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Star U.S. witness Gates testifies he committed crimes with Manafort

By Nathan Layne, Sarah N. Lynch and Karen Freifeld

 

FILE PHOTO: Former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort arrives for arraignment on a third superseding indictment against him by Special Counsel Robert Mueller on charges of witness tampering, at U.S. District Court in Washington, DC, U.S., June 15, 2018. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst/File Photo

 

ALEXANDRIA, Va. (Reuters) - Rick Gates, a longtime business associate of U.S. President Donald Trump's former campaign chairman Paul Manafort, on Monday testified at trial that he helped Manafort file false tax returns and hide his foreign bank accounts.

 

Gates is expected to be the government's star witness in its case against Manafort. Gates, who also served on Trump's campaign, pleaded guilty in February and agreed to cooperate with prosecutors under a deal that could lead to a reduced sentence.

 

Taking the stand on the trial's fifth day, Gates admitted to helping Manafort doctor financial statements, hide sources of foreign income, mislead banks to get loans and cheat on his U.S. taxes. He said he did so at Manafort's direction.

 

"At Mr. Manafort's request we did not disclose foreign bank accounts," Gates told the jury in federal court in Alexandria, Virginia, describing their relationship of two decades as limited to business. "Outside of business we did not socialize."

 

Manafort's attorneys have signalled they will seek to blame Gates and have accused him of embezzling millions of dollars from Manafort. Gates has been described by witnesses as Manafort's right-hand man who helped run the operations of a multimillion-dollar political consulting business.

 

In addition to assisting in Manafort's alleged crimes, Gates told the jury he had failed to report his own income routed through bank accounts in the United Kingdom and stole several hundreds of thousands of dollars from Manafort by filing false and inflated expense reports related to their work in Ukraine.

 

Manafort has pleaded not guilty to 18 counts of bank and tax fraud and failing to disclose foreign bank accounts. The charges largely predate his five months on the Trump campaign but were the first to go to trial arising from Special Counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. election.

 

The jury has heard how Manafort made tens of millions of dollars for work with pro-Russian politicians in Ukraine. Mueller is also investigating possible coordination between Trump campaign members and Russian officials in the election campaign, but the charges against Manafort do not address that.

 

Prosecutors on Monday went through a list of overseas corporations and Gates testified that all of them were controlled by Manafort and contained income earned by his political consulting work.

 

Gates said an associate, Konstantin Kilimnik, had control over the overseas accounts. Kilimnik is a Russian-Ukrainian political consultant who was indicted in June on charges stemming from the Mueller probe. In court filings Mueller has accused Kilimnik of having current ties to Russian intelligence services - an allegation he has denied.

 

Gates testified that Manafort directed him to report overseas income as loans in order to lower taxable income - an allegation prosecutors have been eliciting testimony about from witnesses since last week.

 

The jury had heard testimony on Friday and Monday from accountant Cynthia Laporta, who described how Manafort and Gates doctored financial statements and backdated loans.

 

In questioning Laporta on Monday, a prosecutor asked the accountant about a $10 million (£7.72 million) loan purportedly received by Manafort from Russian businessman Oleg Deripaska in 2006. Laporta, looking at a summary of loans to Manafort and his businesses, said she could not see any indication that the loan from Deripaska had been paid off.

 

Since the trial started before U.S. District Judge T.S. Ellis last Tuesday, Manafort's lawyers have kept their cross-examinations brief and at times refrained from attempting to rebut damaging testimony in detail.

 

But Laporta's testimony raised the stakes for Manafort. Testifying under immunity, she was the first witness to admit she knew accounting manoeuvres Manafort and Gates requested of her were wrong and could be crimes. One accounting trick saved Manafort $500,000 in taxes, she said.

 

In cross examining on Monday, attorney Kevin Downing tried to illustrate that Laporta's accounting firm had been aware of overseas wire transfers being booked as loans for years and highlighted a record showing Manafort had paid $8.4 million in federal income taxes between 2005 and 2015.

 

Downing also attempted to show that Gates was the point person in dealing with the accountants. But while Laporta acknowledged that she regularly communicated with Gates she said she believed Manafort was in the know.

 

"In most instances it was clear Mr. Manafort knew what was going on," Laporta said.

 

(Reporting by Nathan Layne, Sarah N. Lynch and Karen Freifeld in Alexandria, Virginia, Warren Strobel; Editing by Grant McCool and Lisa Shumaker)

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2018-08-07

[Thailand]

How many of the the "really good people" will be rolling over on Trump and kin in the coming months?

[Old Croc]

When thieves fall out, rollovers happen.

