SAN FRANCISCO, October 30, (THEWILL) – Paul Manafort, a former campaign Manager for President Donald Trump, has been indicted for money laundering and conspiracy against the United States.
Manafort, 68, a longtime Republican operative, arrived at the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s (FBI) Washington field office on Monday morning to hand himself in after being indicted by a federal grand jury.
Manafort’s associate, Rick Gates, was also indicted. He was also due to surrender.
The 12-count indictment was the first from the investigation by Justice Department special counsel Robert Mueller into alleged Russian meddling in last year’s campaign to try to tilt the vote in Trump’s favour.
Manafort ran the Trump campaign from June to August of 2016 before resigning amid reports he might have received millions in illegal payments from a pro-Russian political party in Ukraine.
It was not immediately clear if the charges, some of which date back at least a decade, related to Manafort’s work as campaign manager.
The indictment contains counts of conspiracy against the United States, conspiracy to launder money, acting as unregistered agents of Ukraine’s government, false and misleading statements and failure to file reports of foreign bank and financial accounts, the federal special counsel said.
The charge of conspiracy to commit money laundering carries a maximum 20-year prison sentence. However, neither Trump nor his campaign were mentioned in the indictment
