Until recently, Manafort had receded into the background as the uproar over Trump’s firing of his national security adviser, Michael Flynn, and then the FBI director, James Comey, began to shake the White House.
But the Manafort story–a tale of pro-Russia players, political tradecraft and cunning financial maneuvers–has never gone away. The reason, in a word, is money. Manafort, who less than a year ago was playing a central role in the Trump campaign, made millions of dollars over a decade promoting Kremlin-friendly interests in Ukraine and beyond. No other Trump associate has profited as handsomely from ties to Russia-linked businessmen and politicians.
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Ukrainian prosecutors are investigating what they call a “criminal organization” set up by Yanukovych via bribes and theft of state assets before he fled to Moscow after the killing of more than 100 protesters in 2014, and they are looking at what role Manafort may have played in the suspected scheme. They’ve repeatedly asked the FBI for help to question Manafort as part of their inquiry into a New York law firm in connection to a report that largely defended the Tymoshenko prosecution.
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In the five-year period from 2007 to 2012, Manafort was paid at least $12.7 million, according to a handwritten Party of Regions ledger found later in its head office. Ukraine’s anti-corruption bureau and the FBI are investigating whether the ledger reflected any illegal payments to Manafort and to others. Manafort’s spokesman says that after being paid he had many expenses and so the payment figure does not represent profit. One payment to Manafort on the ledger matches an invoice he signed in 2009 to sell $750,000 of computers to a Belize-registered company called Neocom Systems Ltd., according to documents obtained by Leshchenko from Manafort’s Kiev office.
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Even after Russia annexed Crimea in 2014 and Yanukovych fled to Russia, Manafort returned to Ukraine 17 times, earning at least $1 million to help reelect pro-Russia politicians, according to a party official who worked with him. Manafort’s spokesman declined to comment on that payment.
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While working in Ukraine, Manafort earned millions from a side private equity fund with Deripaska, according to a lawsuit by Deripaska, who is suing Manafort in the Cayman Islands over the soured business partnership. Deripaska declined to comment.
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“He was going for visceral issues and an emotional reaction,” says Kateryna Yushchenko, the American-born wife of former President Viktor Yushchenko and a onetime State Department and White House official. “When I confronted his people about it, they said, ‘That’s politics.’ I said this isn’t like gun rights or abortion. Here it could lead to war.”
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Within months of his victory, Yanukovych ordered criminal investigations into Tymoshenko, culminating in a sentence of seven years in jail. Condemned around the world, her prosecution would become a flashpoint in negotiations between Ukraine and the European Union on an association agreement.
Manafort was closely involved in recruiting the firm of Skadden Arps Slate Meagher & Flom LLC on behalf of the Ukrainian Justice Ministry to write a lengthy report on Tymoshenko’s prosecution. He met with Justice Minister Oleksandr Lavrynovych to go over the contract with Skadden and emailed with Skadden partner Greg Craig, according to documents uncovered by Ukrainian prosecutors. The ministry agreed to pay Skadden a mere $12,000, just below the threshold requiring it to go to a public tender. But much more money was to come to Skadden.
Prosecutors believe Manafort drew up a six-page media strategy plan with FTI Consulting on how to use the Skadden report, based on documents they have examined. The report, released at the end of 2012, criticized some aspects of the case but concluded that the evidence supported her conviction and that her due process rights hadn’t been violated. After the document’s release, Skadden signed a new contract with the ministry in 2013 that envisaged “additional work” and paid the firm $1 million, the prosecutors say, noting that no additional work was done. FTI declined to comment.