Former Trump campaign executive Paul Manafort and his longtime deputy, Rick Gates, have been indicted on 12 counts including tax fraud, money laundering, failing to register as a lobbyist for a foreign country, and conspiring against the US
The FBI's investigation of Donald Trump's former campaign manager, Paul Manafort, includes a series of suspicious wire transfers in which offshore companies linked to Manafort moved more than $3 million all over the globe between 2012 and 2013.
Much of the money eventually came into the United States.
These transactions drew the attention of federal law enforcement officials in 2012, when they began to examine if Manafort hid money from tax authorities or helped the Ukrainian regime close to Russian President Vladimir Putin launder some of the millions it plundered through corrupt dealings.
Manafort took charge of Trump’s campaign in May 2016, but was forced to resign just three months later, after media scrutiny of his ties to the corrupt former Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych, who was supported by the Kremlin.
BuzzFeed News reported investigators had been scrutinizing at least 13 wire transfers between 2012 and 2013.
The transfers were first flagged by American financial institutions.
Bank officers flagged unusual behavior among five offshore companies that authorities say are associated with Manafort: Global Endeavour Inc., Lucicle Consultants Ltd., and three others.
The countries where these transactions originated — notably Cyprus and the Caribbean nation of St. Vincent and the Grenadines — are notorious for money laundering.
Federal law enforcement officials saw evidence of “layering,” the process by which the origin of money is obscured behind many layers of companies.
Much of the money ended up in the US -- Manifort spent it on American home improvements, a hedge fund, and even a car dealership.
Two law enforcement officials found red flags in his banking records going back as far as 2004, and that the transactions in question totaled many millions of dollars.
At least four of the transfers originated with Manafort’s company Global Endeavour, a political consulting firm based in St. Vincent and the Grenadines.
Global Endeavour was hired by Yanukovych to consult and lobby on his behalf.
Ousted after the 2014 Euromaidan Revolution, Yanukovych lives in exile in Russia and is accused of treason by Ukrainian authorities; the country’s general prosecutor said Yanukovych’s embezzlement of state funds was so egregious it resembled a “mafia structure.”
During the waning months of Yanukovych’s presidency, Global Endeavour sent more than $750,000 out of Ukraine.
In September 2013, Global Endeavour transferred $500,000 that ended up back in Manafort’s control after going to a hedge fund in Florida, Aegis Holdings LLC, that is controlled by Marc Baldinger, a broker who in 2014 was suspended for 18 months for engaging in deals his financial institution didn’t know about.
All of this seems too complicated to be legal business transactions.
I strongly suspect illegal tax evasion ... although another possibility is very clever tax avoidence.
As usual, innocent until proven guilty.
