Manafort’s Bookkeeper Testifies She Was Unaware Of Alleged Foreign Accounts

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On the third day of Paul Manafort’s trial in Virginia, his lead bookkeeper, Heather Washkuhn, testified that she was unaware that Manafort allegedly had control over foreign bank accounts or businesses.

While Washkuhn was aware that Manafort received payments for work he did via foreign bank accounts, she said that she was unaware that he himself controlled any foreign bank accounts.

Prosecutor Greg Andres asked Washkuhn if she was aware of Manafort bank accounts in Cyprus, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, and Ukraine, and she said she was not. Andres also listed several companies prosecutors have alleged Manafort was connected to, which Washkuhn said she was also unaware of.

As Manafort’s lead bookkeeper from 2014 onward, Washkuhn said she kept track of all of Manafort’s income and expenses for both his business and personal dealings. Her work included paying bills and managing his several properties, she said Thursday.

Washkuhn said that she interacted with Rick Gates on matters related to Manafort’s business, but that she only dealt with Manafort himself on his personal finances.

“He approved every penny of everything we paid,” she said, referring to Manafort’s personal finances.

Washkuhn said that she also recorded when Manafort received loans. She told the courtroom that while she always asked for documentation on the loans, she did not always receive it.

As part of her bookkeeping work for Manafort, Washkuhn said she kept a general ledger of Manafort’s incoming and outgoing money to send to Manafort’s tax preparers at the end of the year.

As of lunchtime, prosecutors had only begun their questioning of Washkuhn. Before she testified, Andres predicted that the prosecution would question her for about two and a half to three hours, but Andres only spent about 40 minutes with Washkuhn before the judge ordered a break for lunch.

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