Mueller’s investigation has scrutinized Manafort because of his role as chairman of the presidential campaign and chief strategist of Donald Trump for several months in 2016. Prosecutors uncovered evidence leading to criminal charges against Manafort for having secretly received over $ 75 million of the Party of Regions of Yanukovych on offshore bank accounts. According to a Report of the Senate Intelligence Committee published last week, Akhmetov was one of the two oligarchs which provided much of this funding.
Court files not previously declared in the Case v Manafort show that his close associate Rick Gates offered to leverage United Coal’s Akhmetov property to protect Akhmetov’s political allies from pressure from the US Congress in 2012.
A pending Senate resolution aimed to denounce the Yanukovych government for what was widely seen as politically motivated retribution: the imprisonment of former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko. She had opposed to the privatization of Akhmetov of a large Ukrainian electricity company.
Manafort and Gates sought to persuade senators to put a secret hold on this resolution. West Virginia Senator Joe Manchin (D) appears to have been among the targets.
On September 20, 2012, in the middle of a number of emails about Manchin, Gates wrote one with the subject line, “Plain charcoal. “
Seek to counter the influence Ukrainian-Americans who supported the resolution, Gates wrote to an unknown person that “US operations are very important in [redacted] and represent many jobs (I do not know Ukrainian) but the investor is and he makes significant investments in operations.
Attorneys note United Coal’s email as part of a “finished” lobbying effort, but, whatever role United Coal played in the end, the effort failed.
Ultimately, Gates pleaded guilty lying to the FBI and conspiring to commit financial fraud. He testified against Manafort, who was convicted of eight counts of tax and banking fraud in 2018.
United Coal’s parent company told POGO that “United Coal management is not aware of any contact with Paul Manafort. The UCC has not played and has played no role in any attempt to influence the US government or US politicians. Manchin’s office did not respond to a query.
“This deadly circle”
Companies owned by two other Ukrainian oligarchs also obtained loans from the Paycheck Protection Program, but, unlike Akhmetov’s operations, the Justice Ministry accused these entities of being “”front companies. “
The companies are owned by oligarchs Ihor Kolomoisky and Gennadiy Boholiubov, according to a recent judicial file from the Ministry of Justice, and were used in “an international conspiracy to launder embezzled and fraudulently obtained money” from one of Ukraine’s largest banks. Kolomoisky’s lawyer sent by email the Washington post, “Mr. Kolomoisky categorically denies the allegations contained in the complaints filed by the Justice Department.” POGO was unable to identify Booliubov’s lawyer prior to publication.
At least five companies allegedly involved in the conspiracy received loans from the paycheck protection program.
It appears to have been within the paycheck protection program for those companies, which are the subject of a federal money laundering lawsuit, to receive loans. Federal loan rules make those charged ineligible, but the companies have not been charged.
