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Kyiv Probing Evidence Of Corruption By Top Trump Adviser


Paul Manafort is a campaign adviser to U.S. Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump. (file photo)
Paul Manafort is a campaign adviser to U.S. Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump. (file photo)

Handwritten ledgers found in Kyiv seem to link Paul Manafort, who is currently the chairman of U.S. mogul Donald Trump's presidential campaign, to more than $12 million in undisclosed cash payments during his tenure as an adviser to the government of former Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych.

The New York Times reported on August 14 that the ledgers are being investigated by Ukraine's National Anticorruption Bureau as possible evidence of widespread corruption inside Yanukovych's government.

The ledgers mention Manafort's name 22 times and seem to document payments totalling $12.7 million between 2007 and 2012.

Yanukovych fled the country in February 2014 amid massive public demonstrations.

The Kyiv documents also seem to tie Manafort to a partnership with Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska and the questionable purchase of Ukrainian cable television assets for some $18 million.

Manafort declined to be interviewed for The New York Times story, but his lawyer said Manafort had not received "any such cash payments." The lawyer also denied that Manafort approved of or participated in any illegal activities.

Based on reporting by The New York Times

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