Currently under house arrest, following his indictment, Paul Manafort stole millions of dollars of tax payer’s money with his ‘partner in crime’ Rick Gates. The pair laundered the money through off-shore accounts in exotic locations such as; Cyprus, Seychelles and Saint Vincent.
Paul Manafort reportedly took home roughly $18,000,000 of the total $75,000,000 and of course he went shopping. He spent a whopping $1,369,655 on men’s clothing, $1,589,850 on antiques and $273,455 on cars, because when you have stolen that much cash you have to look the part. Furthermore Manafort spend around $6.5 million on properties and rented one of them out as an Airbnb, bringing him in an extra few grand every week in his big fat greedy pockets.
Both Manafort and Gates pled not guilty to 12 charges of conspiracy against the US, conspiracy to launder money, failing to register as a foreign agent, making false statements and failure to report offshore bank accounts.
Manafort and Gates were released on bonds of $10m and $5m respectively. The pair would not pay these amounts unless they violate court orders. The terms of their house arrests are; they must check in with law enforcement daily by phone and are allowed out only for court appearances, to meet lawyers, for medical emergencies and for religious observance.
The pairs’ crimes have been described as a ‘conspiracy against the US’ and I couldn’t agree more. White collar crimes are usually pushed under the carpet and are often seen as ‘victimless’ when in fact they tend to be some of the worst crimes. But what do you think? How severe do you think Manafort and Gates sentences should be?
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