More than a year after Paul Manafort pleaded guilty, the Justice Department and a Chicago bank are still fighting over the former Trump campaign chairman's real estate and cash
The bank’s lawyers say it was the victim of a massive fraud perpetrated by Manafort and they want U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson to declare that the bank and its holding company are “innocent owners” of property the government is seeking to seize.
Getting additional testimony about the bank’s knowledge “may be further complicated” by the pending criminal prosecution of Calk, the government said. It’s unclear if Calk would benefit financially if the bank prevails in its legal quest to claim an interest in the Manafort properties. Calk owned about two-thirds of the bank at the time the loans went to Manafort.
“The cost of your investigation to the taxpayers approaches zero,” House Judiciary Chairman Jerry Nadler said to Mueller during a July hearing. Nadler credited the special counsel with pulling in up to $42 million in fines and forfeitures.said Manafort alone could wind up surrendering as much as $46 million in cash, securities and property to the feds. But those figures seem wildly inflated.
Prosecutors never argued that the Trump Tower apartment, which Manafort bought using a shell company in 2006, was acquired with ill-gotten funds. It was offered up during plea negotiations as Manafort’s lawyers sought to preserve assets for Manafort’s wife, Kathleen, and for the once notoriously high-living political consultant to subsist on when he gets out of prison.
There are also legitimate questions about what fines and payments can be attributed to Mueller’s probe. Former Trump lawyer Michael Cohen was fined $50,000 and sentenced to a mere two months on a lying-to-Congress charge brought by Mueller’s office.
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