Donald Trump's former political strategist Paul Manafort named in $2 trillion fraud

Paul Manafort, a political strategist who led Donald Trump's 2016 election campaign has been named in suspicious activity reports (SARs) which states that transactions worth $2tn have been washed through the US financial system. Thousands of documents with details of this corruption have been leaked to ICIJ (International Consortium of Investigative Journalists). This leak highlights over 2,000 suspicious activity reports filed with the United States government's Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN). As per ICIJ, these documents have $2 trillion worth transactions dating from between 1999 and 2017. 

Bank and other financial institutions file SARs when they doubt that a client is using their services for criminal activity. But, filing of a SAR does not mean that the bank will stop doing business with the client in question. As per the report shared by a local news agency, initially, the documents containing details of Paul Manafort being involved in a $2 trillion fraud were provided to BuzzFeed News, which later shared the same with the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists. The documents reveal that major banks of the world provided financial services to 'high-risk individuals' including the ones who had been placed under sanctions by the US government. Manafort's lawyer did not respond to an invitation to comment, said ICIJ. 

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In a statement released earlier this month, FinCEN condemned the disclosure of the leaked documents and said it had referred the matter to the US Department of Justice.“The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network is aware that various media outlets intend to publish a series of articles based on unlawfully disclosed suspicious activity reports (SARs), as well as other sensitive government documents, from several years ago,” it stated.

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“As FinCEN has stated previously, the unauthorized disclosure of SARs is a crime that can impact the national security of the United States, compromise law enforcement investigations, and threaten the safety and security of the institutions and individuals who file such reports.”

Who is Paul Manafort?

Paul Manafort has been the political strategist for Donald Trump's 2016 election campaign for several months. He stepped down from this role after his consultancy work for former Ukrainian president Viktor Yanukovych was exposed. He was then convicted of fraud and tax evasion. As per ICIJ, banks began identifying activity linked to Manafort as at the beginning of 2012. Later in 2017, JP Morgan Chase filed a report against him in wire transfers worth over $300 million involving shell companies in Cyprus. Cyprus has done business with Paul Manafort in the past.

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