Two Pieces of Apparently Forged Evidence Suggest We're in for Some Fireworks in the Manafort Trial

[Judi Lynn]

by Colin Kalmbacher | 7:28 pm, August 1st, 2018

Two apparently forged documents could spell a mountain of trouble for Paul Manafort going forward.

During his trial in the Eastern District of Virginia (EDVA) on Wednesday, multiple vendors took center stage as they were asked about their business relationships with Manafort and the myriad business entities he used to facilitate payments for non-business purposes.

After establishing the basic facts of those relationships, Mueller’s team plowed through and pored over as many documents as Judge T.S. Ellis III would allow in order to show various international wire transfers initiated by those entities to cover the costs of Manafort’s jet-set lifestyle.

The first vendor up was Maximillian Katzman, son of Alan Katzman, the namesake and proprietor of high-end, customized apparel brand Alan Couture, which is located in New York City just south of Central Park.

More:
https://lawandcrime.com/high-profile/two-pieces-of-apparently-forged-evidence-suggest-were-in-for-some-fireworks-in-the-manafort-trial/

[jayschool2013]

1. Forged documents submitted as evidence

Not "forged evidence," as the headline reads on lawandcrime.com.

[lagomorph777]

11. Very good point - deliberately deceptive headline?

That caught my eye too.

[jayschool2013]

13. Probably just lazy

Most people — even quite a few journalists — aren't sticklers for syntax, word choice, etc.

[lagomorph777]

14. Word choice is the job. Their words matter!

[jayschool2013]

17. I know, right?

Reporters aren't always big on words, believe it or not. They tend to be more into the information gathering aspects of their jobs. Editors are usually much better with word choice and order, but copy editors are getting laid off faster than buggy whip makers.

[lagomorph777]

2. 305 years in jail sounds more appealing to Manafort than Novichok does.

Why else would he be fighting this?

[AJT]

4. Convictions are so rare in these types of cases that he thinks the odds are that he won't

be convicted.

[brush]

5. I beg to differ. This is what's called a "paper case" as most of the evidence...

consists of documents—actually printed or computer files.

That's why most experts have said this is a slam dunk case—and now there is evidence that Manafort submitted forged documents.

Slam dunk, again.

I surmise there are two reasons for the holdout. He's hoping for a pardon from trump, or he's afraid of what Putin will have done to him if he turns.

[bettyellen]

6. Everything I've read says the opposite- there is a paper trail showing the crimes. Who says it's

rare to convict?

[AJT]

8. Criminal convictions of the very rich are rare.

[lagomorph777]

10. He's not actually very rich. He's a debtor

with a powerful and angry lender.

[bettyellen]

12. This specific types of tax evasion and bank fraud are usually easily

won in court. I’d agree that they get away with more than poor people in general because they have much better lawyers. But in these kinds of cases, the stats are not good for Manafort.

[Wwcd]

3. Aahhh Yup. This is what a twitter convo was about earlier then.

https://www.democraticunderground.com/1016212403

Maximillian Katzman, 29, the manager of a luxury menwear store in New York City, testifies that Paul Manafort spent more than $929,000 on suits between 2010 and 2014.
He was the store's only customer to pay using wire transfers from foreign accounts"

The laundering of foreign money..

[matt819]

7. Huh?

Not a lawyer, but watched a lot on tv.

If he bought $929,000 worth of suits, then the fact that he wired $929,000 is not odd. Payment for goods.

If he bought $500,000 worth of suits and wired $929,000, then something odd is going on, and the business owner has to be involved.

In either case, his spending of large sums on this or the construction work, or whatever, without apparently having a source of that income taxed in the US, then there's a tax evasion issue.

I just hope the prosecutors can make all of this clear for the jury.

[Ninga]

9. Except that. Do we know the actual value of the suits? Nt

[jaysunb]

15. Hmmmm n/t

[red dog 1]

18. I hope the judge ALLOWS the prosecutors to "make all this clear for the jury"

[3Hotdogs]

16. Then the question would be, what did Katzman do with the "surplus."?

Did he return it to Paul, $9,999.99 at a time? If overage was returned to Paul, there would likely be a record.

[red dog 1]

19. "Mueller's team plowed through and poured over as many documents as Judge T.S. Ellis lll..

.would allow."??

That sounds like Judge Ellis was placing a limit on documents to be presented by Mueller's team.
Why would he do that?
How many documents did the judge NOT allow to be presented?

This judge sounds flaky to me.

"Manafort Trial Judge Wants The Lawyers Eye-Rolling To Stop"
https://www.democraticunderground.com/100210951141