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Manafort accountant testifies she helped falsify tax records
The Hill ^ | 08/03/18 | John Bowden

Posted on 08/03/2018 7:10:31 PM PDT by yesthatjallen

A former accountant for former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort testified Friday that she helped falsify tax records on his behalf in order to misrepresent $900,000 in personal income as a business loan.

Cindy Laporta testified before a jury that she was asked by Manafort's former business associate, Rick Gates, that Manafort couldn't afford to pay his taxes 2015, telling her that she should instead misrepresent Manafort's income, The Washington Post Reported.

The misrepresentation is estimated to have saved Manafort at least $400,000 in taxes, according to Laporta.

Laporta, who has been granted immunity by federal prosecutors for her testimony, added that she chose to go along with the scheme in order to avoid potential litigation from Manafort's lobbying firm.

“I had a couple of choices at that point,” Laporta said. “I could have refused to file the tax return,” which would have led to a lawsuit, she said.

“I could have called Mr. Manafort and Mr. Gates liars,” she continued, according to the Post. “But Mr. Manafort was a longtime client of the firm and I did not want to do that, either.”

Laporta went on to say that she regretted the decision to falsify the tax records. When she asked Gates for a record of the so-called business loan, she said, he provided a document bearing Manafort's signature.

Her testimony came a day after the former Trump campaign chair's personal bookkeeper testified that Manafort approved "every penny" of his financial dealings amid reports that he spent lavishly on menswear and items for his home.

Prosecutors have sought to cast Manafort as a prolific spender who used money illegally hidden from U.S. authorities and made from lobbying for pro-Russia political groups in Ukraine to fund his sumptuous habits.

Manafort is facing 18 charges in his Virginia trial, which began this week, and could be sentenced to life in prison if convicted. He also faces separate charges in Washington, D.C., in a trial scheduled to begin next month.


TOPICS: News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: accountant; gates; manafort; manafortaccountant; manaforttrial; mueller; rickgates; taxevasion; trump
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To: yesthatjallen

Show me the bank records and tax filings. This talk from a bullied accountant means nothing.


21 posted on 08/03/2018 8:05:51 PM PDT by Cementjungle
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To: Lazamataz

“Bullshit. You cannot be compelled, even by lawsuit, to commit a felony. “

It sounds like she was given her talking points.


22 posted on 08/03/2018 8:06:48 PM PDT by Revel
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To: Paladin2

That’s a great point. Why didn’t the IRS bring this case and why is Mueller involved at all since the charges have nothing whatsoever to do with the 2016 election. Very fishy.


23 posted on 08/03/2018 8:13:58 PM PDT by Gahanna Bob
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To: yesthatjallen

How did this testimony get in? This should be used against Gates. It has no legal value in Manafort’s case. This could only be used if Gates had testified that Manifort put him up to it. Gates hasn’t testified so the testimony of this witness should not have been allowed.


24 posted on 08/03/2018 8:16:25 PM PDT by P-Marlowe (Freep mail me if you want to be on my Fingerstyle Acoustic Guitar Ping List)
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To: yesthatjallen

Mueller de Torquemada.


25 posted on 08/03/2018 8:24:36 PM PDT by Ouchthatonehurt
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To: Bernard

Exactly. Exposing your client to the potential for fraud charges isn’t condoned by any ethics class I ever attended.


26 posted on 08/03/2018 8:34:26 PM PDT by Tucsonican
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To: yesthatjallen
“I could have refused to file the tax return,” which would have led to a lawsuit,

Yeah, that'll go over like a lead brick … getting sued for refusing to do something illegal. Right....

27 posted on 08/03/2018 8:38:12 PM PDT by piasa (Attitude adjustments offered here free of charge)
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To: Honest Nigerian

??If I were advising the defense on this I might suggest that the accountant had gone rogue and done this to “help” the client.
The taxpayer signs the return under penalty of perjury; the preparer signs based on what he/she knows/knew (or should have known).

Trust me: they WILL cover it. An attorney doing his or her first trial would catch this. They will also ask her about other tax filings she’s forged. If she hasn’t forged any, why would she fear repurcussions? If she has, of course, it will weigh heavily in the mind of the jurors.


28 posted on 08/03/2018 8:39:52 PM PDT by 1L
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To: unlearner

Piss poor coverage of this trial if ask me. Only America’s enemy MSM reporting its own slanted version that I could find. I haven’t even seen a photo of Manafort yet. The only description I seen was from The Atlantic where the biased reporter said he was wearing a green jumpsuit and looked reasonably well for a man who sleeps on a concrete bed that is.


