Manafort wanted for questioning in Ukraine: report

Paul Manafort, who served as President Trump’s campaign chairman during the summer of 2016, is wanted for questioning in a Ukrainian corruption case, CNN reported. 

Ukraine first sent requests to question Manafort to U.S. authorities in December of 2014 in case related to Oleksandr Lavrynovych, a former Ukrainian justice minister.

U.S. officials confirmed the requests to CNN but refused to provide further comment to the network.

{mosads}Ukrainian prosecutors claim Lavrynovych illegally directed over $1 million in state funds to a law firm in New York.

“We believe they wanted to avoid the time-consuming competition they would have had to organize to hire the law firm legally, so they drew up the undervalued contract and probably arranged to pay the real fee in cash,” Serhiy Gorbatyuk, the prosecutor for special investigations in Ukraine, told CNN.

According to documents reviewed by the news network and provided by Ukrainian officials, prosecutors told U.S. officials that the probe “established that the well-known American political strategist Paul Manafort is implicated in the relationship.”

One letter sent to the U.S. Department of Justice said Manafort “was likely the person who advised representatives of the former Government of Ukraine to hire the law firm and was present during talks about this issue.”

Manafort, who the story notes is not being charged, refused to comment for CNN’s story.

Manafort resigned from the Trump campaign in August of 2016 following reports that he was paid millions of dollars for work for the Russia-supported former president of Ukraine, Viktor Yanukovych.