Paul Manafort, the one who wants to make Trump appear “presidential” was questioned by Cayman Island liquidators about $26.2 million that “disappeared” from an account in which Oleg Deripaska invested. Deripasta is a Russian oligarch who was barred from entering the U.S. because he allegedly had ties to organized crime. The money, supposedly for a deal involving a big Ukrainian telecommunications firm, was invested in the Davis Manafort International company. Davis was McCain’s campaign manager in 2008.
Originally, the lawyers for the Cayman Island liquidators said they couldn’t find Manafort: “It appears that Paul Manafort and Rick Gates have simply disappeared,” Deripaska’s lawyers wrote in a petition to the Cayman Islands court filed in Dec. 4, 2014. “Deripaska’s lawyers had alleged that Manafort and another of his business partners, Rick Gates (who also recently went to work for the Trump campaign), had failed to respond to repeated requests for audit reports or any other information about the Ukrainian investment funds put out by Deripaska.”
Now, Manafort’s lawyer said he was deposed by the Cayman Island liquidators in Virginia a few months ago, but the matter is still pending in the Cayman Islands, so of course the lawyer wouldn’t say anything more.
Manafort had been the political consultant to Victor Yanukovych, the corrupt former president of the Ukraine. During that period and since, he’s had dealings with a number of Russian and Ukrainian oligarchs, many involving accounts in the Cayman Islands, Panama, Cyprus, and other tax-sheltering locations. In fact, the former Ukranian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko, Yanukovych’s rival, sued Manafort in a NY court. The suit alleged that Manafort’s business deals were part of a “racketeering” scheme to launder hundreds of millions of dollars through a “labyrinth” of companies owned by a Ukrainian pro-Putin oligarch named Dimitri Firtash. (The suit was tossed out because of lack of jurisdiction.)
Apparently, this is just the tip of the iceberg concerning Manafort’s dealings with shady Russian oligarchs.
See: Trump’s campaign chief is questioned about ties to Russian billionaire
So much for Drumph’s prowess as a business man. Wouldn’t the first order of any business be to vet new employees?
I think that this story will have more developments soon, and will try to keep an eye on this one.