During the tax evasion trial of President Donald Trump’s former campaign manager Paul Manafort, prosecutors entertained the jury with details of the political consultant’s lavish lifestyle.
They said Manafort earned more than $60 million working on political campaigns in Ukraine, and detailed the ways he used that money to buy a closet full of custom-made suits, luxury cars for his wife and kids, and homes up and down the East Coast.
But when one of his clients fled to Russia and the consulting work dried up, Manafort lied about his wealth to avoid paying his taxes, prosecutors said.
Manafort pleaded not guilty, but the jury found him guilty on August 21 on two counts of bank fraud, five counts of tax fraud, and one count of failing to disclose foreign bank accounts. They were unable to reach a verdict on the other 10 counts he was accused of, and the judge declared a mistrial on those charges.
Here are the extravagant items prosecutors accused Manafort of spending all that money on.
A focal point of Manafort's tax-fraud trial was his suit collection. They said he paid for his custom suits by transferring money from foreign bank accounts.
Source: Business Insider
By keeping his wealth in shell companies, Manafort was better able to hide just how much he was making — and spending — from the IRS, prosecutors said. This snazzy fur coat was one of several introduced into evidence during Manafort's trial.
Source: Business Insider
One of the more bizarre items that investigators found in their raid on his home was this $15,000 hooded jacket made of ostrich.
Source: Business Insider
Maximillian Katzman, the former manager of Alan Couture in New York City, said on the second day of the trial that Manafort was one of about 40 clients at his father's "luxury menswear boutique."
Source: CNN
Katzman said Manafort spent $104,000 at the store in 2010 and $444,000 in 2013, all through wire transfers. He added that Manafort was the only customer he knew who paid this way.
Sources: Washington Post, CNN
Manafort was said to be a top customer at the House of Bijan, a Beverly Hills clothing boutique that markets itself as the "world's most expensive store." Its CFO, Ronald Wall, said in court that Manafort spent $334,000 at the store from 2010 to 2012 using wire transfers from foreign accounts.
Source: Washington Post
Prosecutors also accused Manafort of paying for several cars with the money he earned in Ukraine that he largely kept in offshore accounts in Cyprus.
Source: CNN
In 2012, Manafort's wife, Kathleen, bought a new Mercedes SL550, paying for part of it with a $124,000 wire transfer, prosecutors said. A salesman at Mercedes-Benz of Alexandria told the jury that it was "not unheard of" but "not common" for customers to buy cars that way.
Sources: Washington Post, CNN
Manafort also helped his daughter Andrea pay for a Range Rover in 2012 with a nearly $84,000 wire transfer, according to documents prosecutors showed the jury.
Source: Washington Post
When Andrea Manafort bought this home in Arlington, Virginia, in 2012, she paid the down payment herself, and her father paid the remaining $1.9 million with a wire transfer from a Cyprus-based account, her real-estate dealer and former neighbor detailed in court.
Source: Washington Post
An FBI agent spoke on the first day of the trial about raiding Manafort's apartment in Alexandria last year, describing it as a large "luxury unit."
Source: NBC News
A landscaper testified that Manafort paid his company $450,000 to maintain his property in Bridgehampton, New York, trimming the 14-foot hedges and tending to the gardens — including a bed of red flowers in the shape of the letter M.
Source: Washington Post
Stephen Jacobsen of the home-improvement company SP&C told the court that Manafort hired it to renovate his Trump Tower apartment, his Brooklyn townhouse, and a home he had built for his brother-in-law. Jacobsen said Manafort paid for the work in wire transfers.
Source: Washington Post
Manafort had several properties in New York that prosecutors said he acquired after becoming flush with cash from his work in Ukraine. This is the building in SoHo they said his wife purchased in 2012 for $2.85 million using foreign accounts.
Source: Business Insider
Prosecutors said documents show that shell companies in Cyprus transferred $300,000 so that Manafort could make a down payment on this townhouse in the upscale Brooklyn neighborhood of Carroll Gardens.
Source: Business Insider
Manafort also paid a company $430,000 to renovate his home in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida, with money transferred from a Cyprus shell company, prosecutors said.
Source: Washington Post
Prosecutors sought to use this lavish spending to paint a picture for the jury of Manafort as a high roller.
Source: Business Insider
But the detailed accounts of Manafort's spending habits didn't go over well with US District Judge T.S. Ellis III. "Enough is enough," he said at one point when the jury was out of the room. "We don't convict people because they have a lot of money to throw around."
Source: Business Insider
Ellis wouldn't let the prosecution show photos of Manafort's many suits, properties, or cars in court, making them resort to describing the items instead.
Source: Business Insider
But the jury was convinced anyway. He hasn't been sentenced yet, but legal experts speculated that Manafort could spend years in prison.
Source: Business Insider