By Steve Neavling
Ticklethewire.com
Special counsel prosecutors on Friday shifted from Paul Manafort’s “extravagant lifestyle” to how he allegedly evaded taxes and falsified his bookkeeping to obtain loans used to finance his expensive tastes for clothes and real estate.
Manafort, who served as Trump’s campaign chairman during the election, is accused of hiding millions of dollars in secret, off-short bank accounts from profits he made working with a Russia-friendly Ukrainian political party, the Washington Post reports.
Manafort is charged with 18 counts of tax fraud, banking crimes and conspiracy.
Friday was the fourth day of the criminal trial in Alexandria, Va.
In testimony early Friday, prosecutors sought to show how Manafort lied about the existence of off-shore accounts.
Tax preparer Philip Ayliff testified that Manafort claimed numerous times that he had no foreign bank accounts.
In an email from Ayliff to Manafort, the tax preparer asked Manafort if he had any interested in a foreign bank account, and Manafort responded that he didn’t.
“They never told us about any income that was deposited in foreign accounts,” he said.
If convicted, the 69-year-old Manafort could spend the rest of his life in prison.
