Reminder of Manafort's situation when he got on Trump's campaign as manager

From April 26, 2016 Washington Post:

Paul Manafort was hired by Donald Trump to bring the wisdom of an old Washington hand to a campaign of political novices and provide expertise on the arcane art of counting convention delegates.

  WaPo

That was the ruse, anyway. Manafort wasn't actually hired, if by hired you mean contracted for pay.

Manafort, 67, is in many ways a natural choice to be Trump’s top campaign adviser. His firm was hired by Trump in the mid-1980s to lobby on gambling and real estate issues, said Manafort’s former business partner Charlie Black. In addition, Manafort has owned an apartment in Trump Tower since January 2015, property records show. And another former Manafort business partner, Roger Stone, has been an informal adviser to Trump for years.

[...]

More than many traditional political consultants, Manafort has demonstrated a willingness to forge unconventional alliances and cut deals in a way that makes him well suited to help Trump secure the nomination in a fractured GOP.

That's one way to put it. Apparently the Washington Post didn't have much information on Manafort - or perhaps any on the FBI investigation into Russian interference in the election that would come that fall.

Manafort also built a high-powered lobbying practice that did not shy from clients others shunned. They included two corrupt dictators, Mobutu Sese Seko of Zaire and Ferdinand Marcos of the Philippines, both of whom stole billions of dollars from their countries.

Always works with the best people.

Deripaska already knew Davis, who with Manafort had helped arrange meetings for him with Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) in January and August 2006 as McCain prepared to run for president.

Hmmmmm...I wonder if anybody in the FBI looked into that.

Deripaska was interested in building his contacts in the United States, which in July 2006 revoked his visa. The Wall Street Journal reported at the time that his visa was pulled amid concerns that he might be linked to organized crime, something he has vigorously denied. He later received visas to travel to the United States.

So, by August, McCain would have been able to find out he should stay away from Deripaska.

[Oleg Deripaska], a Russian aluminum magnate has accused Manafort in a Cayman Islands court of taking nearly $19 million intended for investments, then failing to account for the funds, return them or respond to numerous inquiries about exactly how the money was used.

[...]

The court filing describes a complicated business plan in which Manafort and his partners would establish companies in Cyprus known as “special purpose vehicles” for tax and regulatory purposes.

Let's cut to the chase: Deripaska was likely talking about ill-gotten funds. I'm guessing the $19 million intended for investments was money waiting to be laundered and/or avoiding taxes.

At one point, attorneys for the Russian businessman, Oleg Deripaska, claimed that they could not locate Manafort or his partner, Richard Gates. The tycoon hired a private investigator to track them down, according to a 2014 petition that Deripaska’s attorneys filed in a Cayman Islands court seeking recovery of the money.

“It appears that Paul Manafort and Rick Gates have simply disappeared,” the petition states.

[...]

A week after the petition was filed in Virginia, Judge Gerald Bruce Lee issued an order allowing Deripaska’s team to move ahead. Arlington, Va.-based private investigator Deborah C. Martin filed documents with the court showing that subpoenas were delivered to Gates at his Richmond home and to the wife of Davis at their home. Martin made no mention in her court filings of Manafort. She declined to comment to The Post.

[...]

Court records show that, as of August 2015, seven years after Deripaska requested his money back, the Russian businessman was still seeking to recover the funds. A Deripaska representative said last week that the matter still angers Deripaska and that the tycoon’s “accountants and lawyers are looking at this right now.”

[...]

Another case, in which Manafort tried to develop a 65-story Manhattan luxury apartment building in 2008, illustrates how he has tapped into his global political relationships to pursue financial deals.

That suspiciously look like money laundering?

In a bid to build the $850 million project on the site of the historic Drake Hotel, Manafort relied in part on funds from Dmitry Firtash, a Ukrainian energy tycoon with a history of legal troubles around the world.

And, speaking of Oleg Deripaska, this happened yesterday:

Russian billionaire Oleg Deripaska plans to step down as the president of aluminium giant Rusal, the company said in a statement on Friday.

The change comes less than a month after the inclusion of Deripaska and dozens of tycoons on a U.S. government list of Russian oligarchs. While it is not a sanctions list, Western banks may be reluctant to deal with companies whose owners are included.

Deripaska also plans to quit the same role in En+ Group, another company he controls, two sources familiar with the matter told Reuters on Feb. 19.

  CNBC

Knowing how Deripaska is connected to Manafort, I'm astonished that CNBC doesn't address the why of his "retirement" beyond getting put on a list of tycoons who probably have connections to the Kremlin. That doesn't make sense to me. Or to some other people.

Before Deripaska's announced resignation, the Russian business daily Kommersant cited his appearance on the Treasury's "Kremlin list" as a reason for why he was planning to quit his Rusal post.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters earlier this week that he was doubtful Deripaska would leave because he appeared on the "Kremlin list," but Peskov did not deny Kommersant's report that the well-connected tycoon was planning to step down.

