BREAKING: Manafort partner describes funneling millions through Cyprus accounts

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ALEXANDRIA, Va. (AP) — Paul Manafort’s longtime deputy told jurors Tuesday how he spent years disguising millions of dollars in foreign income as loans to lower the former Trump campaign chairman’s tax bill.

Rick Gates, the government’s star witness, recounted how he and Manafort used offshore shell companies and bank accounts in Cyprus to funnel the money, all while concealing the accounts and the income from the IRS.

The article goes on to state the following:

“In Cyprus, they were documented as loans. In reality, it was basically money moving between accounts,” Gates said during his second day of testimony in the financial fraud trial of his former boss.

Prosecutors summoned Gates, described by witnesses as Manafort’s “right-hand man,” to give jurors the first-hand account of a co-conspirator they say helped Manafort carry out an elaborate offshore tax-evasion and bank fraud scheme.

Manafort’s defense attorneys have sought to paint Gates as an embezzler, liar and the instigator of any criminal conduct. They have several times tried to impugn his credibility before the jury.

Gates walked into a packed courtroom a day after he calmly acknowledged having embezzled hundreds of thousands of dollars from Manafort and said the two had committed crimes together by stashing money in foreign bank accounts and falsifying bank loan documents.

Manafort and Gates were the first two people indicted in special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into potential ties between Russia and the Trump campaign. But Gates pleaded guilty months later and agreed to cooperate in Mueller’s investigation of Manafort, the only American charged by the special counsel to opt for trial instead of a guilty plea.

Gates began his testimony Monday with an account of how he spent a decade with Manafort in Ukraine, where he said they were paid by wealthy businessmen there. They wired money into Cyprus accounts, and Gates helped Manafort move it to the U.S., he said https://t.co/DqiUlhRMU6 pic.twitter.com/QbsD4tBUTi

— TicToc by Bloomberg (@tictoc) August 7, 2018

Gates, who pleaded guilty and is cooperating with Mueller, admitted Monday that he stole hundreds of thousands of dollars from his boss. Manafort’s lawyers said he stole millions https://t.co/DqiUlhRMU6 pic.twitter.com/LUAQzKv7Az

— TicToc by Bloomberg (@tictoc) August 7, 2018

In today’s testimony, Gates described to jurors how he and Manafort used shell companies and accounts in Cyprus to hide millions.

“The purpose of these entities was to accept payments and make payments,” Gates said in federal court https://t.co/ngbZt0MK3T pic.twitter.com/3umvP0GniK

— TicToc by Bloomberg (@tictoc) August 7, 2018

Gates says Manafort never wanted his name to appear on Cyprus accounts he used to receive payments from Ukrainian businessmen who paid him for political consulting work there for former President Viktor Yanukovych and his Party of Regions https://t.co/ngbZt0MK3T pic.twitter.com/Ir53zUwvur

— TicToc by Bloomberg (@tictoc) August 7, 2018

In damning testimony, Rick Gates reveals web of secret accounts used to fund Manafort’s lavish lifestyle https://t.co/EPAR0FNCbo

— USA TODAY (@USATODAY) August 7, 2018

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