Manafort and the Party of Regions. Paul Manafort's Basic Element
Paul Manafort was an adviser during the presidential campaigns of Republicans Gerald Ford, Ronald Reagan, George W. Bush and Bob Dole. In 1980, he co-founded the Washington-based lobbying firm Black, Manafort & Stone. He is best known for his work for former Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych and current US President Donald Trump. The trial of Paul Manafort has been one of the hottest topics in the US media in recent months.
Young years
The hero of this article was born on April 1, 1949. The biography of Paul Manafort began in the city of New Britain, Connecticut. The parents of the future lobbyist are Antoinette Mary Manafort (née Chifalu, 1921-2003) and Paul John Manafort (1923-2013). His grandfather immigrated to the United States from Italy in the early 20th century, settling in Connecticut. He founded the New Writing Company in New Britain in 1919 (later renamed Manafort Brothers Inc.) His father served in the US Army during World War II and was mayor of New Britain from 1965-1971. His father was charged in a corruption scandal in 1981 but was never convicted. Unfortunately, even the venerable journalists of American opposition TV channels cannot find a childhood photo of Paul Manafort.
In 1967, Manafort graduated from St. Thomas Aquinas High School, a private Catholic high school in his hometown. After high school, he enrolled in where he received the title of Master of Business Administration in 1971. Paul Manafort's personal life is not particularly advertised - for sure it is only known that he is married.
Political strategist career
In 1976, Manafort was the Eight-State Delegate Coordinator for President Ford's Committee. The Ford campaign itself was directed by James A. Baker III. Between 1978 and 1980, Manafort was President Ronald Reagan's southern campaign coordinator and deputy political director of the Republican National Committee. After the election of Reagan in November 1980, he was appointed Deputy Director of the Presidential Staff for Personnel at the White House. In 1981, he was appointed to the board of directors of a private investment corporation overseas.
Manafort was an adviser to the presidential campaigns of George W. Bush in 1988 and Bob Dole in 1996.
Lobbyist career
In 1980, Manafort co-founded the Washington-based lobbying firm Black, Manafort & Stone. After Peter Kelly joined the firm, the name was changed to Black, Manafort, Stone and Kelly (BMSK).
Manafort left BMSK in 1996 to join Richard H. Davis and Matthew C. Friedman in building a shared lobbying firm.
Working with Jonash Savimbi
In 1985, the firm BMSK signed a $600,000 contract with the leader of the Angolan rebel group UNITA, Jonas Savimbi, to restore Savimbi's image in Washington and provide financial support based on his anti-communist stance. BISC arranged for Savimbi to attend the American Enterprise Institute events (where Jean Kirkpatrick gave him a eulogy), The Heritage Foundation and Freedom House. After such a successful campaign, Congress approved hundreds of millions of dollars in covert American aid to Savimbi's faction. According to some journalists, Manafort's continued lobbying efforts helped keep the money flowing into Savimbi's pocket even years after the Soviet Union ended its involvement in the Angolan conflict.
Working with other dictators
Between June 1984 and June 1986, Manafort was a registered Saudi Arabian lobbyist with FARA. Manafort stepped down as director of OPIC in May 1986. A Department of Justice investigation identified 18 lobbying-related activities that were not reported in FARA documents, including lobbying on behalf of the Bahamas and St. Lucia.
Manafort's company BMSK was taking in $950,000 annually to lobby for then-Filipino President Ferdinand Marcos. He also participated in lobbying for Zairian dictator Mobutu Sese Seko, securing a $1 million annual contract in 1989 and attempting to hire Somali autocrat Siad Barre as a client. His firm also lobbied for the governments of the Dominican Republic, Equatorial Guinea, Kenya (earning $660,000 to $750,000 each year between 1991 and 1993) and Nigeria ($1 million in 1991). These activities led to the fact that Paul Manafort's firm was included in the top five lobbying firms that receive money from regimes that systematically violate human rights.
The New York Times reported that Manafort accepted a payment from the Kurdistan Regional Government to facilitate Western recognition of the 2017 Kurdistan independence referendum from Iraq.
