Ukranian MP Alleges Evidence of Manafort Receiving Illegal Payments

It's safe to say that Paul Manafort is in embroiled in quite a s#storm at this point. The former Trump campaign chief resigned from the campaign days after news broke that his name had been found in a secret ledger of pay-offs discovered in Ukraine as part of an investigation into the corruption of Manafort's former employer, ousted Putin-pal, Viktor Yanukovych.

NYT - Secret Ledger in Ukraine Lists Cash for Donald Trump’s Campaign Chief (Aug 14, 2016)

Handwritten ledgers show $12.7 million in undisclosed cash payments designated for Mr. Manafort from Mr. Yanukovych’s pro-Russian political party from 2007 to 2012, according to Ukraine’s newly formed National Anti-Corruption Bureau. Investigators assert that the disbursements were part of an illegal off-the-books system whose recipients also included election officials.

A month ago, along with the release of hacked texts messages, whose authenticity was confirmd by Manafort, it was reported that an attempt had been made to blackmail Manafort.

Politico - Manafort faced blackmail attempt, hacks suggest (Feb 23, 2016)

A purported cyberhack of the daughter of political consultant Paul Manafort suggests that he was the victim of a blackmail attempt while he was serving as Donald Trump’s presidential campaign chairman last summer.

The undated communications, which are allegedly from the iPhone of Manafort’s daughter, include a text that appears to come from a Ukrainian parliamentarian named Serhiy Leshchenko, seeking to reach her father, in which he claims to have politically damaging information about both Manafort and Trump.

Attached to the text is a note to Paul Manafort referring to “bulletproof” evidence related to Manafort’s financial arrangement with Ukraine’s former president, the pro-Russian strongman Viktor Yanukovych, as well as an alleged 2012 meeting between Trump and a close Yanukovych associate named Serhiy Tulub.

Just when you didn't things could get any more convoluted, the Ukranian PM who Manafort alleges tried to blackmail him (who flatly denies Manfort's claim) now has documents which he claims prove illegal payments made to Manafort.

NYT - Paul Manafort, Former Trump Campaign Chief, Faces New Allegations in Ukraine

On Monday, Mr. Leshchenko released an invoice that he said was recovered from a safe in Mr. Manafort’s former office in Kiev, the Ukrainian capital, that seems to corroborate one of the 22 entries in the ledger from 2009. The invoice billed a shell company in Belize, Neocom Systems Limited, for $750,000 for the sale of 501 computers.

Mr. Leshchenko said the invoice, along with computer disks and debit cards belonging to former employees of Mr. Manafort, was found by a tenant who rented the space last year. A signature appearing to match Mr. Manafort’s as it appears in open sources can be seen on the four-page invoice printed on Davis Manafort letterhead, with an address in Alexandria, Va.

The invoice bills Neocom Systems Limited for the computers. The invoice listed detailed specifications, for example, one as coming equipped with “Intel Core 2 Duo E6300.” The contract specifies, “Payment under the contract is performed by means of bank transfer to the account of the seller.”

This was not the first time Neocom Systems had surfaced in a corruption probe. In a 2012 money laundering and stock fraud case in Kyrgyzstan, the Central Bank listed it as a shell company used for payments by AsiaUniversalBank, a lender seized by Kyrgyzstan’s Central Bank amid money laundering allegations.

Manafort had previously claimed that the ledger was a forgery. He also now claims that he has never seen the documents below and that they do not contain his signature. Images from CNN article.



This is the my third OP about Manafort so far today. I have a couple more to go through today/this weekend hopefully. It's not that I'm trying to spam folks, it's just a situation where the developments are rapidly piling up and it doesn't lend itself to posting in a single thread.

Here are the other two:

Leaked Documents: Manafort Worked To Advance Putin Agenda
Manafort's Daughter's Hacked Texts: "You know he has killed people in Ukraine? Knowingly?"

