Mueller investigation likely to probe Gates moonlighting as movie producer
Rick Gates, indicted last week with his former boss and mentor Paul Manafort in the special counsel investigation of Russia's meddling in the 2016 presidential election, is best known as a political consultant and lobbyist. In tandem with Manafort, he raked in tens of millions from Ukrainian and Russian oligarchs and a pro-Moscow Ukrainian political party. And when Manafort chaired Donald Trump's bid for the White House, Gates was his deputy.
Less well known is his sideline as a Hollywood producer. Gates has been involved in a handful of films, including this year’s Walk of Fame, which starred Clint Eastwood’s son Scott.
Some of Gates’ colleagues in those Tinseltown endeavors, however, have run into trouble with the law. Gates — who, with Manafort, was charged with money laundering and failing to disclose foreign banks accounts in the first public indictments to emerge from Special Counsel Robert Mueller's probe — was listed as providing backing for several films whose other producers have been accused of defrauding investors of millions of dollars.
One of the two producers he worked with, James David Williams, pleaded guilty last month in federal court to fraud, identity theft and money laundering in connection with a scheme — laid out in a related civil case — in which he and his co-defendants allegedly kept millions of dollars they told investors was destined for films that would star Nicholas Cage and Harry Connick Jr., among others.
Williams and Steven J. Brown, another producer, along with Minnesota Republican fundraiser Jerry Seppala, were ordered in March 2016 to pay back $10.5 million to one of the duped investors, Bill Busbice Jr., owner of a hunting company in Louisiana and, until recently, star of the reality show Wildgame Nation.
“Unfortunately for Mr Gates, what he's about to discover — if he hasn't already — is that every transaction he's ever been involved with will be excavated by law enforcement,” said Ross Delston, a D.C.-based lawyer and money laundering expert. “What they will be looking for are deals with similar characteristics to those Gates has been linked to in Russia-gate.
http://www.sacbee.com/news/nation-world/national/article183122441.html
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Thanks for the info!
And glad someone knew the answer!