Ukrainian adventure Paul Manafort
Manafort's involvement in Ukrainian politics can be traced back to 2003, when Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska hired Bob Dole, a former presidential candidate on Manafort's track record, for his personal lobbying interests. Then, in early 2004, Deripaska met with Manafort's partner Rick Davis, also an adviser to Bob Dole, after which there was a long discussion about hiring Manafort and Davis to bring former Georgian Minister of State Security Igor Giorgadze back into Georgian politics. However, by December 2004, Deripaska put his plans in Georgia on hold and sent Manafort to meet with Rinat Akhmetov in Ukraine to help Akhmetov and his holding company, System Capital Management, weather the political crisis caused by the Orange Revolution. Akhmetov eventually flees to Monaco after being accused of murder. Meanwhile, the Orange Revolution pushed Deripaska to hire Davis and Manafort, this time for Viktor Yanukovych and the Party of Regions. Photos of Paul Manafort of that period are circulating on the Web with might and main.
Working for Viktor Yanukovych
Manafort also served as an adviser to Viktor Yanukovych's presidential campaign from December 2004 until the February 2010 presidential election, even when the US government (and US Senator John McCain) openly opposed Yanukovych due to his ties to Russian leader Vladimir Putin. Manafort was hired to advise Yanukovych months after massive street demonstrations, known as the Orange Revolution, overturned Yanukovych's 2004 presidential run. Boris Kolesnikov, Yanukovych's campaign manager, said the party hired Manafort after uncovering organizational and other problems in the 2004 election that had been overlooked by previous "Soviet" consultants. Manafort slammed US Ambassador William Taylor when he complained that the cunning lobbyist was undermining US interests in Ukraine.
According to the Justice Department's 2008 annual report, Manafort's company received $63,750 from the Party of Regions and Yanukovych for the six-month period ending March 31, 2008, for numerous consulting services. In 2010, under the leadership of Manafort, the leader of the opposition successfully denounced the Orange Revolution with a brilliant campaign against the "orange" leadership. Participation in the presidential elections gave Yanukovych a victory over Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko, one of the leaders of the 2004 demonstrations. Yanukovych owed his victory in the Ukrainian presidential election to a drastic rethinking of his political persona, and people in his party say the new persona was partly designed by his US consultant Manafort.
In 2007 and 2008, Manafort participated in joint investment projects with Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska (acquisition of a Ukrainian telecommunications company) and Ukrainian oligarch Dmitry Firtash (remodeling of the former Drake Hotel in New York). The Associated Press reported that Manafort's firm had awarded Deripaska a $10 million contract to advance Russian political, business and media interests in Europe and the US beginning in 2005. A witness in Manafort's 2018 trial for fraud and tax evasion testified that Deripaska made a $10 million loan to Manafort's firm in 2010, which it never repaid.
At Paul Manafort's trial, federal prosecutors alleged that more than $60 million was paid to him from Ukrainian sponsors between 2010 and 2014. Among the sponsors was Rinat Akhmetov, considered the richest man in Ukraine.
In 2013, Yanukovych became the main target of the Euromaidan protests. After the revolution in 2014, Yanukovych fled to Russia. On March 17, 2014, the day after the referendum on the status of Crimea, Yanukovych became one of the first eleven people to be placed under executive sanctions. A procedure was carried out to freeze his assets in the United States, and a ban was imposed on Yanukovych's entry into the United States.
Manafort returned to Ukraine in September 2014 to become an adviser to the former head of the presidential administration of Ukraine Yanukovych, Sergei Lyovochkin. In this role, he was asked to help rebrand the Party of Regions. Instead, he claimed to be helping to stabilize Ukraine. Manafort was instrumental in founding a new political party called the Opposition Bloc. According to Mikhail Pogrebinsky, he thought to gather the largest number of people opposed to the current government in order to avoid anything specific and simply become a symbol of opposition to the new government. According to Manafort, he has not worked in Ukraine since the parliamentary elections in October 2014. However, according to entry data from Ukraine's border control, Manafort traveled to Ukraine several times after that election, up until the end of 2015. According to The New York Times, its local branch in Ukraine was closed in May 2016. According to Politico magazine, by that time the Opposition Bloc had already stopped paying fees to Manafort's company.
In an April 2016 interview with ABC News, Manafort stated that the purpose of his activities in Ukraine was to bring the country closer to Europe.
