Why did Ukraine pay Manafort and Gates so much – $75 million in total – and what did they do to earn the money. Where did the money come from, what banks were involved in laundering it, and who were the final recipients of the money?
The superseding indictment today against Manafort and Gates has 32 charges involving tax evasion, money laundering, bank fraud, failure to report, and more. These guys are toast. Manafort is 68 and could easily die in prison. Unless he cooperates.
MANAFORT and GATES acted as unregistered agents of a foreign government and foreign political parties. Specifically, they represented the Government of Ukraine, the President of Ukraine (Victor Yanukovych, who was President from 2010 to 2014), the Party of Regions (a Ukrainian political party led by Yanukovych), and the Opposition Bloc (a successor to the Party of Regions after Yanukovych fled to Russia).
MANAFORT and GATES generated tens of millions of dollars in income as a result of their Ukraine work. From approximately 2006 through the present,MANAFORT and GATES engaged in a scheme to hide income from United States authorities, while enjoying the use of the money. During the first part of the scheme between approximately 2006 and 2015, MANAFORT, with GATES’ assistance, failed to pay taxes on this income by disguising it as alleged “loans” from nominee offshore corporate entities and by making millions of dollars in unreported payments from foreign accounts to bank accounts they controlled and United States vendors. MANAFORT also used the offshore accounts to purchase United States real estate, and MANAFORT and GATES used the undisclosed income to make improvements to and refinance their United States properties.
Manafort was campaign manager for Trump from June to August 2016, while the second part of their scheme was happening. Gates was an aide to Manfort on the Trump campaign.
In the second part of the scheme, between approximately 2015 and at least January 2017, when the Ukraine income dwindled after Yanukovych fled to Russia, MANAFORT, with the assistance of GATES, extracted money from MANAFORT’s United States real estate by, among other things, using those properties as collateral to obtain loans from multiple financial institutions. MANAFORT and GATES fraudulently secured more than twenty million dollars in loans by falsely inflating MANAFORT’s and his company’s income and by failing to disclose existing debt in order to qualify for the loans.
We are into serious felonies here, for tax evasion and money laundering, as well stiff IRS penalties for back taxes. Further, this kind of tax evasion is easy enough to prove because the feds can get the bank records.
MANAFORT and GATES hid the existence and ownership 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
Ukraine:
In 2011, MANAFORT created DMP International, LLC (DMI) to engage in work for foreign clients, in particular political consulting, lobbying, and public relations for the Government of Ukraine, the Party of Regions, and members of the Party of Regions. DMI was a partnership solely owned by MANAFORT and his spouse. GATES worked for both DMP and DMI and served as MANAFORT’s right-hand man.
The Party of Regions was a pro-Russia political party in Ukraine. Beginning in approximately 2006, it retained MANAFORT, through DMP and then DMI, to advance its interests in Ukraine, the United States, and elsewhere, including the election of its slate of candidates. In 2010, its candidate for President, Yanukovych, was elected President of Ukraine. In 2014, Yanukovych fled Ukraine for Russia in the wake of popular protests of widespread governmental corruption.
Tax evasion. The indictment lists all the entities and bank transfers. Manafort also transfered money to purchase real estate and did not pay taxes on it, and used sham loans to avoid paying taxes. Gates tranfered money to accounts he controlled and didn’t pay taxes. Both failed to report foreign accounts containing more than $10,000, as they are legally required to do, and lied about it on tax returns. They also inflated and falsified loan documents so they would get the loans.
They are both road kill now.
MANAFORT And GATES’ Wiring Money From Offshore Accounts Into The United States 14. In order to use the money in the offshore nominee accounts of the MANAFORT–GATES entities without paying taxes on it, MANAFORT and GATES caused millions of dollars in wire transfers from these accounts to be made for goods, services, and real estate. They did not report these transfers as income.
From 2008 to 2014, MANAFORT caused the following wires, totaling over $12,000,000, to be sent to the vendors listed below for personal items. MANAFORT did not pay taxes on this income, which was used to make the purchases.