A prominent law firm related to former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort’s work for pro-Russian politicians in Ukraine has settled to pay $4.6 million and retroactively register as a foreign agent, the Justice Department announced Thursday, Fox News informed.
The agreement with the firm of Skadden, Arps, Slate Meagher & Flom LLP completes one part of an investigation that spawned from special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia probe that investigates Manafort’s years of work in the Eastern European nation.
According to prosecutors Skadden was employed in 2012 to do work for the government of Ukraine’s then-President Viktor Yanukovych, which Manafort was advising. Skadden is also responsible for drafting a report used to justify what many critics charged was the political prosecution and jailing of Yulia Tymoshenko, the main opponent of Yanukovych.
The fees of law firm were paid from a bank account in Cyprus that Manafort controlled. The $4.6 million fine matches the proceeds Skadden received for the work.
Greg Craig, a former attorney for Bill Clinton and White House Counsel for Barack Obama, oversaw the preparation of the report and has since left the company. Thursday’s announcement comes months after Mueller referred a probe into Craig to federal prosecutors in Manhattan.
The settlement states that the law firm did not register with the Justice Department according to the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) because a partner made “false and misleading statements” to the government that allowed the firm to avoid registration.
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