Working for Donald Trump
Paul Manafort gained worldwide fame due to the fact that in 2016 he was for some time at the head of the campaign headquarters of US presidential candidate Donald Trump. Some argue that it was the strategy developed by Manafort that helped Trump defeat Hillary Clinton.
Paul Manafort found guilty
On October 30, 2017, Manafort was arrested by the FBI after being accused of fraud while participating in the Trump campaign. The arrest of Paul Manafort became a real sensation in the media.
The indictment against Manafort and Rick Gates was published on October 27, 2017. In detention, they were accused of conspiracy against the United States to launder money. Prosecutors say Manafort's firm laundered more than $18 million.
Manafort and Gates pleaded not guilty. The US government asked the court to release Manafort on $10 million bail and Gates on $5 million. If legal facts in the course of the investigation confirm this corruption scandal, Paul Manafort could face decades spent in prison.
Following the hearing, Manafort's attorney, Kevin M. Downing, issued a public statement to the press proclaiming his client's innocence, describing the federal charges stemming from the indictment as "ridiculous." Downing has defended Manafort's decade-long lobbying efforts for pro-Russian, former Ukrainian Prime Minister and President Viktor Yanukovych, describing their lucrative partnership as an attempt to spread democracy and strengthen relations between the United States and Ukraine.
On November 30, 2017, Manafort's attorneys said that Manafort had entered into a bail agreement with accusers that would release him from the house arrest he had been under since his indictment. He offered $11.65 million in real estate as collateral. At the same time, Paul Manafort was working with "a Russian with ties to the Russian intelligence service," prosecutors said in a court statement saying the judge in the case would revoke a cooperation agreement with Manafort.
On January 3, 2018, Manafort filed a lawsuit challenging Mueller's broad credibility and claimed that the Justice Department broke the law in appointing Mueller. A spokesman for the department replied that "the claim is frivolous, but the defendant has the right to file whatever he wants." On January 12, Mueller asked U.S. District Judge Aimee Berman Jackson to set a trial date for May 14, 2018. On January 16, 2018, Jackson declined to provide that particular date for the trial, indicating that the criminal trial was likely to begin in September or as soon as possible. Jackson testified that a letter from Manafort's doctor was submitted to the court asking for a change in detention conditions. "While he's undergoing home confinement, he's not limited to his couch, and I believe he has a lot of room for different things to do," Jackson said.
On February 2, 2018, the Justice Department filed a motion to dismiss Manafort's civil lawsuit against Mueller. Judge Jackson dismissed the suit on April 27, 2018, citing precedent that a court should not use civil powers to intervene in an ongoing criminal case. However, no judgment was made on the merits of the arguments presented.
On February 22, 2018, both Manafort and Gates were additionally charged with crimes involving a tax evasion and bank fraud scheme in Virginia. The charges were filed in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia, not the District of Columbia, because the alleged tax fraud was committed in Virginia and not the county. The new indictment alleges that Manafort laundered more than $30 million through offshore bank accounts between 2006 and 2015 with the assistance of Gates. Manafort allegedly used the funds in these offshore accounts to purchase real estate in the United States, in addition to personal goods and services.
On February 23, 2018, Gates pleaded guilty in federal court, confirmed his lies and conspiracy to defraud the United States. Through a spokesman, Manafort expressed disappointment at Gates' decision to plead guilty and said he had no such plans. "I continue to maintain my innocence," he said.
On February 28, 2018, Manafort pleaded not guilty in District of Columbia District Court. Judge Jackson subsequently set a trial date of September 17, 2018, and reprimanded Manafort and his attorney for violating the order of the trial. On March 8, 2018, Manafort also pleaded not guilty to bankruptcy and tax collection in federal court in Alexandria, Judge T. Ellis III of the Eastern District of Virginia scheduled a trial on these charges effective July 10, 2018. He later brought the trial to July 24, citing a medical procedure involving a member of the Ellis family. Ellis also expressed concern that the special counsel and Mueller were only interested in accusing Manafort of withholding information that could damage Trump's reputation or lead to his impeachment.
Friends of Manafort announced the creation of a legal defense fund on May 30, 2018 to help pay his legal bills. Meanwhile, the Paul Manafort case continued to gain momentum.
