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.
Show me the bank records and tax filings. This talk from a bullied accountant means nothing.
“Bullshit. You cannot be compelled, even by lawsuit, to commit a felony. “
It sounds like she was given her talking points.
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.
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.
Mueller de Torquemada.
Exactly. Exposing your client to the potential for fraud charges isn’t condoned by any ethics class I ever attended.
Yeah, that'll go over like a lead brick … getting sued for refusing to do something illegal. Right....
??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.
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.
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.
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?
>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
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.
ditto
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”.
.... Just asking for a friend ...
BINGO!! WHY would Manafort FILE a LAWSUIT if she wouldn’t FALSIFY his TAX RETURN?? THAT is LUDICROUS!
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
So after all the Russia, Russia stuff, they go after Manafort on tax evasion from 2015.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.