Jury’s Attention Turns to Manafort’s Soho Airbnb

On Thursday, prosecutors in the Paul Manafort trial turned the jury's attention to a Soho apartment Manafort owned. They say Manafort — the former chairman of Donald Trump's presidential campaign, who's accused of bank fraud and tax fraud — told a bank it was a second home so he could get a bigger loan. But they say he was actually renting it out on Airbnb.

Manafort bought his place on Howard Street for $2.85 million in 2102, a time when he was making millions in political consulting fees in Ukraine. He paid the price in full, with no financing.

Four years later, Manafort had lost his Ukrainian client, and was in financial trouble. To make money, he rented the Howard Street apartment to people like Lucy Lesser, a TV producer and director who needed a location for a three-day shoot.

“It was pretty clear that nobody was living there full time, 'cause there was no personal affects or anything like that — kind of framed generic photos on the walls, and I would say the decor was a little stodgy,” Lesser said.

But at around $800 a day, Lesser says it was a good deal. She never met the owner when she rented the place in February 2016, and was stunned when she found out later who it was. 

"I actually would have never seen that coming," she said.

On Thursday, in a Virginia courtroom, prosecutors called an Airbnb executive and a banker to the stand. The government says Manafort deceived the bank with false statements and false documents. The banker said rental properties are considered higher risk, and loans for them carry a higher interest rate.

In cross examinations, Manafort's lawyers indicated that it wasn't rented all that often, and tried to raise doubts about just how many film crews and tourists had really passed through the Howard Street apartment.