#Deripaska sues Manafort & Gates over missing millions

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  **** Manafort is currently facing two separate indictments. One, in Washington, focuses on money laundering and foreign lobbying. Another, in Alexandria, Virginia, involves tax fraud, bank fraud and failure to report overseas bank accounts. The 69-year-old Manafort could potentially spend the rest of his life in prison if convicted in either case.    Neither case appears to directly relate to the allegations of collusion between the T-rump campaign and Russia that are at the heart of Mueller's mandate, but it was revealed this week that Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein specifically authorized the special counsel's team to pursue the financial and foreign lobbying allegations against Manafort.  ***

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   *** Kilimnik — who special counsel Robert Mueller believes is currently in Russia and has ties to Russian intelligence — helped formulate Manafort's pitches to clients in Russia and Ukraine, according to the records. Among Manafort's clients were Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska and other mega-wealthy Russians with close ties to Russian President Vladimir Putin.    Kilimnik began that work in secret, the records show, even while working for the International Republican Institute — a U.S. government-funded nonprofit supporting the Western-friendly democratic movements that Manafort and his patrons sought to counter. ...    The records show Kilimnik helped conceive strategies that Manafort sold to clients, and that he served as a key liaison between Manafort and principal financial backers, including Deripaska. ***

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  *** A company jointly owned by Manafort and his wife received a $10 million loan in 2010 from the oligarch, Oleg Deripaska, according to the documents, which also alleged that the Russian billionaire provided financial backing for Manafort’s consulting work in Ukraine as far back as 2005.    That information came from a source whose name was redacted in the documents, suggesting that one of Manafort’s former associates has cooperated with special counsel Robert Mueller’s wide-ranging investigation into whether the T-rump campaign coordinated with Russia in its efforts to influence the 2016 presidential election.    “Obviously this is another tie between Manafort and Russian intelligence,” Asha Rangappa, a former FBI counterintelligence agent, said of the new disclosures, citing Deripaska’s deep ties to Putin and the Kremlin. ***

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 *** Manafort is facing two indictments in different federal courts brought by Special Counsel Robert Mueller, as part of Mueller's wide-ranging probe into Russian interference in the 2016 election.    Manafort is accused of a wide range of offenses, from conspiring to launder money and failing to register as a foreign agent in connection with his lobbying for the pro-Russia Ukrainian government, to bank fraud and filing false tax returns. ...    Since Manafort's arrest last October, he has struggled to come up with $10 million in assets he can post as a bond, in exchange for lifting his house arrest conditions. ***

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*** But in their new filing, prosecutors revealed that Rosenstein — who appointed Mueller — wrote a memo last August that outlined the scope of Mueller's appointment.    The memo, which had not previously been released publicly and remains redacted in parts, said that Mueller was empowered to investigate allegations that Manafort "committed a crime or crimes by colluding with Russian government officials" to interfere with the presidential election. ...    Rosenstein also specifically authorized Mueller to investigate any crimes related to payments Manafort received from the Ukrainian government during the tenure of former Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych. ***

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 *** The news follows reports that Manafort's former business associate Richard Gates has agreed to cooperate with special counsel Robert Mueller's team of prosecutors in their case against the former T-rump aide, who was charged along with Gates last year with money laundering and tax fraud.   Gates and Manafort have both plead not guilty. Gates, however, could change his plea "within the next few days," according to a source close to the talks between Mueller's team and Gates's lawyers. ...   On Wednesday, Mueller made a new filing under seal in Manafort's case just days after telling the judge that his team had discovered evidence of "additional criminal conduct" from the former T-rump campaign chief after the court made its initial bail determination."  That criminal conduct includes a series of bank frauds and bank fraud conspiracies," prosecutors wrote in a court filing last week. ***

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  *** Manafort, who was Trump's campaign manager for almost five months in 2016, and Gates, who was deputy campaign manager, were indicted by Mueller's office in October. They face charges including conspiracy to launder money, conspiracy to defraud the United States and failure to file as foreign agents for lobbying work they did on behalf of the pro-Russian Ukrainian Party of Regions. Both have pleaded not guilty. ...    Last Friday, Mueller's office revealed in a court filing that it had uncovered "additional criminal conduct" by Manafort in connection with a series of "bank frauds and bank fraud conspiracies" related to a mortgage on his property in Fairfax, Virginia. ***

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 *** The van der Zwaan plea deal is a new front of Mueller’s sprawling probe, which has so far netted three other guilty pleas, including one from former national security adviser Michael Flynn. ***

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  *** Rick Gates has appeared to be a relatively minor figure in the Trump/Russia probe. But if he were to plead guilty to criminal charges connected to his earlier work as a lobbyist for a pro-Kremlin party in Ukraine, including allegations of money laundering, it would set off a chain of events that could bring Mueller’s investigation deep into the White House. ***

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  Special prosecutor R. Muller hires another prosecutor to focus on cybercrime leads in ever widening Russia election meddling probe.