Rick Gates, a longtime business associate of US President Donald Trump’s former campaign chairman Paul Manafort, has testified that he helped Mr Manafort file false tax returns and hide his foreign bank accounts.
Mr Gates is the government’s star witness in its case against Mr Manafort, who is accused of bank and tax fraud.
Mr Gates, who also served on Mr Trump’s campaign team, pleaded guilty in February and agreed to cooperate with prosecutors under a deal that could lead to a reduced sentence.
Taking the stand on the trial’s fifth day, he admitted helping Mr Manafort doctor financial statements, hide foreign income and cheat on his taxes.
He said he was aware Mr Manafort was acting as an unregistered foreign agent in lobbying for Ukraine. He said he engaged in the wrongdoing at Mr Manafort’s direction.
"At Mr Manafort’s request we did not disclose foreign bank accounts," Mr Gates told the jury in federal court in Alexandria, Virginia.
Mr Manafort’s defence hinges on pinning the blame on Mr Gates, who they accuse of embezzling millions of dollars from Mr Manafort.
Mr Gates, who first met Mr Manafort working for him as an intern fresh out of college, has been described by witnesses as his right-hand man in his multimillion-dollar political consulting business.
Throughout his testimony, Mr Gates largely avoided making eye contact with Mr Manafort, who appeared to be watching him.
In addition to assisting in Mr Manafort’s alleged crimes, Mr Gates told the jury he had failed to report income he routed through his bank accounts in the UK and said he stole several hundreds of thousands of dollars from Mr Manafort by filing false and inflated expense reports.
Those admissions are likely to become a focal point for Mr Manafort’s defence team when he is cross-examined today.
Mr Manafort has pleaded not guilty to 18 counts of bank and tax fraud and failing to disclose foreign bank accounts.
The charges largely predate his five months on the Trump campaign. His case is the first to go to trial arising from Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 US election.
The jury has heard how Mr Manafort made tens of millions of dollars for work with pro-Russian politicians in Ukraine.
Mr Mueller is also investigating possible coordination between Trump campaign members and Russian officials in the election campaign, but the charges against Mr Manafort do not address that.
