New York state’s attorney general and Manhattan’s district attorney have reportedly opened investigations into former Donald Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort’s real estate deals.
Attorney General Eric Schneiderman and District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr. are in the early stages of separate investigations into Manafort’s dealings, Bloomberg reported.
Manafort bought condos and apartments in New York – including a $3.7 million condo at Trump Tower – Los Angeles, Virginia and Florida, and used many of those properties as collateral as he borrowed from companies with ties to the president.
Soon after leaving the campaign, Manafort received a $3.5 million loan from Spruce Capital Partners, which has Ukrainian ties through one of its backers, billionaire Alexander Rovt.
Schneiderman’s office is likely focusing on whether any of the deals were used for money laundering, while Vance is most likely looking into whether there was any fraud committed, the Wall Street Journal reported.
A spokesperson for Manafort told Bloomberg, “If someone’s leaking information about an investigation, that’s a crime.”
The Justice Department last month requested banking records for Manafort as part of the growing probes related to possible collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia during the 2016 elections.
Investigators requested Manafort’s banking records from Citizens Financial Group, which gave him a $2.7 million loan last year to refinance a Manhattan condo. [Bloomberg, WSJ] — Rich Bockmann