Manafort Trial Thread

[SLICKYINC]

Use of demonstrative aids, such as a summary of transactions, is commonplace in trials. The jury is told it's not evidence. It's a summary of the evidence by one side.

 

[lawgator1]

You keep ignoring how he paid for it.

 

[1972 Grad]

You keep ignoring how he paid for it.

With money?

 

[NorthDallas40]

You keep ignoring how he paid for it.

The real crime is spending that much cash on freaking clothes. Lock him up for that alone. The rest is noise to me.

 

[Matt2496]

https://lawandcrime.com/awkward/jud...ors-and-ends-court-early-over-major-screw-up/

Good for this judge. He isn't tolerating Mueller's BS.

 

[SLICKYINC]

"Philip Ayliff, the accountant, is still on the stand, but prosecution has finished its first round of questioning him. The defense team plans to cross-examine him after lunch for about 45 minutes.
The defense team wanted to question Ayliff in front of the jury about how he would have retained his client's records if an IRS audit arose.
Judge T.S. Ellis said defense lawyer Kevin Downing could ask two questions:

• One about whether the tax accountants had documents with the names of companies that had connections to foreign banks
• And whether the accounting firm kept corporate ledgers for audit purposes.

Downing said they hoped to point out that Manafort had revealed the foreign account names to his tax preparers.

"Only a fool would give that kind of information to his accountant if he was trying to conceal his accounts," Downing said.​

The prosecutors have tried to keep out of court the suggestion that the government did not audit Manafort and thus had no reason to bring a criminal case against him."

 

[SLICKYINC]

"Paul Manafort tried to assure a bank that the Trump Tower property he owned on Fifth Avenue in New York was used as a personal residence, while in fact he used it as a rental property, the accountant Philip Ayliff said in court Friday.
After Manafort suggested to Ayliff in an email that the Trump Tower property "has never been a rental property," Ayliff spoke with a bank, UBS, that had inquired about the condo's usage.

"I told them exactly. It was a rental," Ayliff said in court. Manafort had always used the condo as a "self-rental," Ayliff added, meaning that his company DMP International rented it from another company Manafort controlled, John Hannah LLC.
Manafort and his business associates stayed in the Trump Tower space when they traveled to New York City instead of paying for hotel rooms, Ayliff said.
Why this matters: Whether the property was a rental or a personal residence affected Manafort's tax deductibles, Ayliff said. It also speaks to the general theory prosecutions have built towards: That Manafort lied to banks about how his used his real estate so that he could get more mortgage funding than the banks would normally be willing to lend.

Ayliff testified that another property, on Howard Street in New York, also was a rental listed on AirBnB, even though Manafort called it a personal residence. The Howard Street condo is named in the indictment as part of one bank fraud allegation. Prosecutors alleged in the indictment that Manafort used a sham $1.5 million loan from a Cypriot shell company he controlled, Peranova, to buy the Howard Street property.
Jurors haven't heard that part of the story yet. So far, they've learned that the Peronova loan eventually became income that Manafort claimed. Ayliff testified that he saw no evidence ever that Manafort paid off interest or principle on the purported Peronova "loan."

 

[davethevol]

Sounds like the governments evidence is all circumstantial and speculation to this point. Unless they’ve got recordings of conversation or emails telling people to hide money from the IRS, this trial is a massive waste of tax payer money. If that turns out to be the case and Manafort is found to be not guilty, charges need to be brought against Mueller for conspiracy.

 

[SLICKYINC]

"Accountant Cindy LaPorta, the first witness granted immunity from prosecution so she would be forced to testify in the Paul Manafort trial, has taken the stand.
LaPorta inherited Manafort's account in 2014 from accountant Philip Ayliff, whom she worked with at the tax firm Kositzka, Wicks and Company.
She is one of five witnesses with immunity on the prosecutors' roster for the trial. Without immunity, the individuals would be able to refrain from answering questions by asserting their Fifth Amendment protection from self-incrimination.

Before Ayliff finished his testimony, he told the jury he knew of no foreign entities —meaning companies or accounts — that Manafort had in Cyprus.
What prosecutors are trying to prove: They are trying to show that Manafort hid many foreign accounts from his personal financial service providers and from the US government, and used them to pay for expensive personal items."

 

[FLVOL_79]

"Philip Ayliff, the accountant, is still on the stand, but prosecution has finished its first round of questioning him. The defense team plans to cross-examine him after lunch for about 45 minutes.
The defense team wanted to question Ayliff in front of the jury about how he would have retained his client's records if an IRS audit arose.
Judge T.S. Ellis said defense lawyer Kevin Downing could ask two questions:

• One about whether the tax accountants had documents with the names of companies that had connections to foreign banks
• And whether the accounting firm kept corporate ledgers for audit purposes.

Downing said they hoped to point out that Manafort had revealed the foreign account names to his tax preparers.

"Only a fool would give that kind of information to his accountant if he was trying to conceal his accounts," Downing said.​

The prosecutors have tried to keep out of court the suggestion that the government did not audit Manafort and thus had no reason to bring a criminal case against him."

Ooh..ouch Mueller..ouch..

 

[SLICKYINC]

Ooh..ouch Mueller..ouch..

Ole Ellis doesn't seem amused..

 

[FLVOL_79]

Ole Ellis doesn't seem amused..

So I wonder what happens with the collusion Russian meme conspiracy case if this manafort thing implodes. I think the guy will get hit with some banking/tax evasion stuff but not the 300+ year sentence that fake news CNN ran with. Not having the audit on his taxes though, that is interesting...very interesting..If they lose this case..lolz..

