When it rains
Russian Tyc00n Sues Trump’s Ex-Campaign Chairman for Fraud
Oleg Deripaska’s firm accuses Paul Manafort and his partner Richard Gates of stealing millions of dollars :conceitedsideeye:
Scott PattersonUpdated Jan. 10, 2018 3:43 p.m. ET
Oleg Deripaska alleged in a lawsuit filed in the New York state court Wednesday that Paul Manafort, the former campaign manager, and his long-time partner Richard Gates “vanished” the money invested by the Russian businessman in the late 2000s. The suit, filed by Mr. Deripaska’s Cyprus-based Surf Horizon Ltd., seeks $25 million in punitive damages and other compensatory damages.:hovlaugh:
“It was only in the past year that Surf obtained access to evidence showing that, not only had Messrs. Manafort and Gates failed properly to supervise the investment, but each had secretly and improperly profited from it,” said a spokesman for Mr. Deripaska’s investment group.
Mr. Gates didn't respond to a request for comment.
Earlier
Paul Manafort, former chairman of Donald Trump’s presidential campaign, arrived at the FBI’s Washington field office with his lawyer Monday morning. He faces charges stemming from Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation. Credit: Del Quentin Wilber/WSJ (Originally published Oct. 30, 2017)
Jason Maloni, Mr. Manafort’s spokesman, said the filing was a surprise. “This is a commercial matter which we thought had been addressed and resolved years ago,” he said. “We will respond, if we must do so, in the appropriate manner.”
The lawsuit provides another twist in a story that has dominated news in Washington: allegations of links between Mr. Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign and the Russian government. Mr. Manafort’s ties to Russian officials and businessmen, including Mr. Deripaska, have fueled those allegations.
Messrs. Manafort and Gates have pleaded not guilty to a dozen charges filed against them by special counsel
Robert Mueller, who is investigating Russian meddling in the 2016 election. The allegations stem from lobbying work the two men performed between 2006 and 2015 for the ruling party of Ukraine as well as subsequent attempts to allegedly hide the payments from that work.
Mr. Trump has repeatedly called the Russian probe a “witch hunt” and says there was no collusion between his campaign and Russia.
To recover the funds, Mr. Deripaska filed a petition in the Grand Court of the Cayman Islands in 2014 against Pericles Emerging Market Partners, which Messrs. Manafort and Gates controlled. Mr. Maloni and the Cayman law firm that represented Mr. Deripaska had previously declined comment on the petition.
The lawsuit by Mr. Deripaska was aided by Mr. Mueller’s indictment of Messrs. Gates and Manafort, the complaint says. The indictment “provides detail regarding movement of funds from bank accounts in Cyprus to accounts in the United States controlled by Manafort and Gates,” the complaint says. :confusedtucker:
The lawsuit primarily relates to an $18.9 million investment by Surf in 2008 to fund the purchase of Ukrainian cable companies collectively known as Black Sea Cable, according to the complaint. The funds were provided to an entity controlled by Messrs. Manafort and Gates, who used it to purchase Black Sea.
As the financial crisis struck, Mr. Deripaska’s company, Surf, recommended to Messrs. Manafort and Gates that Black Sea Cable be sold, according to the complaint.
Messrs. Manafort and Gates agreed and made representations to Surf that they were seeking to sell the company, the complaint says. Instead, Messrs. Manafort and Gates “took no steps to find a buyer for Black Sea Cable,” the complaint says.
After 2010, Surf made repeated inquiries into the status of its investment and on June 2, 2011, received a final email from Mr. Gates that “efforts to sell Black Sea Cable were still underway,” according to the complaint.
It later emerged that Black Sea Cable was owned by a third party with no connection to Surf’s partnership with Messrs. Gates and Manafort, according to the complaint. “Surf had no knowledge that Black Sea Cable had been sold or transferred to another party,” the complaint says.
Surf also alleges in the complaint that Messrs. Manafort and Gates diverted about $1 million of the funds intended for the purchase of Black Sea Cable to their own firms.
—Brett Forrest contributed to this article.
Write to Scott Patterson at
scott.patterson@wsj.com
:TeyonahLMAO:
@DonKnock @SJUGrad13 @88m3 @wire28 @smitty22 @fact @Hood Critic @ExodusNirvana @Blessed Is the Man @OneManGang @dtownreppin214 @JKFrazier @tmonster @BigMoneyGrip @Soymuscle Mike @.r. @GinaThatAintNoDamnPuppy! @GnauzBookOfRhymes @Dracudiddy @Dameon Farrow @TheNig @VR Tripper @re'up