29 posted on 08/03/2018 8:46:11 PM PDT by Karl Spooner ( ·)
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To: yesthatjallen

Never occurred to her to talk to the client about why it’s not a great idea to falsify your taxes? She could have told him he could set up a payment schedule, there are plenty of options including bringing in a tax lawyer or a senior accountant to help figure things out.


30 posted on 08/03/2018 9:22:36 PM PDT by McGavin999 ("The press is impotent when it abandons itself to falsehood."Thomas Jeffersons)
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To: yesthatjallen

As soon as ths witness invoked Gates as the source, where was the the defense? Strenuous objections should have been registered immediately. This is nothing but hearsay, unless and until Gates is called under oath to corroborate it (appears unlikely at this point). Giving immunity to this defrocked CPA allows her to accuse Manafort of fraud by proxy.

Why did Judge Ellis permit this testimony? Was his waylaying of the Mueller prosecutors earlier this week just for headlines and show?


31 posted on 08/03/2018 9:27:42 PM PDT by confederatecarpetbag
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To: DUMBGRUNT

>About forty years back my employer kind of rounded up my earings, to help me qualify for a mortgage.
Should I be concerned?

You may want to register as a Democrat, just in case.

/j


32 posted on 08/03/2018 9:44:30 PM PDT by Do_Tar (To my NSA handler: Only kidding.)
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To: Bernard
Every ethics course I have attended as an accountant always includes an informal comment along the lines of,“you will end up in a situation where you need to make a choice to do the right thing.” Not everybody chooses to actually do the right thing.
Sorry I missed the lesson in ethics in your phony course(s) on "ethics"

That sounds like Loretta Lynch taught your ethics course(s)at Obama's DOJ.

33 posted on 08/03/2018 10:20:07 PM PDT by lewislynn ( Jeff Sessions not a mouse or mr. magoo but a low life back stabbing bastard pretending to be AG)
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To: Revel

ditto


34 posted on 08/03/2018 10:27:50 PM PDT by the_daug
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To: yesthatjallen

This could be a great prosecution tool against Hillary and her Foundation, i.e. laundering foreign political access money as charitable donations and not paying taxes on it or even reporting it as “access money”.


35 posted on 08/03/2018 10:37:37 PM PDT by MadMax, the Grinning Reaper
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To: yesthatjallen
...... Does the SWAMP really want to stumble down this murky path ..... from which all of the denizens may well be dragged .....?

.... Just asking for a friend ...

36 posted on 08/03/2018 11:14:59 PM PDT by R_Kangel (BTW)
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To: ClearCase_guy

BINGO!! WHY would Manafort FILE a LAWSUIT if she wouldn’t FALSIFY his TAX RETURN?? THAT is LUDICROUS!


37 posted on 08/04/2018 1:57:18 AM PDT by Ann Archy (Abortion....... The HUMAN Sacrifice to the god of Convenience.)
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To: All
This has all the makings of a prosecution similar to VA governor McDonnell. Here-say, ambiguous legal mumbo jumbo, and lives ruined.. then the case was overturned and vacated and never revisited because they had no actual evidence of a crime.
38 posted on 08/04/2018 2:18:37 AM PDT by newnhdad (Our new motto: USA, it was fun while it lasted.)
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To: Williams

In every trial, time schedule breaks are mostly outside the control of the parties. A judge’s private schedule, a schedule of a juror that a judge wants to accommodate, a juror getting back from a lunch break late, a witness that is late, a witness that goes “dumb” about how long to talk, ad infinitum. Lawyers try to time the breaks to their advantage, but don’t always succeed. I heard a report that cross-ex will begin on Monday. Personally, I think that favors Manafort as the jury will be fresh and the lawyers will have the entire weekend to hone the precise questions they want to ask. They are writing the script this weekend. Of course, it would have been important to lodge an objection or skirmish late on Friday in order to create doubt in the jurors minds over the weekend. The show will begin on Monday. Brace yourself for the fireworks. Just my $0.02.

gwjack


39 posted on 08/04/2018 3:27:24 AM PDT by gwjack (May God give America His richest blessings.)
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To: yesthatjallen

So after all the Russia, Russia stuff, they go after Manafort on tax evasion from 2015.


40 posted on 08/04/2018 3:38:33 AM PDT by Heart of Georgia
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