Manafort's New York Property Purchases Under Investigation

Two of New York's top law enforcement officials are examining the real estate transactions of Donald Trump's one-time campaign manager, Paul Manafort. WNYC has confirmed that State Attorney General Eric Schneiderman and Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance are each separately probing Manafort's property purchases. The two investigations were first reported in the Wall Street Journal.

In March, WNYC reported on questions about Manafort's New York homes, which include an apartment in Trump Tower, a loft in Soho, and a brownstone in Carroll Gardens, Brooklyn.

Manafort purchased all three homes through shell companies, instead of in his own name, and paid the purchase price in full. This practice is common, but experts say it is open to exploitation to money launderers, because the original source of funds can be hard to trace. Manafort later transferred all three residences to his own name and mortgaged the homes.

 In the same time period when he was buying those homes, Manafort did work for the former pro-Russian Ukrainian President, Viktor Yanukovych. Ukrainian investigators said Manafort was paid off-the-books. A spokesman for Manafort disputes that characterization. Manafort also consulted for Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska, who wanted Manafort to spiff up Vladimir Putin's image in the West.

Beyond that, there are some other details that may interest investigators. For instance, Manafort later took out mortgages on his Brooklyn Brownstone amounting to more than the value of the home. The loan came from a bank with connections to the Trump campaign.

A Manafort spokesperson, Jason Maloni, said Manafort had not heard from Schneiderman or Vance. “If we receive an inquiry I expect we’ll cooperate. But in the meantime illegal leaks about a confidential investigation are troubling,” Maloni said, in an emailed statement.

EDITOR’S NOTE:

This story has been revised for clarity. An earlier version said that Manafort was paid “off the books,” without attribution to the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine.