By Jack Gillum, Menelaos Hadjicostis and Eric Tucker
WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. government investigation of President Donald Trump's former campaign chairman, Paul Manafort, crossed the Atlantic earlier this year to the Mediterranean island nation of Cyprus, once known as a haven for money laundering by Russian billionaires.
Treasury agents in recent months obtained information connected to
Manafort's transactions from Cypriot authorities, according to a person
familiar with the matter who was not authorized to speak publicly. The
request was part of a federal anti-corruption probe into Manafort's work
in Eastern Europe. The Cyprus attorney general, one of the country's
top law enforcement officers, was also aware of the American request.
Manafort was Trump's unpaid campaign chairman from March until August
last year, during the critical run-up to the Republican National
Convention. He's been a leading focus of the U.S. investigation into
whether Trump associates coordinated with Moscow to meddle in the 2016
presidential campaign.
Manafort, in a statement to the AP Thursday when asked about the
Cyprus transactions, characterized them as a normal practice. "Like many
companies doing business internationally, my company was paid via wire
transfer, typically using clients' preferred financial institutions and
instructions," he said.
Federal prosecutors became interested in Manafort's activities years
ago as part of a broad investigation to recover stolen Ukrainian assets
after the ouster of pro-Russian President Viktor Yanukovych there in
early 2014. No U.S. criminal charges have been filed in the case.
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Source: Associated Press
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