On June 8, 2018, Manafort was charged with perversion of justice and forgery of evidence, along with longtime aide Konstantin Kilimnik. In particular, allegations were made that Manafort tried to convince others to lie about undisclosed lobbying activities on behalf of the former pro-Russian government of Ukraine. Because this allegedly took place while Manafort was under house arrest, Judge Jackson vacated Manafort's house arrest on June 15 and ordered him to remain in jail pending trial. Manafort was taken to the Northern District Regional Jail in Warsaw, Virginia at 8:22 p.m. June 15, 2018, where he was placed in the VIP section and held in solitary confinement for his own safety. On June 22, Manafort's efforts to have the money laundering charge dropped were annulled by the court. On July 10, Judge T. Ellis ordered Manafort returned to the Alexandria Appellate Center. His trial began on 31 July 2018.
The situation is heating up
Paul Manafort's verdict looks set to be handed down pretty soon. On July 17, 2018, the Mueller investigation requested that Judge Ellis compel five witnesses who were not previously publicly connected to the Manafort case to testify in exchange for immunity, and Ellis denied the defendant's motion to move the trial to Roanoke, Virginia. It seems that no matter how Paul Manafort tries to justify himself, the scandal around him is only growing.
Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump's chief of staff Paul Manafort resigned after the Ukraine scandal.
This morning Paul Manafort proposed and I accepted his resignation from the campaign. I am very grateful for the great work that has helped to achieve what we have today, and in particular for his work in the process of delegation and convention. Paul is a true professional and I wish him every success,” Trump wrote.
Manafort himself denies receiving $12.7 million from the Party of Regions. According to The New York Times, these funds came to the adviser between 2007 and 2012.
At the same time, the Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine already has documents that allegedly confirm this information. A total of 22 such payments are reported:
1. 11/20/07 - $455,249 - Payment from the 3d parties to Manafort US
2. 11/20/07 - $6,374 - Payment of services with regards to Manafort
3. 18.09.(09?) - $ 4,632 - PC7 pcs. Manafort(7 personal computers Manafort)
4. 10/14/09 - $750,000 - Manafort
5. 10/26/09 - $854 - Server to Manafort
6. 9.11.09 - $ 6000 - Expend. pa payment to Manafort
7. 9.11.09 - $ 6000 - Expenses. pa payment to Manafort
8. 11/30/09 - $500,000 - Payment on Manafort
9. 09.12.09 - $6000 - Ex. pa payment to Manafort
10. 12/14/09 - $1,300,000 - Payment Manafort
11. 12/16/09 - $15,600 - Ex. pa payment to Manafort as of 14.12 (Expenses for payment to Manafort as of 14.12)
12. 01/18/10 - $1,075,000 - Contract Manafort
13. 04/08/10 - $ 846,000 - P. Manafort - expenses in Ukraine (P. Manafort - expenses in Ukraine)
14. 09/22/10 – $750,000 - Manafort
15. 04.11.10 - $1,150,000 - Payment of the contract Manafort
16. 04/27/11 - $142,000 - Payment for Manafort's services
17. 05/30/11 - $300,000 - Payment Manafort
18. 10/11/11 - $135,000 - Paul Manafort
19. 06/21/12 - $3,468,693 - Paul Manafort Contract
20. 07/10/12 - $645,000 - Manafort sociology (Manafort sociology)
21. 10/09/12 - $400,000 - Manafort - exit poll in real. vp(Manafort exit poll in real time)
22. 09.10.12 - $12,467 - Manafort - international observers (Manafort, foreign observers)
The presence of Manafort's name in the "lists" does not mean that he really received these funds, because the recipients column contains the signatures of other persons. The pre-trial investigation in this case continues, the NABU noted.
Manafort's office was previously located on Sofiyivska Street in Kyiv. According to The New York Times, Manafort continued to work in Ukraine after the collapse of the Yanukovych government and helped create the Opposition Bloc.
I have never received any illegal payment. These assumptions are stupid and meaningless,” he said.
FIRST HISTORY
Paul Manafort's services could well be paid from the "black box office" of the Party of Regions. I knew Manafort very superficially and broke off relations with him when his team tried to impose what to say in front of voters. As for the scale of "payment" for his work, I think that much more than $12 million could appear there, - "KP" in Ukraine" Taras Chornovol, who in 2004 headed the election headquarters of Viktor Yanukovych.
