Paul Manafort's Trump Tower apartment is now property of the U.S. government


A piece of Trump Tower in Manhattan now belongs to the U.S. government.
On Thursday, Judge Amy Berman Jackson approved the Justice Department's request to seize Paul Manafort's condo inside President Trump's flagship building. Manafort, Trump's former campaign chairman, was convicted of tax and bank fraud last August and pleaded guilty in September to conspiracy charges. He is now serving a 7.5-year sentence in a federal prison.
In September, he agreed to give up five of his properties, including the one in Trump Tower. In 2015, Manafort took out a $3 million loan from UBS Bank, but it's unclear how much has been paid back, NBC News reports. Jackson decided that U.S. Marshals will be in charge of selling the property, but it must go for more than the outstanding amount of the loan.
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Jackson also ruled that the government can take over three of Manafort's bank accounts, including one at Federal Savings Bank. Last week, bank CEO Stephen Calk was indicted for allegedly approving $16 million in loans for Manafort in exchange for his assistance securing a spot in the Trump administration.
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Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.
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