You couldn't fit this nonsense into one of your other Manafort obsession threads?

Are you going for an even dozen Manfort threads in one day?

a reply to: theantediluvian

Clinton Ally and CIA Director Michael Morrell

"There's no little campfire, there's no little candle, there's no spark. And there's a lot of people looking for it."


www.nbcnews.com...

a reply to: theantediluvian

The signatures dont match. COmpare both of them side by side and look for similarities. nothing. zoome din 200 percent and didnt see anything really similiar.

Thanks for the info.

Of course, this is all circumstantial. I hope for everyone's sake he is found guilty, sir, or you and the media are complicit in the slandering of an innocent man. The presumption of innocence is dead.

originally posted by: yuppa
a reply to: theantediluvian

The signatures dont match. COmpare both of them side by side and look for similarities. nothing. zoome din 200 percent and didnt see anything really similiar.

I agree, those signatures don't not appear to match. I can't say whether either of them are actually his signature either. Then again, given what's alleged, I'm not sure that it matters. Would Paul Manafort really need to sign a bogus contract that was being used as a document to cover up an illegal payment?

Probably not. In other words, if the claim was true this was just window dressing anyway.

originally posted by: theantediluvian

originally posted by: yuppa
a reply to: theantediluvian

The signatures dont match. COmpare both of them side by side and look for similarities. nothing. zoome din 200 percent and didnt see anything really similiar.

Probably not. In other words, if the claim was true this was just window dressing anyway.

So then you're making it into something is not? Like aggrandizing propaganda?

originally posted by: theantediluvian

originally posted by: yuppa
a reply to: theantediluvian

The signatures dont match. COmpare both of them side by side and look for similarities. nothing. zoome din 200 percent and didnt see anything really similiar.

I agree, those signatures don't not appear to match. I can't say whether either of them are actually his signature either. Then again, given what's alleged, I'm not sure that it matters. Would Paul Manafort really need to sign a bogus contract that was being used as a document to cover up an illegal payment?

Probably not. In other words, if the claim was true this was just window dressing anyway.

Ye sonly a idiot uses paperwork to seal a illegal transaction. ^_^

a reply to: theantediluvian

If Manafort is guilty he should be charged and tried. I think that an investigation of The Podesta Group is warranted also just to establish that Tony Podesta's representation and $170,000 payment by a Russian Bank for lobbying was proper. If we're dealing in supposition and innuendo we should also call for an examination of the $24 million in fees to The Podesta Group received from other foreign governments.

I'm sure that having a brother like John Podesta in the Hillary camp would be helpful and possibly justification for so many foreign governments paying him millions in a quid pro quo scenario.

a reply to: Rosinitiate

No, I'm saying that if Mr. Leshchenko's documents are legitimate and it was a cover for an illegal payment as he alleges, then there were no computers purchased and therefore the contract is bogus.

originally posted by: theantediluvian
a reply to: Rosinitiate

No, I'm saying that if Mr. Leshchenko's documents are legitimate and it was a cover for an illegal payment as he alleges, then there were no computers purchased and therefore the contract is bogus.

Well this thread is the first I'm hearing of this topic. The two documents presented here with his signiture don't even look similar let alone being a match.

So you're suggesting the document on the right is a fake contract with a fake signiture that is a cover for a real money transfer that was illegal?

I don't get it. What's the relevance of the documents you uploaded?

Oh, nevermind..... Just saw the link was CNN.

a reply to: WilliamtheResolute

If Manafort is guilty he should be charged and tried. I think that an investigation of The Podesta Group is warranted also just to establish that Tony Podesta's representation and $170,000 payment by a Russian Bank for lobbying was proper. If we're dealing in supposition and innuendo we should also call for an examination of the $24 million in fees to The Podesta Group received from other foreign governments.

You do understand that the crime that is being alleged by the Ukrainian PM would be a crime that was committed in Ukraine?

