Laundered more than $30 million.
MANAFORT and GATES generated tens of millions of dollars in income as a result of their
Ukraine work. From approximately 2006 through the present, MANAFORT and GATES engaged
in a scheme to hide income from United States authorities, while enjoying the use of the money.
During the first part of the scheme between approximately 2006 and 2015, MANAFORT, with
GATES assistance, failed to pay taxes on this income by disguising it as alleged loans from
nominee offshore corporate entities and by making millions of dollars in unreported payments
from foreign accounts to bank accounts they controlled and United States vendors. MANAFORT
also used the offshore accounts to purchase United States real estate, and MANAFORT and
GATES used the undisclosed income to make improvements to and refinance their United States
properties.
3.
In the second part of the scheme, between approximately 2015 and at least January 2017,
when the Ukraine income dwindled after Yanukovych fled to Russia, MANAFORT, with the
assistance of GATES, extracted money from MANAFORTs United States real estate by, among
other things, using those properties as collateral to obtain loans from multiple financial institutions.
MANAFORT and GATES fraudulently secured more than twenty million dollars in loans by
falsely inflating MANAFORTs and his companys income and by failing to disclose existing debt
in order to qualify for the loans.
In furtherance of the scheme, MANAFORT used his hidden overseas wealth to enjoy a
lavish lifestyle in the United States, without paying taxes on that income. MANAFORT, without
reporting the income to his tax preparer or the United States, spent millions of dollars on luxury
goods and services for himself and his extended family through payments wired from offshore
nominee accounts to United States vendors. MANAFORT also used these offshore accounts to
purchase multi-million dollar properties in the United States and to improve substantially another
property owned by his family.
6.
In furtherance of the scheme, GATES used millions of dollars from these offshore accounts
to pay for his personal expenses, including his mortgage, childrens tuition, and interior decorating
and refinancing of his Virginia residence.
7.
In total, more than $75,000,000 flowed through the offshore accounts. MANAFORT, with
the assistance of GATES, laundered more than $30,000,000, income that he concealed from the
United States Department of the Treasury (Treasury), the Department of Justice, and others.
GATES obtained more than $3,000,000 from the offshore accounts, income that he too concealed
from the Treasury, the Department of Justice, and others.