Manafort, who was convicted in 2018 on tax evasion and bank fraud charges, was pardoned by Trump in 2020, soon before he left office.
“The United States of America brings this action to collect outstanding civil penalties assessed against Defendant Paul J. Manafort for his willful failure to timely report his financial interest in foreign bank accounts,” the Justice Department announced in a filing with the U.S. District Court in West Palm Beach, Florida.
The Justice Department stated it was seeking $2,976,350.15.
Manafort’s lawyer, Jeffrey Neiman, announced that the government was pursuing a monetary penalty against Manafort “for simply failing to file a tax form.”
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”Mr. Manafort was aware the Government was going to file the suit because he has tried for months to resolve this civil matter. Nonetheless, the Government insisted on filing this suit simply to embarrass Mr. Manafort,” Neiman stated.
Manafort explained to POLITICO earlier this month that he intends to head back to work soon doing “general business consulting.”
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During a 2018 jury trial in Alexandria, Va., on some of the various criminal charges, Manafort was found guilty of failing to file a Foreign Bank Account Report for 2012. However, the jury failed to reach a verdict on the same charge for 2013 and 2014. Jurors split 11-1 in favor of convicting Manafort on those counts, according to the verdict sheet and juror interviews.
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On the same day Trump left office in January 2021, a former Mueller deputy, Andrew Weissmann, published a legal commentary on the Just Security website claiming that Trump’s pardon of Manafort was poorly communicated and failed to cover the charges he was never convicted on in Virginia. Stressing that Manafort was sent home from his seven-and-a-half-year prison sentence after serving just two years, Weissmann claimed that the punishment of Manafort was so modest that the Justice Department should consider re-prosecuting him on the 10 mistried charges in Virginia as well as other charges dismissed after he agreed to a plea deal with Mueller’s team to avoid a second trial in Washington.
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In the 2018 conviction on charges of financial wrongdoing, prosecutors had blamed Manafort for hiding from U.S. tax authorities $16 million he earned as a political consultant for pro-Russian politicians in Ukraine to fund an opulent lifestyle and then lying to banks to secure $20 million in loans after his Ukrainian income dried up, and he required cash.
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