Financial Records Confirm Manafort’s Off The Books Ukraine Payments: Report
An AP report confirms that Paul Manafort received $1.2 million in payments tied to the handwritten Ukrainian ledger.
Paul Manafort’s firm received at least $1.2 million in payments from clients listed on a handwritten ledger that surfaced in Ukraine according to financial records. The Ukrainian “off-the-books” ledger originally surfaced in August while Manafort was still Donald Trump’s campaign chairman.
The payments were confirmed by the Associated Press Wednesday.
Manafort is currently part of an FBI investigation into collusion between Trump campaign members and Russia during the 2016 election.
The payments indicate that Manafort had pro-Russia operations while he was managing Donald Trump’s presidential campaign and may reveal why Manafort was so willing to work for the Trump campaign for free.
According to the AP report, “at least $1.2 million in payments listed in the ledger next to Manafort’s name were actually received by his consulting firm in the United States. They include payments in 2007 and 2009, providing the first evidence that Manafort’s firm received at least some money listed in the so-called Black Ledger.”
Manafort has repeatedly denied the authenticity of the Ukrainian ledger however the Associated Press report found that two payments that Manafort received are “aligned with the ledger: one for $750,000 that a Ukrainian lawmaker said last month was part of a money-laundering effort that should be investigated by U.S. authorities. The other was $455,249 and also matched a ledger entry.”
The records obtained by the AP add to the already mounting evidence that Manafort had suspicious financial activities around the world. The Associated Press previously reported that U.S. authorities have been reviewing Manafort’s financial transactions related to accounts he set up in the country of Cyprus – an island nation known as a hub for money laundering.
“Federal prosecutors have been looking into Manafort’s work for years as part of an effort to recover Ukrainian assets stolen after the 2014 ouster of Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych, who fled to Russia,” the Associated Press reported.
The full AP report can be read here.
