Manafort settles with Justice Department for $3.15 million

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Paul Manafort, former chairman of Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign, agreed to pay $3.15 million to settle a civil case filed by the Justice Department last year for his allegedly "willful failure to timely report his financial interest in foreign bank accounts,” according to court documents.

Court documents filed Feb. 22 in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida, where Manafort resides, detail the settlement. The agreement came in response to the DOJ’s lawsuit last year against Manafort, which sought $2.9 million from him at the time, accusing him of failing to report consulting income from Ukrainian sources that was deposited into accounts he is alleged to have directed to be opened in Cyprus, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, and the United Kingdom.

The civil lawsuit, filed in West Palm Beach, Florida, said Manafort earned income from conducting consulting work in Ukraine from 2006 to 2014. It alleges that Manafort failed to report his interest in foreign accounts on his federal income tax returns or through a timely filed Report of Foreign Bank and Financial Accounts, known as “FBAR,” for 2013 and 2014.

Many of the accounts were allegedly opened “without the use of Manafort’s name at all,” using nominee shell corporations opened or operated by others on his behalf, the lawsuit claimed.