Famous lobbyist "shines" 80 years in prison
The scandal surrounding the former head of the campaign headquarters of US presidential candidate Donald Trump, Paul Manafort, is gaining new momentum. His name shone in "black bookkeeping" of the Party of Regions, and on October 30, the American was officially accused of lobbying the interests of the "regionals" in the United States, taking care of the affairs of the fugitive Viktor Yanukovych and conspiring against the interests of the United States.
The media also accused him of being involved in the creation of the scandalous "peace plan" to lease Crimea and secret collaboration on a Russian billionaire to "benefit Putin's government."
"Don't fool yourself. The money we have is blood money," Andrea Manafort said in a post.
Human rights lawyer Yevgenia Zakrevskaya, who represents the interests of the families of victims of the Euromaidan, asked the prosecutor's office investigate SMS messages allegedly one of the daughters of a political strategist.
According to the lawyer, Manafort could have influenced ex-president Viktor Yanukovych.
“Do you know that he killed people in Ukraine? Knowingly,” said messages allegedly written by Andrea Manafort in March 2015 to her sister about her father and his collaboration with Yanukovych.
Getty Images
For a conspiracy against the United States, if proven guilty, Manafort could face 80 years in prison, and his partner - 70.
Responded to a new wave of scandal around a former member of his team and US President Donald Trump. He wrote that the events described in the indictment were long before Manafort began working for him, and there was allegedly no conspiracy with the Russian Federation .
"Sorry, years passed before Paul Manafort became part of the Trump campaign. But why not the lying Hillary (Clinton - Ed.) and the Democrats in focus?" Trump wrote on Twitter.
White House press secretary Sarah Sanders stressed that the new Manafort scandal is not related to Trump, and there is no evidence of links between the US president and the Russian authorities.
“This news has nothing to do with the president or his campaign. From the very beginning of the investigation, we have been saying that there is no evidence of a connection between Trump and Russia,” she said.
Cases against Manafort are also being investigated in Ukraine. This was confirmed by the head of the Department of Special Investigations of the Prosecutor General's Office, Sergei Gorbatyuk.
"The first concerns the embezzlement of Justice Department funds that were allocated to an American law firm to prepare a report in the Tymoshenko v. Ukraine case regarding her illegal arrest. The second concerns materials on the" black accounting "(Party of Regions during the time of Yanukovych). These cases we We are investigating further," he said.
Two years ago, the Prosecutor General's Office of Ukraine sent a request to the US Department of Justice to interrogate Manofort regarding the funds and their use. However, according to Gorbatyuk, Kyiv has not received a response.
Paul Manafort won't pay Deripaska
Friendship with the disgraced political strategist of Trump and Yanukovych cost the Russian oligarch $100 million.
The friendship between Russian businessman Oleg Deripaska and American political consultant Paul Manafort was not as cloudless as it may seem from reports leaking to the press about the investigation into the former head of Donald Trump's campaign headquarters. The relationship of two men has always been the relationship of two crooks, each of whom was looking for only the right moment to cheat his partner. Already in 2014, the main beneficiary of Basic Element informed the American court that he could not get back from Manafort and his partner Rick Gates $ 100 million allocated for the implementation of projects in Ukraine.
Rothschild, Deripaska and foreign policy
Paul Manafort represents the generation of American political strategists and consultants who rose in the wake of Ronald Reagan's "crusade against communism." True, the collapse of the Soviet Union did not allow them to realize themselves in the recruitment and financing of the anti-Soviet underground around the world, but they quickly found a new niche for themselves. Their influence and skills came in handy in cleaning up the reputation of the new elite from the old Soviet states. In that sense, Oleg Deripaska, emerging victorious from the brutal aluminum wars of the 1990s, was the perfect client for Paul Manafort.
Nat Rothschild brought Manafort together with Oleg Deripaska. It happened in 2003 in a hedge fund office in New York. The British financier had a high-profile surname, powerful connections and a reputation that any "new Russian" could envy. It is not surprising that Oleg Deripaska felt drawn to this representative of the famous financial clan. Moreover, Nat Rothschild was actively engaged in investments in the countries of the former USSR. It was Rothschild, according to The Atlantic magazine, who hired Manafort as a consultant to "one Georgian politician in exile." The name of this person is not mentioned in the article, but judging by the description (a former KGB operative accused of preparing an assassination attempt on Eduard Shevardnadze during the period when he was president of Georgia), it is about Igor Giorgadze, who left Georgia, settled in Moscow, but still does not lose hope of returning to his homeland.
