Paul Manafort, Donald Trump’s former campaign chairman, was indicted by a grand jury on Monday morning on allegations of tax fraud, money laundering, and failure to register as a foreign agent. The indictment, as laid out by special counsel Robert Mueller, also revealed something else about Manafort—his taste for luxury cars, multi-million dollar homes, and expensive clothes.
“Manafort used his hidden overseas wealth to enjoy a lavish lifestyle in the United States without paying taxes on that income,” the indictment document says.
Manafort spent the money, part of an estimated $12 million wired to the U.S. from overseas, to make $273,000 in payments on a Mercedes-Benz and four Range Rovers, $20,000 for housekeeping, and $1.37 million in clothing purchased in New York and Beverly Hills. He spent another $5.4 million on improvements to a home in New York’s seaside Hamptons plus another $655,500 for landscaping for that property.
Manafort also spent $934,000 at an antique rug store in Virginia, and paid $1.31 million to a company in Florida that does home entertainment, automation, and lighting.
Mueller put Manafort in his sights as part of his investigation into any Russian government involvement in the 2016 presidential election. Manafort served as Trump’s campaign chairman for four months in 2016 until he was dismissed after it was discovered that he had been paid more than $12 million by former Ukrainian President Viktor F. Yanukovych.
The document accuses Manafort of acting as a foreign lobbyists without registering as a foreign agent and failing to pay taxes on the millions he received from the pro-Russia Ukrainian government. The indictment also says Manafort laundered more than $18 million between 2006 and 2016.