Manafort trial: Cindy Laporta testifies it was 'wrong' to agree to loan increase on former Trump aide's tax returns
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An accountant for Donald Trump's former campaign chairman Paul Manafort testified on Friday that she prepared his tax returns despite her concerns about the propriety of classifying money he transferred from overseas as loans.
Judge TS Ellis asked the accountant, Cynthia Laporta, whether she was testifying under an immunity agreement with the government because she was concerned that she could be prosecuted. She answered, “Correct.”
Ms Laporta testified she knew an accounting treatment for a loan was wrong when preparing Mr Manafort's tax return for 2014. “I very much regret it,” she told the courtroom.
Her testimony came on the trial's fourth day as prosecutors sought to drive home their case that Mr Manafort tried to hide millions of dollars he earned working for pro-Russian politicians in Ukraine. Manafort, 69, has pleaded not guilty to charges of bank fraud, tax fraud and failing to disclose foreign bank accounts.
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The trial in federal court in Alexandria, Virginia, is the first arising from Special Counsel Robert Mueller's investigation of Russia's interference in the 2016 US election.
Both Ms Laporta and fellow accountant Philip Ayliff, her predecessor who handled Mr Manafort's tax filings at the firm KWC, testified that they had no knowledge that Mr Manafort controlled foreign bank accounts. Such accounts must be reported to tax authorities if they contain $10,000 or more.
Ms Laporta said she asked Mr Manafort directly about any such holdings and was told there were none.
Prosecutors have tried to make their case first by presenting testimony about Mr Manafort's lavish lifestyle and then detailing his financial dealings.
Defence attorneys have signalled they will seek to blame the financial charges against Mr Manafort on his business partner Rick Gates, who was President Trump's deputy campaign chairman in the 2016 presidential election.
Cindy Laporta has testified that she was involved the falsification of documents to help Paul Manafort obtain loans.
First, she said that although documents from Mr Manafort’s bookkeeper showed that a property he owned in Lower Manhattan was being used as a rental in 2015 — he made $116,000 in income while also claiming depreciation — she told an employee of Citizens Bank it was a second home because Mr Manafort could “get a better rate” on a long that way.
Ms Laporta testified that a letter she sent from a shell company to Citizens Bank to help Paul Manafort get a multimillion-dollar loan was a fake.
The prosecution have claimed that a shell company, Peranova Holdings, they allege was Manafort-controlled had "loaned" Manafort $1.5 million for several years.
In 2016, when Manafort sought a legitimate Citizens Bank loan, the bank said it worried that his company DMP International didn't have enough cash to pay back its debt to Peranova. So, Rick Gates, Mr Manafort's former deupty had sent Ms Laporta, an accountant who inherited Paul Manafort's account in 2014, a forged loan forgiveness letter from Peranova back-dated half-year earlier.
Mr Gates allegedly told Ms Laporta in an email he would "chase down the signatures," effectively acknowledging the letter he provided from the supposed lender was not real, the court heard.
Testimony in the criminal trial of Paul Manafort has ended for the day.
Accountant Cindy Laporta, will take the witness stand again at 1pm ET on Monday.
Prosecutors completed their direct questioning of Ms Laporta on Friday. The defence team will have the opportunity to question her on Monday.
With that, we are ending our coverage for today. Thanks for reading.
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