Manafort Indicted by Manhattan DA for Mortgage Fraud
The indictment's announcement comes mere moments after Manafort was sentenced to a substantial sentence in Washington, D.C., federal court.
March 13, 2019 at 12:54 PM
3 minute read
Former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort has been indicted by a Manhattan grand jury on 16 charges, including mortgage fraud, filing false business documents and related conspiracies, the Manhattan District Attorney's Office announced Wednesday.
The state indictment came just moments after Manafort was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson of the District of Columbia to more than seven years in prison on federal charges.
“No one is beyond the law in New York,” Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance said in a statement, calling the allegations against Manafort “criminal violations which strike at the heart of New York's sovereign interests, including the integrity of our residential mortgage market.”
According to Vance, the investigation commenced in March 2017. Reports swirled in late February that the Manhattan DA's Office was preparing to bring charges, at least in part as a way to make sure Manafort faces justice in the event President Donald Trump should issue a pardon.
The first five charges in the indictment are related to residential mortgage fraud connected to Manafort's property on Howard Street between December 2015 and August 2016. According to sparse details in the indictment, Manafort emailed an unnamed individual about an appraiser seeking to make an appointment to view a condo at the location.
“Remember, he believes you and [Individual #3] are living there,” Manafort is said to have written the person, referencing another unnamed individual.
A few weeks later, Manafort allegedly sent a letter by email to more unnamed individuals, with a document titled, “Use of Case Letter.docx.”
These same two individuals then communicated about Manafort not moving forward with a mortgage, with one party assuring the other there were no mortgagee clauses listed on a property. Less than a month later, Manafort signed a document titled “Uniform Residential Loan Application.”
According to reports, Manafort owned property at 29 Howard St. According to one of the federal indictments against him, Manafort bought the property in 2012 with funds funneled through shell companies as part of his lobbying work in Ukraine.
Manafort is also charged with nine counts of falsifying business records, each connected to a date, and covering a time period that extends from late January 2016 to January 2017, involving multiple lenders.
The state charges against Manafort also highlight legislative concerns coming out of Albany about the state's double jeopardy law and the prospect of pardons by Trump.
According to reports, some of the loans at issue in the state charges were the same used to bring charges against Manafort in the Eastern District of Virginia last year. If so, they are potentially subject to double jeopardy—a defense that will be all but certainly raised by Manafort's counsel going forward.
A spokesman for Manafort did not immediately provide comment.
This content has been archived. It is available through our partners, LexisNexis® and Bloomberg Law.
To view this content, please continue to their sites.
Not a Lexis Subscriber?
Subscribe Now
Not a Bloomberg Law Subscriber?
Subscribe Now
NOT FOR REPRINT
© 2024 ALM Global, LLC, All Rights Reserved. Request academic re-use from www.copyright.com. All other uses, submit a request to [email protected]. For more information visit Asset & Logo Licensing.
You Might Like
View AllEuropean, US Litigation Funding Experts Look for Commonalities at NYU Event
Trending Stories
- 1Gibson Dunn Sued By Crypto Client After Lateral Hire Causes Conflict of Interest
- 2Trump's Solicitor General Expected to 'Flip' Prelogar's Positions at Supreme Court
- 3Pharmacy Lawyers See Promise in NY Regulator's Curbs on PBM Industry
- 4Outgoing USPTO Director Kathi Vidal: ‘We All Want the Country to Be in a Better Place’
- 5Supreme Court Will Review Constitutionality Of FCC's Universal Service Fund
Who Got The Work
Michael G. Bongiorno, Andrew Scott Dulberg and Elizabeth E. Driscoll from Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr have stepped in to represent Symbotic Inc., an A.I.-enabled technology platform that focuses on increasing supply chain efficiency, and other defendants in a pending shareholder derivative lawsuit. The case, filed Oct. 2 in Massachusetts District Court by the Brown Law Firm on behalf of Stephen Austen, accuses certain officers and directors of misleading investors in regard to Symbotic's potential for margin growth by failing to disclose that the company was not equipped to timely deploy its systems or manage expenses through project delays. The case, assigned to U.S. District Judge Nathaniel M. Gorton, is 1:24-cv-12522, Austen v. Cohen et al.
Who Got The Work
Edmund Polubinski and Marie Killmond of Davis Polk & Wardwell have entered appearances for data platform software development company MongoDB and other defendants in a pending shareholder derivative lawsuit. The action, filed Oct. 7 in New York Southern District Court by the Brown Law Firm, accuses the company's directors and/or officers of falsely expressing confidence in the company’s restructuring of its sales incentive plan and downplaying the severity of decreases in its upfront commitments. The case is 1:24-cv-07594, Roy v. Ittycheria et al.
Who Got The Work
Amy O. Bruchs and Kurt F. Ellison of Michael Best & Friedrich have entered appearances for Epic Systems Corp. in a pending employment discrimination lawsuit. The suit was filed Sept. 7 in Wisconsin Western District Court by Levine Eisberner LLC and Siri & Glimstad on behalf of a project manager who claims that he was wrongfully terminated after applying for a religious exemption to the defendant's COVID-19 vaccine mandate. The case, assigned to U.S. Magistrate Judge Anita Marie Boor, is 3:24-cv-00630, Secker, Nathan v. Epic Systems Corporation.
Who Got The Work
David X. Sullivan, Thomas J. Finn and Gregory A. Hall from McCarter & English have entered appearances for Sunrun Installation Services in a pending civil rights lawsuit. The complaint was filed Sept. 4 in Connecticut District Court by attorney Robert M. Berke on behalf of former employee George Edward Steins, who was arrested and charged with employing an unregistered home improvement salesperson. The complaint alleges that had Sunrun informed the Connecticut Department of Consumer Protection that the plaintiff's employment had ended in 2017 and that he no longer held Sunrun's home improvement contractor license, he would not have been hit with charges, which were dismissed in May 2024. The case, assigned to U.S. District Judge Jeffrey A. Meyer, is 3:24-cv-01423, Steins v. Sunrun, Inc. et al.
Who Got The Work
Greenberg Traurig shareholder Joshua L. Raskin has entered an appearance for boohoo.com UK Ltd. in a pending patent infringement lawsuit. The suit, filed Sept. 3 in Texas Eastern District Court by Rozier Hardt McDonough on behalf of Alto Dynamics, asserts five patents related to an online shopping platform. The case, assigned to U.S. District Judge Rodney Gilstrap, is 2:24-cv-00719, Alto Dynamics, LLC v. boohoo.com UK Limited.
Featured Firms
Law Offices of Gary Martin Hays & Associates, P.C.
(470) 294-1674
Law Offices of Mark E. Salomone
(857) 444-6468
Smith & Hassler
(713) 739-1250