[attrayant]

Stay tuned for Giuliani to appear on Hannity and say that he can't find anything in the federal criminal code called "doctoring financial statements", so therefore it's not a crime.

[Chomper Higgot]

40 minutes ago, attrayant said:

Stay tuned for Giuliani to appear on Hannity and say that he can't find anything in the federal criminal code called "doctoring financial statements", so therefore it's not a crime.

Followed shortly by the Illiberals supporting Trump turning up on TVF parroting the defensive line they just got from FOX.

[ballpoint]

"I have the best people".

 

[Tug]

Nice crowd you run with trump

[Thakkar]

The criminal Rick Gates was ripping off the other criminal money launderer and tax evader, Manafort who was working “for free” for the conman puppet of the Russian criminal Putin. Got it.

 

All “the best people.”

[mtls2005]

Time to trot out the "coffee boy" "excuse"?

 

Gates knows where the Russians buried the bodies, so Manafort's defense is the shorter-term concern.

 

Vlad probably wants to deliver a double-novichok latte to Gates.

 

But an "accidental" death might look suspicious so the only tactic is to fully discredit him?

 

A jury believed Sammy "the Bull" Gravano, a confessed murderer, in the John "Teflon Don" Gotti case, so it may challenging for the defense in this, the first of at least two trials Manfort faces?

 

 

 

HOW SCARED SHOULD TRUMP BE OF MUELLER? ASK JOHN GOTTI OR SAMMY “THE BULL”

 

If history is any guide, Mueller will put up with 19 murders to get his mark.

 

https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2017/12/how-scared-should-trump-be-of-mueller-ask-john-gotti-or-sammy-the-bull

 

 

 

 

For Gotti Prosecutors, Hard Work And Breaks Pay Off in Conviction

 

https://www.nytimes.com/1992/04/03/nyregion/for-gotti-prosecutors-hard-work-and-breaks-pay-off-in-conviction.html

 

 

We can handle the "truth".

 

 

 

[mtls2005]

40 minutes ago, Thakkar said:

All “the best people.”

 

 

There should be trading cards?

 

And of course, mob-like, nicknames to keep track, and add some flavor.

 

In the vein of 'opposites,' my vote for tRUmp's mob nickname would be "tiny" (coz he's so fat, but his hands and brain are, well, tiny). Although Benedict Donald has such a nice ring.

 

Eric would be "fredo", and Don Jr. would be "tollbooth", Manafort would be Paully Man.

[Thakkar]

1 hour ago, mtls2005 said:

 

 

There should be trading cards?

 

And of course, mob-like, nicknames to keep track, and add some flavor.

 

In the vein of 'opposites,' my vote for tRUmp's mob nickname would be "tiny" (coz he's so fat, but his hands and brain are, well, tiny). Although Benedict Donald has such a nice ring.

 

Eric would be "fredo", and Don Jr. would be "tollbooth", Manafort would be Paully Man.

 

That whole duplicitous clown car is what you get when you cross Austin Powers with the Keystone cops

[mtls2005]

1 hour ago, Thakkar said:

That whole duplicitous clown car is what you get when you cross Austin Powers with the Keystone cops

 

I know that Biff Tannen (from Back to the Future) is based on Donald Trump but whenever I see tRUmp I think of "Fat Ba$tard"?

 

 

[roobaa01]

the main crime manafort committed he was the presidents campaign manager and helped mr. trump win the election with 63 million yes. that given the democrats still bemoaning and not accepting their loss trying in vain to have the president impeached.

 

wbr

roobaa01

[Ramen087]

This loser's story will fall apart upon cross examination. 

[Briggsy]

1 minute ago, Ramen087 said:

This loser's story will fall apart upon cross examination. 

Why is Gates bad and Manafort good again?

 

Oh yeah, I forgot that's the party line. (The United Russia Party)

[Ramen087]

6 minutes ago, Briggsy said:

Why is Gates bad and Manafort good again?

Oh yeah, I forgot that's the party line. (The United Russia Party)

No. It's all about objectivity. 

[mtls2005]

15 minutes ago, Ramen087 said:

This loser's story will fall apart upon cross examination. 

 

AFAIK, the defense has no plans to have Mr. Manafort testify.

 

 

[mtls2005]

3 hours ago, roobaa01 said:

the main crime manafort committed he was the presidents campaign manager and helped mr. trump win the election with 63 million yes.

 

Kelly Anne Conway might disagree with your "opinion"?

 

Mr. Manafort had to leave the campaign ~ 3 months before the election when news about his "Ukranian Shenanigans" surfaced.

[Bluespunk]

O, what a tangled web we weave

when first we practise to deceive!

 

Walter Scott