I do find the idea that investigating a political operative for wrongdoing requires an investigation of an operative from the opposing political party for balance to be well, absurd if I may be frank. That said, if there is evidence of impropriety, then the Podestas should be investigated and if that investigation bears fruit, they should be tried.

It seems to me that there is some mistaken belief (the result of projection, I suggest) that folks like me give a s# about the Podestas, anyone from the Clinton campaign or even Clinton herself. If they all boarded a rocket and blasted off into the Sun, I wouldn't care anymore than I would if any other people did the same and quite possibly less.

This isn't about sour grapes. Anyone who has been following Manafort knows that as his daugher apparently said, he has no moral compass.

I think part of the problem people have is that they don't know who Paul Manafort actually is, what he's done and who he has worked for.

Here's one for you. Since I never got around to doing my Manafort mega-thread (let along part of the Roger Stone threads) and I'm sure this has never been discussed on ATS.

In 1993, Paul Manafort traveled to Kashmir with firm associate K Riva Levinson. (Who, btw, was later Managing Director of BKSH, the firm started by Manafort, Roger Stone and Charles Black.)

They pretended to be a crew from CNN in order to obtain video footage from interviews as part of a psyops campaign funded by a group called the Kashmiri American Council which was actually a fraud and front for the Pakistani ISI.

Or how about that time he admitted to being an influence peddler?

NY Times - BUSH CONSULTANT PEDDLED INFLUENCE AT H.U.D., HE SAYS (June 21, 1989)

WASHINGTON, June 20— A leading strategist for George Bush's 1988 Presidential campaign told Congress today that he and a group of partners in a New Jersey housing project had obtained nearly $31 million in Federal subsidies after a pivotal meeting three years ago between his lobbying firm and a top housing official.

The project, to rehabilitate a large low-income apartment complex in Seabrook, N.J., has been opposed by local officials.

The testimony by the Republican consultant, Paul J. Manafort, offered significant new information about ties between his firm - Black, Manafort, Stone & Kelly - and the Department of Housing and Urban Development during the Reagan Administration. New Details in a Pattern

It also added details to what is emerging as a pattern in which former Reagan aides and other prominent Republicans used their political influence, in return for large consulting fees from developers, to obtain millions of dollars from Federal low-income housing programs.

In earlier press interviews, Mr. Manafort said he did not recall any contacts about the Seabrook project between Black, Manafort and Deborah Gore Dean, who was chief assistant to the Reagan Administration's Housing Secretary, Samuel R. Pierce Jr. But today, in an appearance before the House Government Operations Subcommittee on Employment and Housing, Mr. Manafort acknowledged that a representative of the firm had met with Ms. Dean and that the firm's actions in the project could be described as ''influence peddling.'' 'Waste of Taxpayers' Money'

Asked during his testimony to describe the involvement of Black Manafort in the project, Mr. Manafort replied, ''I would stipulate that for the purposes of today, you could characterize this as influence peddling.'' He also acknowledged that Black, Manafort had lobbied the housing department on behalf of at least three other clients.

That's just the run-of-the-mill stuff.

Earlier this week, the New York Times reported that Ukraine’s newly formed anti-corruption bureau has raised questions about alleged under-the-table cash payments of $12.7 million to Manafort from Ukrainian government clients, dating back to the days when he worked on behalf of President Viktor Yanukovych. The latter took off for Russian in 2014, when the country was on the verge of civil war and he had ordered troops to gun down hundreds of protestors. Yanukovych was one of a number of Manafort’s foreign clients over the years, i.e. Ferdinand Marcos of the Philippines, who had to hastily depart power before they ended up being paraded through the streets hoisted upon pitchforks.

Manafort never registered as a foreign lobbyist — and our story details how he probably evaded doing so, even though he advocated strongly for the strongman’s commitment to democracy, transparency and other heartwarming values. We also looked at how Manafort — who refused comment on our report but disputed the Times’ story — compiled quite an extraordinary real estate portfolio (including a property at Trump Towers — during precisely the time period covered by the Times’ alleged Ukrainian cash payments to him, between 2007 and 2012.

washingtonbabylon.com...


