Monitoring Desk
NEW YORK: A Manhattan grand jury has indicted President Trump’s former campaign manager Paul Manafort on charges of residential mortgage fraud and other state crimes, the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office said Wednesday.
“No one is beyond the law in New York,” DA Cy Vance Jr. said in a statement. “Following an investigation commenced by our Office in March 2017, a Manhattan grand jury has charged Mr. Manafort with state criminal violations which strike at the heart of New York’s sovereign interests, including the integrity of our residential mortgage market.”
In the 16-count indictment, Manafort faces raps for residential mortgage fraud, attempted residential mortgage fraud, conspiracy, falsifying business records and scheme to defraud.
Manafort has already been convicted of 10 federal felonies in Virginia and Washington, DC, for financial crimes related to money he earned as a consultant advising a pro-Russian political party in Ukraine.
If Trump ends up pardoning Manafort, he’d still be on the hook for the new state charges.
Manafort had been on the hook with the feds for lying to get loans on his $4 million brownstone at 377 Union St. in Caroll Gardens, and his $3 million loft at 29 Howard St. in Soho.
The Howard St. property is mentioned in the new state charges.
“The appraiser for Howard St. is calling to make an appointment to view the condo,” Manafort wrote in a Jan. 2016 email cited in the indictment.
“Remember, he believes that you and [Individual #3] are living there.”
The indictment does not name names, but the same email was cited in Manafort’s federal trial in Virginia back in August.
In it, Manafort asked his son-in-law, Jeff Yohai, to pretend he and daughter Jessica Manafort, were living there, a witness testified. In fact, the loft was being used as a lucrative, Airbnb rental.
Vance has said his office would wait until the conclusion of the federal prosecutions against Manafort before moving forward with his own case.
The state charges were announced on Wednesday just minutes after a sentencing in Virginia cleared his federal docket and upped his prison time to a total of seven and a half years.
Courtesy: (nypost.com)