  RadioFreeEurope RadioLiberty

Kommersant newspaper reported claims by sources in Mr Deripaska's companies that he was leaving the top posts due to his inclusion last month in the “Kremlin list” of Russian oligarchs, which the Trump administration issued under US sanctions legislation.

But the list's impact has been called into doubt since it named all Russians with a net worth of at least $1 billion. A source at the company told The Telegraph that the tycoon simply wanted to focus on developing his automobile concern GAZ and its partnership with German carmaker Volkswagen.

[...]

Mr Deripaska's ties to former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort, whom he had previously hired as a consultant, have come under scrutiny. In addition, Republican senator Charles Grassley last week sent a letter asking whether the oligarch had ever employed former British spy Christopher Steele, the author of a controversial dossier claiming Russia had compromising material on Mr Trump.

This month, opposition leader Alexei Navalny discovered recordings allegedly showing that Mr Deripaska had discussed US relations with deputy prime minister Sergei Prikhodko on a yacht trip with young women. According to records found by Mr Navalny, the trip took place the month after Mr Manafort reportedly offered the oligarch private briefings on the Trump campaign.

[...]

Mr Deripaska has sued Anastasia Vashukevich, the model who posted the video and audio recordings of him speaking with Mr Prikhodko to her Instagram, for violating his privacy.

Russian authorities forced Instagram to delete Ms Vashukevich's recordings and temporarily blocked Mr Navalny's website.

  UK Telegraph

Ver interesting.

I wonder if Gates' plea deal and subsequent pressure on Manafort comes into play in Mr. Deripaska's decision. I don't suppose he'll ever get his money out of Manafort now, but at least he knows where he is.

But now, I'm reminded of a report in the March 2018 issue of The Atlantic.

Manafort must have also believed that money would eventually come, just as it always had, from the influence he would wield in the campaign, and exponentially more so if Trump won. So might other favors and dispensations. These notions were very likely what led him to reach out to Oleg Deripaska almost immediately upon securing a post within the campaign, after having evaded him for years. Through one of his old deputies, a Ukrainian named Konstantin Kilimnik, he sent along press clippings that highlighted his new job. “How do we use to get whole,” Manafort emailed Kilimnik. “Has OVD operation seen?” Manafort’s spokesman has acknowledged that the initials refer to Oleg Vladimirovich Deripaska. In the course of the exchanges, Kilimnik expressed optimism that “we will get back to the original relationship” with the oligarch.

All of Manafort’s hopes, of course, proved to be pure fantasy. Instead of becoming the biggest player in Donald Trump’s Washington, he has emerged as a central villain in its central scandal. An ever-growing pile of circumstantial evidence suggests that the Trump campaign colluded with Russian efforts to turn the 2016 presidential election in its favor. Given Manafort’s long relationship with close Kremlin allies including Yanukovych and Deripaska, and in particular his indebtedness to the latter, it is hard to imagine him as either a naive or passive actor in such a scheme—although Deripaska denies knowledge of any plan by Manafort to get back into his good graces.

[...] Last year, a group of Manafort’s longtime friends, led by an old Republican hand named Bill Greener, tried to organize a cadre of surrogates to defend Manafort from the allegations against him, including the worst one: that he collaborated with a hostile foreign power to subvert the American democratic process. Manafort’s old partner Charlie Black even showed up for a meeting, though the two had largely fallen out of touch. A few of the wheel men from the old firm wanted to help too. Yet, when volunteers were needed to go on TV as character witnesses, nobody raised his hand. “There wasn’t a lot to work with,” one person contacted by this group told me. “And nobody could be sure that Paul didn’t do it.” In fact, everything about the man and the life he chose suggests that he did.

  The Atlantic

No sooner had Manafort secured a position with Trump's campaign than he reached out to Deripaska to ask about clearing up his debt.  By helping the Kremlin-tied oligarch (and likely money launderer) get a hold on Trump's presidency?

And Konstantin Kilimnik, mentioned in that article?  He's allegedly Person A in Mueller's pleading charging Van der Zwaan (who pleaded guilty) just a few days ago.

Person A, who Weissmann said lives largely in Ukraine, appears to be Konstantin Kilimnik, Manafort’s longtime business associate in the country. Prosectors have previously suggested that Kilimnik has ties to Russian intelligence. He also functioned in 2016 as an intermediary between Manafort and Oleg Deripaska, an aluminum oligarch suspected of providing intelligence on the US presidential election to Russian President Vladimir Putin in 2016. In one email Manafort sent while he chaired Trump’s campaign, he told Kilimnik that he was willing to privately brief Deripaska on the 2016 presidential contest. Kilimnik’s involvement appears to further tie Van Der Zwaan’s case to Mueller’s broader investigation.

  Mother Jones

I wonder if Kilimnik will disappear, too.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.