On August 19, just weeks after the Republican convention, Paul Manafort resigned as campaign chairman of Donald Trump’s campaign. Manafort left under pressure as stories of his corruption, secret funding by the Russians, and anti-NATO activities were growing almost daily.
Fresh details of alleged secret payments allocated for Paul Manafort by the pro-Russian party of Ukraine’s former president have emerged after 12 itemised regime accounting entries, totalling $7.61 million, were obtained by The Times.
But as it turns out, Manafort did not go quietly into that good night. Or at least, he did not go cheaply.
Papers were recorded that same day creating a shell company controlled by Mr. Manafort that soon received $13 million in loans from two businesses with ties to Mr. Trump, including one that partners with a Ukrainian-born billionaire and another led by a Trump economic adviser. They were among $20 million in loans secured by properties belonging to Mr. Manafort and his wife.
Why was Manafort picking up millions from Trump’s associates as he went out the door? That’s not clear. On one front, he seems to have been going through a “personal crisis” related to bad investments. But if that’s true, how did he possibly qualify for $20 million in loans?
The idea that Manafort served on the Trump campaign “for free” has been brought up frequently by Trump, by Manafort, by Spicer, by Conway, by everyone trying to make Manafort’s role in Trump’s campaign seem smaller.
But ending up with $20 million on the day he left the campaign, doesn’t make Manafort’s work seem all that gratis. In fact, it seems like exactly the sort of off-the-books funding that Manafort was infamous for in other jobs.
What was the purpose of Manafort’s loans? Not recorded. That’s certainly not typical of an ordinary loan, either personal or business.
The transactions raise a number of questions, including whether Mr. Manafort’s decision to turn to Trump-connected lenders was related to his role in the campaign, where he had agreed to serve for free.
They also shine a light on the rich real estate portfolio that Mr. Manafort acquired during and after the years he worked in Ukraine. Mr. Manafort, often using shell companies, invested millions of dollars in various properties, including apartments and condos in New York, homes in Florida and Virginia and luxury houses in Los Angeles.
Somehow, political consultant Manafort managed to rack up millions in the same kind of real estate investments that Trump was selling to oligarchs and autocrats as part of a scheme that both bailed out Trump and allowed the oligarchs to launder huge sums of capital. Among Manafort’s “investments” was his apartment in Trump Tower, where he was only a few floors away from Felix Sater and Bayrock, as well as Russian mobsters running a money laundering scheme from another apartment. Trump Tower was a one-stop shop for corruption and money-laundering needs of any size, and Manafort wasn’t just living in the heart of it, he was a player.
Mr. Manafort’s ties to Ukraine and Russia have come under scrutiny as federal officials investigate Russian meddling in the American presidential election. Investigators are known to have examined aspects of his finances, including bank accounts he had in the secretive tax haven of Cyprus; there is no indication his recent loans are part of the inquiry.
Manafort’s mysterious post-Trump “loans” look very like payments that he funneled through Cyprus following his adventures in Ukraine. Payments that were recorded in a ‘black ledger’ showing over $12 million directed his way. Payments for which Manafort maintained a tiny Cyprus “office” to handled routing of payments.
Some of those payments, like his post-Trump loans, were supposedly for other purposes. For example, Manafort was given millions to supposedly buy a television station. But the station wasn’t for sale, he never even made an offer, and the money quietly disappeared.
But somehow, money from “nowhere” ended up in Paul Manafort’s pocket.
The source of the money for the real estate purchases is not clear, and Mr. Manafort never filed lobbying registrations for his work in Ukraine that would have disclosed his compensation. Such registrations are necessary for activities that involve influencing policy and public opinion in the United States, and some of Mr. Manafort’s Ukraine work appeared to fall into that category.
Like Michael Flynn, Paul Manafort is just getting around to registering as a foreign agent. But in Manafort’s case that registration is coming many years too late.