testified about two apartments Manafort owned in New York and whether they were considered rentals or residences. Manafort could deduct expenses on a rental property, and any income would be taxable. Ayliff said Manafort's 29 Howard Street apartment was a listed as a personal property in 2014, but a rental in 2015. (According to Corcoran.com, it was listed for rental for $14,200 per month, and it has been rented). Manafort also told Ayliff in an email that a 5th Avenue apartment was a personal residence for him and his wife and had never been a rental property, but Ayliff said he had always understood that the apartment was a rental. Ayliff said that Rick Gates was not involved in any of these discussions.

Cindy Laporte, who took over Manafort's account in 2014 at KWC after Ayliff retired, will be testifying later today. She received immunity in exchange for testimony.

Manafort's tax returns don't show foreign accounts

Paul Manafort's trial continued at 9:30 am with further testimony from Philip Ayliff, the retired former managing principal of CPA firm Kositzka, Wicks and Company who took the stand Wednesday. The prosecution went through Manafort's business and individual tax returns for 2010 through 2014 to show that none of the tax returns reported Manafort's foreign financial accounts. Manafort and his associates did not disclose the accounts even when probed by KWC, as shown in email exchanges between Rick Gates and Ayliff.

https://www.cbsnews.com/live-news/manaf ... e-updates/
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Re: Paul Manafort Trial

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From the financial crimes point of view, it's damn near impossible for Manafort to escape big trouble....having allegedly never filed a FBAR report or the 8938 IRS form for any of his 10-18 large foreign accounts). And his bookkeepers and accountants testifying that they had no knowledge of any of those foreign accounts sure as hell isn't going to help him.
The financial penalties alone for not filing those reports start at something like 100% of same. Maybe we should start a "go fund me" site for the poor bastard.
And maybe I should stop filing the FBAR and 8938 forms and buy me an ostrich jock strap or some such thing....
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Re: Paul Manafort Trial

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Star witness Rick Gates testifies against former boss Paul Manafort

by Paula Reid, CBS

August 6, 2018

ALEXANDRIA, Va. — The government's star witness took the stand Monday in the bank fraud and tax evasion trial of Paul Manafort, the onetime chairman of the Trump presidential campaign. Rick Gates became the first member of the Trump campaign to publicly admit to crimes.

Special counsel Robert Mueller charged Gates and Paul Manafort last year with dozens of counts related to their lobbying efforts on behalf of foreign governments. Gates agreed to flip on his former boss in exchange for leniency.

On Monday, Prosecutors quickly got to the heart of the case.

"Did you commit crimes with Mr. Manafort?" asked prosecutor Greg Andres.

"Yes", Gates replied.

Gates said he conspired with Manafort to falsify tax returns, knowingly failed to report foreign bank accounts and failed to register Manafort as a foreign agent.

In court on Monday, a retired carpenter, a clothier and a high-end landscaper detailed how Manafort paid them in international wire transfers from offshore companies.

Gates testified that he and Manafort had 15 foreign accounts they did not report to the U.S. government, and knew that was illegal.

"Mr. Manafort requested I make wire transfers from the foreign accounts," Gates said. "At Mr. Manafort's request ... we did not disclose the foreign bank accounts."

Gates also admitted he embezzled money from his boss — something Manafort's attorneys have alleged for months.

"I added money to expense reports and created expense reports" that were not accurate, he said, to pad his salary by "several hundred thousand [dollars]."

There was no mention of President Trump or his campaign, but this trial is the first big public test for the special counsel. The White House says Mr. Trump feels his former campaign chair is being treated unfairly.

"Certainly the president has made clear he believes Mr. Manafort has been treated unfairly," White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said Wednesday.

The special counsel's case hinges on Gates and they are asking the jury to believe someone who just admitted to half a dozen crimes on the witness stand.

It's important to note that some of the alleged bank fraud did occur while Manafort was running the Trump campaign.

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/rick-gates ... 018-08-06/
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Re: Paul Manafort Trial

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Re: Paul Manafort Trial

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Re: Paul Manafort Trial

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The case has now gone to the jury. If convicted, apparently Manafort is counting on Trump to pardon him. I'm expecting Manafort to be convicted. I hope Trump is not stupid enough to pardon him.

If Trump does pardon him, the only reason that would make sense to me would be that Manafort has something on Trump that would very likely lead to impeachment if revealed. I don't know why else would Trump pardon him, but then again Trump excels at coming up with bizarre reasons for most of what he does.

We'll see . . .
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Re: Paul Manafort Trial

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GUILTY on 8 out of 18 charges. The jury hung on the other 10 charges. Whether he will be retried on those charges remains to be seen, but the eight convictions alone could put him in prison for as much as 80 years.

It also remains to be seen whether Trump will pardon him, but Cohen's guilty plea and implicating Trump would make it far more difficult for Trump to pardon him. Right now Trump has plenty of troubles of his own and is probably doing whatever he and his cronies can come up with for him to worm out of it. I doubt that pardoning Manafort is foremost on Trump's priority list at the moment.

Then again, you never know what Trump will do.

Mr. President, if you really want to make America great again, here's how to do it. Resign!
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