Manafort’s attorney, Jeffrey Neiman, confirmed the settlement in a brief phone interview Sunday and said his client was “glad to put this chapter of his life behind him.”
The settlement was announced in a document dated Feb. 22 and filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida, where Manafort lives. reported on Saturday by Florida BulldogA non-profit website.
Details of how and when Manafort will pay the settlement were not disclosed in court documents, and his attorney declined to provide that information.
The settlement would end a civil suit filed by the Justice Department in April 2022 seeking to compel Manafort to pay millions of dollars in penalties and interest for “failing to timely report his financial interests in foreign bank accounts.” In 2013 and 2014, Manafort allegedly failed to file a Foreign Bank and Financial Accounts (known as FBAR) report, which is required of any U.S. citizen who has more than $10,000 overseas.
According to the Justice Department, Manafort earned income from consulting work in Ukraine and deposited money into several offshore accounts in Cyprus, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, and the United Kingdom.
Some of those accounts listed Manafort as an “authorized signatory or beneficial owner of the account,” according to the complaint. It also said many of the accounts were held at shell companies opened on Manafort’s behalf.
Manafort briefly managed Trump’s campaign in 2016, when he was ousted from the role amid questions about his consulting work in Ukraine, for which he earned millions.
He was convicted by a jury of using foreign accounts to hide income from his Ukrainian consultancy, and pleaded guilty to money laundering and embezzlement. The judiciary has charged Special counsel to the Trump campaign, Robert S. He was in 2017 as part of Mueller III’s investigation.
At one point, Manafort was sentenced to more than seven years in prison, but was released in early 2020 as a result of health concerns during the coronavirus pandemic. Trump pardoned Manafort shortly before leaving office on December 23, 2020.
Although Trump has pardoned Manafort for financial crimes covering this period, the Justice Department complaint argued that he still owes money to the Treasury Department, which said he violated laws requiring him to report foreign bank accounts he controlled.
Neiman, Manafort’s lawyer, has previously downplayed the matter, describing his client’s actions as “failing to file a tax return,” adding that the case was “filed to embarrass Mr. Manafort.”
Manafort has worked for several presidents over the decades, including Gerald Ford, Ronald Reagan and George HW Bush. After his standing in Republican circles faded, he made millions advising political candidates in other countries, notably Ukraine.
In 2019, the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office received a grand jury indictment amid concerns that Trump might pardon his former adviser. A federal case against Manafort on fraud charges that echoed that. A New York state judge dismissed the case, saying it violated state laws against double jeopardy.
