The bank-fraud claim surfaced in documents released Friday related to ongoing bail negotiations for Manafort, who has been on house arrest since October.
- Paul Manafort, Donald Trump's former campaign chairman who was charged with money laundering last fall in the Russia investigation, is facing a new claim of bank fraud.
- The claim surfaced in a document released Friday night that details bail negotiations between Manafort and special counsel Robert Mueller.
- The document says Manafort wants to withdraw two real-estate properties he offered as collateral to cover a $10 million bond. He offered three different properties, instead that are "deficient in various respects."
- Mueller alleges that the value of the three new properties fails to reach the $10 million threshold for Manafort's bond, and accuses Manafort of misrepresenting the status of at least one of those properties.
Paul Manafort, the former campaign chairman for President Donald Trump who is facing money laundering charges in the Russia investigation, is now in deeper trouble with special counsel Robert Mueller.
Manafort and his attorneys are trying to renegotiate the terms of his bail, but that effort appears to have backfired, according to a new court document related to that portion of the case that was released Friday night.
The document says, as part of an agreement on the conditions of his release, Manafort initially offered a $10 million bond that would be secured by two real-estate properties and two sureties. Manafort now wants to put up as security for the bond three different real-estate holdings that are "deficient in various respects," and no sureties, the court document says.
A surety can be a person who promises to take responsibility for another person's actions, such as one who is expected to appear in court or satisfy a debt. It can also take a monetary form to secure the same obligation.
The value of the three properties Manafort is now offering as collateral amounts to "far less than the $10 million" bond proposal, the document stated.
The court filing dated February 13, drops three new bombshells:
- The fact that Manafort is no longer offering the two sureties he initially proposed "suggests that neither those closest to him, nor anyone else, is willing to assume the risk of being a surety for him," the court document said.
- And, according to the document, one of the real-estate properties that Manafort is now offering as part of the collateral package for his release — referred to as the "Fairfax property" in the filing — has a mortgage attached to it that may have been obtained fraudulently.
- That filing cites new evidence that it says shows Manafort overstated "by millions of dollars" the 2015 and 2016 income received by his company, DMP International LLC, in the process of obtaining a $9 million-plus mortgage for the Fairfax property.
The matter arose in the course of Manafort's efforts to renegotiate his bail terms. Those terms have been in flux since late last year.
And, as the court filing released on Friday night suggests, Mueller's prosecutors remain skeptical of Manafort's ability to uphold his end of a revised bail agreement, and his truthfulness about his past financial dealings.
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