Paul Manafort is reportedly under investigation by the U.S. Treasury's financial crimes unit

Paul Manafort is under investigation from the U.S. Treasury

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published 23 March 2017

U.S. Treasury Department agents investigating former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort's work in Eastern Europe have received information this year about Manafort's offshore financial transactions in Cyprus, The Associated Press reported early Thursday, citing "a person familiar with the case." Cypriot investigators reportedly turned over the documents to the Treasury Department's Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, and the Cyprus attorney general was aware of the U.S. request. Manafort declined to comment to the AP and a Treasury spokesman said he could not confirm or deny potential investigations.

The time period covered under the requested documents isn't clear, AP says, though federal prosecutors have been interested in Manafort's actions in relation to stolen Ukrainian assets since one of his clients, pro-Moscow former Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych, was ousted in 2014. (No U.S. charges have been filed in that case.) AP — which reported on Wednesday that Manafort signed a $10 million annual contract in 2006 with Oleg Deripaska, a Russian oligarch close to Russian President Vladimir Putin — says U.S. investigators are expected to examine millions of dollars in wire transfers to Cyprus. Manafort is known to use Cyprus to route money, AP says, including from Deripaska, as detailed in a 2014 lawsuit. Those secretive transfers are not in themselves illegal.

On Wednesday, White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer says President Trump was unaware of Manafort's work for Deripaska. Democrats said the Trump-Russian connections keep piling up. AP's reporting "undermines the groundless assertions that the administration has been making that there are no ties between President Trump and Russia. This is not a drip, drip, drip," said Rep. Jackie Speier (D-Calif.), a member of the House Intelligence Committee. "This is now dam-breaking with water flushing out with all kinds of entanglements." You can read more at AP.

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Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.