Advisor trump is suspected of a million profit from the "black" cash Yanukovych

Фото: Depositphotos

Paul Manafort, now the head of Donald Trump's campaign headquarters, was a consultant to the Party of Regions in Ukraine for many years, The New York Times recalls. Now, Ukrainian investigators poring over classified documents have stumbled upon Manafort's name and the names of the companies through which he sought to make deals, journalists Andrew E. Cramer, Mike McIntyre and Barry Meyer report. This happened as investigators tried to unravel a corrupt network that, according to them, was used to plunder Ukrainian property and influence the course of elections under the power of President Yanukovych - that is, Manafort's main client.

According to the recently created National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NAB), the ledgers with handwritten records indicate that from 2007 to 2012, the year for Manafort was intended for undeclared cash payments totaling $ 12,7 million, received from the pro-Russian Yanukovych party. Investigators claim that these payments were part of the illegal system of operations not covered by accounting, and among the recipients were officials of election administration.

In addition, the criminal prosecution service is checking a group of offshore gasket firms that helped people from Yanukovych’s inner circle finance their luxurious lifestyle, including the president’s lush residence with a private zoo, a golf course and a tennis court. Among the hundreds of non-transparent transactions these companies were involved in was a $ 18 million sale of assets in Ukrainian cable television to a partnership created by Manafort and Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska, one of Putin’s closest allies.

Ukrainian anti-corruption officials say payments intended for Manafort are one of the main points of their investigation, but it has not yet been established whether he actually received the money. As for the offshore case in Ukraine, Manafort is not involved in it, but investigators say he must have been aware of the consequences of his financial activities.

For his part, Manafort's lawyer Richard E. Highbie said Manafort did not receive "any such cash payments."

For its part, the newspaper notes: “The turn of events in Ukraine underscores the risky nature of the international consulting business that has been an integral part of Manafort’s business since the 80s, when he began working for Philippine dictator Ferdinand Marcos.”

Manafort and runaway Yanukovych

Among Manafort's recent clients, the most famous is Yanukovych.

“He and his Party of Regions relied heavily on advice from Manafort and his firm, which helped them win several elections,” the newspaper writes.

Victor Yanukovich. Photo: president.gov.ua

The authors emphasize that at that time Manafort never registered as a foreign agent with the US Department of Justice. True, he was not obliged to do this if he was only advising the Party of Regions in Ukraine. “But he also tried to clear his client’s image in the West and helped the Yanukovych administration draft a report justifying the prosecution of Yulia Tymoshenko,” the publication reports.

Be that as it may, it remained a mystery what kind of remuneration Manafort received. This is slightly clarified by the documents nicknamed the “black ledger” in Ukraine.

It's about 400 pages, handwritten and torn from ledgers that were once kept at the Party of Regions headquarters in Kyiv, the authors say.

According to one of the former party leaders, Taras Chornovil, there were two safes in the same room, filled with 100-dollar bills.

The NAB statement said:

“Paul Manafort is among the names on the list of so-called “black accounts” of the Party of Regions, which is being studied by detectives of the National Security Bureau of Ukraine. We emphasize that the presence of P. Manafort's name on the list does not mean that he actually received the money, since the signatures in the “recipients” column may belong to other people.”

After the overthrow of the government of Yanukovich, Manafort continued to work in Ukraine, helping the allies of the ousted president and other individuals to form a political bloc that opposed the new pro-Western administration.

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