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.
How would she not know that he had foreign businesses? And with all those purchased coming from wired money from foreign sources - (granted perhaps it is “normal” that she wouldn’t know of these purchases) - how could a legitimate operation have a book keeper unaware of foreign accounts.
Hear that echo, Paul? Its the sound of the reverberation after another shoe just dropped.
I’ve worked for people that had, um, side businesses that maybe were best left unremarked upon by people working at the company. Nevertheless the secrecy and wall of separation you’d need to erect to keep the “head bookkeeper” totally in the dark about even a fragmented knowledge of what was going on would be a helluva trick to pull off. Info seeps onto everyone’s desk to one degree or another, and you just know when to avert your eyes and keep your mouth shut. I’m very dubious she was totally unaware of Manafort’s various schemes.
Bear in mind that a number of prosecution witnesses are testifying only because they received immunity.
I’m to understand he never “mixed” the $$$ from overseas with the $$$ he earned in the USA; thus providing no income information to his bookkeeper. All the invoices for his high living were paid directly by wire transfer from accounts in Cyprus.
Mueller’s immunity doesn’t extend to polonium poisoning protection.