In the aforementioned article, Giorgadze is named as a friend of Oleg Deripaska, which gives the Russian aluminum king the geopolitical charm of a sponsor of the Georgian opposition and a beneficiary of a possible election victory in that country.
Another front of Deripaska's independent foreign policy line was the same one, in which, through the efforts of Manafort's partner Rick Davis, a referendum on independence was organized. American journalists believe that this referendum was financed by a Russian oligarch. In the archive of the agency "" you can find references to Oleg Deripaska's connections with Trade Commissioner Peter Mendelsohn, who signed bilateral agreements between Montenegro and the European Union. The fact that the details of these relations were previously discussed on Oleg Deripaska's yacht was announced by the Minister of Finance of the shadow government of Great Britain, George Osborne, who was present at the meeting. After that, a massive media campaign began against Osborne: No Rothschild, who also invests large sums of money in Montenegro, published a letter in The Times in which he accused Osborne of “begging” Deripaska for funding for the British Liberals party fund.
The Russian authorities, according to the authors of the article, supported Deripaska's initiatives. In particular, after the oligarch was denied a visa, they helped him get to the United States, providing him with a diplomatic passport. Recall that in 2016, Deripaska himself admitted that he used his diplomatic passport to visit the United States 10 times since 2009. In 2009, he last received an American double-entry visa - under the FBI special program in exchange for searching for former American intelligence agent Robert Levinson.
Black Sea scam
Outside of grand geopolitical schemes, the cooperation between Deripaska and Manafort was much less productive. Simply put, it ended in complete failure, although at the beginning it looked quite promising.
In 2006, Paul Manafort decided to capitalize on his political connections and gave birth to Pericles (Pericles Emerging Market Partners), as he called the fund for investments in Russia and Ukraine. Manafort's partner Rick Gates also took part in the project. Simply put, Manafort and Gates bought something unnecessary for the Russian oligarch in the post-Soviet countries, while they themselves rose well on commissions. The quality of the assets acquired in those years by Basic Element can be judged, for example, by the Zaporizhzhya Aluminum Plant, bought in 2007 from Viktor Vekselberg. The enterprise never made a profit, fell into complete decline and in 2012 was returned to state ownership. Timid attempts to sue the Ukrainian authorities ended in a criminal case opened by the Security Service of Ukraine against UC Rusal for stealing technological equipment from the enterprise.
In general, Manafort and Gates persuaded Oleg Deripaska to invest $100 million in the project. This amount did not look too serious for the billionaire, whose wealth was estimated at $28 billion in 2008. Manafort eventually received the money, and his first investment was an investment of 18.9 million in the project under the name "Black Sea" (Black Sea Cable). For this decision, Manafort generously rewarded himself with a commission of $7.35 million. And then came the 2008 crisis. Oleg Deripaska was on the verge of bankruptcy, and the state had to save the oligarch and his assets.
At that moment, Deripaska's representatives proposed to liquidate Pericles, who was not born in such a timely manner, and to return the money earned from the sale of assets to the investor. Paul Manafort agreed, but this agreement did not cause any real action, and in 2011 he simply stopped responding to the requests of an old friend. Moreover, at that moment, the American consultant, along with all his investments, found himself under the powerful (as it seemed then) political roof of Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych. The consultant, together with the president, went to the bathhouse, swam naked in the river and felt the whole world at their feet. But soon the situation returned to zero.
And here, in this zero territory, Oleg Deripaska's lawyers were waiting for Paul Manafort. True, as a result of the investigation, he himself began to suspect that the "Black Sea" turned out to be "Panama", in the sense that no one bought any shares in this project on behalf of Pericles. To pull off such a banal scam with the winner of the aluminum wars - this can probably be considered the pinnacle of Manafort's success, to which the hero went throughout his political career. In the current toxic political atmosphere, Oleg Deripaska, with his demands, looks almost like an extortionist from an American citizen, who, moreover, is unlikely to be able to pay back the money he borrowed. And Deripaska really needs money now.
