The Department of Justice filed a civil lawsuit against Paul Manafort, President Donald Trump‘s former campaign chair, on Thursday for failure to report more than 20 foreign bank accounts between 2006 and 2014.
The Justice Department is suing Manafort for $2.9 million. The suit, filed in West Palm Beach, Florida, claimed that he did not report Ukrainian income to accounts controlled by Manafort in countries that include the United Kingdom, Cyprus and St. Vincent and the Grenadines.
He should have filed a Report of Foreign Bank and Financial Accounts.
Manafort’s attorney Jeffrey Neiman released a statement accusing the Department of Justice of filing the lawsuit for ulterior motives.
“Today’s civil lawsuit seeks a money judgment against Mr. Manafort for simply failing to file a tax form,” Neiman’s statement read. “Mr. Manafort was aware the Government was going to file the suit because he has tried for months to resolve this civil matter. Nonetheless, the Government insisted on filing this suit simply to embarrass Mr. Manafort.”
Trump pardoned Manafort for other offenses such as tax fraud, conspiracy and obstruction in December 2020, saving Manafort from at least seven years in prison, but the Justice Department’s filing suggested that his pardons did not cover Manafort’s failure to file the reports in 2013 and 2014. The suit also said the Treasury Department found the discrepancies before Trump pardoned Manafort.