Interesting little piece. Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos. Bad Company.

a reply to: Rosinitiate

So you're suggesting the document on the right is a fake contract with a fake signiture that is a cover for a real money transfer that was illegal?

I'm saying that it's a possibility. I thought I was pretty forthcoming that there is something extraordinary going on in regards to Manafort and Leshchenko. Manafort seems to believe that Leshchenko tried to blackmail him (though he also claims the blackmail material was forged). Leschenko says the blackmail allegations against him are absurd (I tend to agree). This is just the latest development.

Are you familiar with Manafort's history? He was working for a Ukranian billionaire in 2004-5 when was introduced to Viktor Yanukovych. This was following the election that that Ukraine supreme court tossed out for fraud in which Yanukovych's opposition (who became the President of Ukraine) was poisoned by the FSB with dioxin. Manafort went to work for Yanukovych and the Party of Regions. He started by getting members of the party elected to parliamentary seats. Then in a move which defies explanation, he was able to get Yanukovych elected.

Yanukovych then had the former Prime Minister, Yulia Tymoshenko, locked up under trumped up corruption charges. Interestingly, one of her first big actions as PM was to bust up a corrupt multi-billion dollar deal involving two Ukrainian oligarchs, one of whom was Manafort's employer and the other, the man who got Carter Page his position heading up a Merill Lynch office in Moscow. You can read about that in my thread from September: Who Is Carter Page And How Did He Come To Work For Trump's Campaign?

At any rate, Yanukovych was a horrible despot who did things like imprison his political rivals. He stoled billions of dollars and of course, he was Putin's lapdog. When he rejected the EU deal in 2013, that started the protests (or really, restarted the protests) that culminated massive fires in the streets and dozens of protesters in Kiev being shot by snipers — apparently on Yanukovych's orders.

Yanukovych fled. Well, according to Vladimir Putin's own statements, he sent people to rescue Yanukovych and bring him to Russia. Hours after that occured, he was impeached and removed from office. (fyi, Tymoshenko was promptly released)

And still, Manafort stayed on to work for the Party of Regions. As far as I can tell, he continued to do so right up until working for Trump but it's also possible he's still collecting moneys from there. He just went to work for one of Yanukovych's underlings who took over.

The question has always been the extent of the work he did for Yanukovych. That's where some of this starts to come into play as possible evidence of his illegal activities. As I discussed in another thread, he's also been accused by a former Russian oligarch business partner who was banned from entering the US for his suspected mob ties — while in business with Manafort (2008) — of stealing millions of dollars from a fund that was setup for investments in Ukraine.

Now it's my opinion, as it's not spelled out in any statement anywhere, that the fund that Manafort was to manage was actually to exploit cronyism in Ukraine.

That's the sort of thing that is known to have been going on — Manafort was sued in the Cayman Islands in 2014 for fraud in that case.

In the last couple of years there have been all sorts of corruption investigations and no an investigation into Yanukovych for hight treason. It's as part of these that the ledger with Manafort's name was originally found. Manafort says that the ledger that caused him to resign from the Trump campaign is a forgery but he offers no explanation for why this Ukranian PM would want to frame him for corruption in the first place.

a reply to: theantediluvian

I have no love for Manafort of Podesta, they both are scum in my opinion and if they are guilty let them be charged. I hope the American people benefit from any testimony they can offer into the seemingly total corruption of our political system. I don't care who goes down as a result of full disclosure, I just would like to know the truth of the situation once before I die.

the signatures match, just want to point that out. they are in the same style and all the letters are there. that is his signature. before you argue, look at it again closer. theyre not identical but the way theyre both written and how he writes his letters, that all matches. so its more probable that it is his signature than it isnt and thats what really matters in court.