Ways of salvation
Despite the quite successful En+ IPO in London, the aluminum king's financial position remains extremely tense. The total debt of the En+ holding as of June 31, 2017 was $13.8 billion (with a projected EBITDA of $3 billion), recalls Versiya.
The presence of the debt problem, apparently, does not stop, but, on the contrary, only pushes Deripaska to expansion and risky decisions. One of them is the intention to continue the construction of the Taishet aluminum smelter, which was frozen back in 2008 after almost 800 million was spent on it. The same amount is needed to implement the project, and it can pay off only at current (high) aluminum prices. There are no guarantees that this will be the case.
There is another tool that has never failed the aluminum king. This is a bet on the devaluation of the ruble. Export sales revenue in such a scenario becomes very attractive even at not too high prices, as it makes it easy to pay for electricity costs and labor of factory workers. There is reason to believe that betting on the devaluation of the ruble will become a geopolitical hit for Oleg Deripaska this season. As you know, at the forum in Davos, he has already launched a trial balloon, accusing the Central Bank of inflating the value of the ruble. This, in his opinion, is due to “the lack of incentives that are needed to develop production in the country, namely, affordable financing, low interest rates.” A person who only knows how to fish in troubled waters is well aware of how strong the ruble is incompatible with his business.
Compromising evidence | | Scandals
A well-known political strategist and former campaign adviser to Donald Trump is accused of money laundering, illegal lobbying, and "conspiracy against the United States." The last accusation literally means that Mueller can be found guilty of causing damage to the state. The charges against Manafort were filed by Special Counsel Robert Mueller.
The arrest means that before the trial in his case, which is scheduled for July 25, Manafort will spend in a remand prison.
However, the head of the White House, Donald Trump, considered the court's decision unfair.
“Wow, what a harsh sentence for who represented [ex-US President], [ex-Senator] Bob Dole and many other leading political people and campaign headquarters. Didn't know Manafort was the head of the gang. What about [ex-CEO James] Comey and crooked [ex-Secretary of State] Hillary [Clinton] and all the rest? Very unfair!” Trump tweeted.
It is reported that we are talking about two documents dated 2013. They, in particular, describe in detail Paul Manafort's participation in attempts to influence the debate in Congress, as well as in the American media in connection with the imprisonment of the Ukrainian ex-premier.
Manafort led a team of American polytechnologists who worked in the election campaign of Viktor Yanukovych, who at that time was a candidate for the presidency of Ukraine.
Mueller previously accused Manafort of trying to pressure witnesses in his case while he was under arrest. According to a court report released on June 4, law enforcement found that Manafort violated the terms of his release from custody because he tried to contact witnesses in his case.
In December 2017, Paul Manafort was released from custody on $10 million bail. At the same time, the court ordered him to comply with the house arrest regime and wear a sensor that tracks his location at all times.
Pressure on a witness is a crime in itself. The new accusations will further aggravate the already unenviable position of the ex-head of Trump's campaign, who in October 2017 was charged with 12 counts at once. Manafort himself then voluntarily surrendered to the authorities, but did not admit his guilt. If the court establishes facts confirming his guilt, he could face up to 80 years in prison, the Associated Press noted in October last year.
In addition to the Manafort fraud trial, hearings will begin in September on alleged Russian interference in the 2016 US presidential election, where Manafort is also one of the defendants.
Earlier it was reported that the former head of the Trump campaign was accused of making cash payments to European politicians on behalf of Yanukovych's party.
It also became known earlier that the former adviser to the President of the United States, pleaded guilty to perjury and conspiracy.
Manafort has many connections with Moscow - a Russian businessman appears in the FBI documents on his case. US Special Counsel Robert Mueller, who is investigating the so-called Russian footprint in American politics, accused Kilimnik of obstructing justice. The businessman himself lives in Russia and is not available to American law enforcement officers.
She wrote about Kilimnik that he was born in Ukraine in 1970, he did military service in Russia. In the early 1990s, after demobilization, his good command of English secured him a job with the International Republican Institute (IRI) in Moscow, a US-based NGO.
10 years later, he became a translator for the Manafort team, which advised the Ukrainian oligarch, the publication reports. Later, this team switched to advising the Party of Regions under the leadership of Yanukovych.