The former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort is facing a lawsuit accusing him of failing to report financial interests held in foreign countries.
The Justice Department has filed the lawsuit – which could result in penalties of nearly $3 million – on Thursday in federal court in West Palm Beach, Fla., arguing that Manafort has willfully failed to timely report more than 20 offshore accounts between 2006 and 2014.
Manafort, as the prosecutors allege, failed to file the necessary reports of foreign bank and financial accounts in 2013 and 2014, and DMP International, his firm at the time, had deposited income into accounts in the United Kingdom, Cyprus, as well as in St. Vincent and the Grenadines.
The civil suit shows the penalties against the longtime lobbyist and political consultant were assessed by the Treasury Department in July 2020, exactly five months before then-President Donald Trump pardoned his former adviser.
Trump pardoned Manafort after he was sentenced to more than seven years in prison in 2018 over criminal tax and bank fraud charges, conspiracy, and obstruction of justice convictions.
The DOJ suit obviously signals that Trump’s pardon does not cover the other eight counts the jury failed to reach a unanimous verdict on as well as the 2013 and 2014 charges.
It was the special counsel Robert Mueller that pursued Manafort’s case after he was targeted by intense and bitter criticism from Trump over his probe of alleged Russian influence on Trump’s 2016 campaign.
The DOJ refused to comment on the lawsuit while Manafort’s attorney Jeffrey Neiman expressed disappointment in the Justice Department’s decision to file a civil lawsuit seeking a money judgment against his client for simply failing to file a tax form, accusing the government of trying to embarrass Manafort.
Be the first to comment