 

[SLICKYINC]

So I wonder what happens with the collusion Russian meme conspiracy case if this manafort thing implodes. I think the guy will get hit with some banking/tax evasion stuff but not the 300+ year sentence that fake news CNN ran with. Not having the audit on his taxes though, that is interesting...very interesting..If they lose this case..lolz..

Maybe that'll come up in the next case and the Gov will be able to break out the real memes in court..

 

[FLVOL_79]

Maybe that'll come up in the next case and the Gov will be able to break out the real memes in court..

Maybe they can put the memes on trial and all those who spread them! Gotta send someone to jail for Hillarys terrible campaign!

 

[NorthDallas40]

So I wonder what happens with the collusion Russian meme conspiracy case if this manafort thing implodes. I think the guy will get hit with some banking/tax evasion stuff but not the 300+ year sentence that fake news CNN ran with. Not having the audit on his taxes though, that is interesting...very interesting..If they lose this case..lolz..

If they botch this case, the only case they’ve brought that they actually expected to prosecute and still not related to “collusion”, the public outcry for all of Muellers people’s heads will become deafening and glorious at the same time. Lol.

 

[DancingOutlaw]

So I wonder what happens with the collusion Russian meme conspiracy case if this manafort thing implodes. I think the guy will get hit with some banking/tax evasion stuff but not the 300+ year sentence that fake news CNN ran with. Not having the audit on his taxes though, that is interesting...very interesting..If they lose this case..lolz..

I have to agree here. They will probably get him on the FACTA stuff, tax evasion maybe. I would note that Cyprus didn’t agree to comply with FACTA until 2014, it was passed in 2010. But those are really structured to punish you monetarily. Not filing an FBAR comes with fines, jail is not the main means of encouragement.

A side note, FACTA was a main contributor to the record numbers of renunciations during Obama’s term. Foreign banks are now very resistant to dealing with American expats because of all the reporting and compliance now required. So Americans living overseas have chosen to give up citizenship so they can have bank accounts and credit lines.

 

[Mick]

So I wonder what happens with the collusion Russian meme conspiracy case if this manafort thing implodes. I think the guy will get hit with some banking/tax evasion stuff but not the 300+ year sentence that fake news CNN ran with. Not having the audit on his taxes though, that is interesting...very interesting..If they lose this case..lolz..

Funny thing is that's what he is charged with. It has nothing to do with meme's. You would be better off wanting him to be a Russian Agent trying to influence the campaign and not a Russian Agent that did influence the campaign. If he is convicted of this, you will argue that he didn't influence the Pro-Russian stance of the President.

 

[AirVol]

Funny thing is that's what he is charged with. It has nothing to do with meme's. You would be better off wanting him to be a Russian Agent trying to influence the campaign and not a Russian Agent that did influence the campaign. If he is convicted of this, you will argue that he didn't influence the Pro-Russian stance of the President.

Mooler gonna botch this one too? His record is astounding.

 

[SLICKYINC]

"Prosecutors revealed in court this afternoon that accountant Cindy Laporta was testifying as part of an immunity agreement.
Laporta explained: "Because I prepared tax returns and communicated with banks based on information (received from) Manafort and (his former deputy Rick) Gates."
The judge interrupted to prevent Laporta from giving her opinion about the veracity of the information.
During her testimony, Laporta was asked by prosecutors about two loans Manafort said he had received from two foreign entities that were described as clients of his consulting business.

"I had not seen that before," Laporta told the jury. "It was a concern."
One of the loans was for $900,000 and the second was for $1.5 million.
Laporta said she did not see all the supporting documents and saw only one page or "two at most."
The prosecutor asked if Laporta was concerned about the representations she had received about the loan. She said she was.
Laporta was also asked if she believed the representations. "No," Laporta said."

 

[Mick]

As the afternoon waned, prosecutor Uzo Asonye began pressing Manafort’s former accountant Cindy Laporta to detail financial arrangements that prosecutors allege *Manafort and his business partner, Rick Gates, used to evade paying taxes, including classifying income from foreign companies as “loans” to themselves.
Laporta testified that she was suspicious of the loans, many of which were thinly documented.
“Did you have concerns about representation you received about these foreign loans?” Asonye asked.
“Yes,” she said.
“Did you believe the representations about these foreign loans?”
“No,” she said.


2:59 p.m. Another accountant says Manafort kept tax preparers in the dark
Cindy Laporta, like accountant Philip Ayliff before her, said Paul Manafort never told her about control over foreign companies and bank accounts or about any accountants and tax preparers he had in Cyprus.
Asked if she and Ayliff would have wanted to know that information, Laporta confirmed that they would: “We would always want to know the full picture.”
As he did with Ayliff, prosecutor Uzo Asonye went through a list of over a dozen foreign companies and asked if she knew Manafort controlled them; she said no. When those companies showed up on his tax returns, she said, they appeared as Manafort’s foreign clients — because that’s what bookkeeper Heather Washkuhn recorded them as.
Asonye showed one email from Oct. 4, 2016 in which Laporta asks Manafort specifically whether he had foreign accounts; the answer was “NONE.”

 

[SLICKYINC]

"Downing asked if it was Gates or Manafort that he worked with primarily. Ayliff responded "Both, but towards the end it was mostly Gates."

 

[theFallGuy]

Did we get to the bottom of the ostrich clothes yet? I mean that's the real crime here.

 

[Mick]

"Downing asked if it was Gates or Manafort that he worked with primarily. Ayliff responded "Both, but towards the end it was mostly Gates."

When was "towards the end", November 9, 2016?

 

[SLICKYINC]

When was "towards the end", November 9, 2016?

NBC didn't provide the date.

 

[IPleadInsanity]

Why are they wasting time on this case while the Russians prepare to turn another election. What exactly did they do? How will we stop them next time? How serious is this issue in the next election? This is what he was tasked to do, start reporting whatever it is.