U.S. President Donald Trump’s ex-campaign chief Paul Manafort secretly paid a group of former senior European politicians more than €2 million ($2.5 million) to lobby for Ukraine’s then-leader backed by Russia, U.S. prosecutors have claimed.
The charges, lodged in a Washington federal court by Special Counsel Robert Mueller on Friday, said Mr. Manafort retained the so-called Hapsburg Group to “take positions favourable to Ukraine, including by lobbying the United States”.
The group, which operated from 2012-13, was managed by an unnamed “former European chancellor”, who along with other members of the group lobbied U.S. legislators and White House officials, the indictment alleged.
They were to “appear to be providing their independent assessments of the government of Ukraine actions, when in fact they were paid lobbyists for Ukraine”.
Mr. Manafort, 68, has been accused by the team investigating the alleged Russian meddling in the 2016 U.S. presidential elections and possible collusion with the Trump campaign of money laundering, tax fraud and banking fraud connected to work he did for Viktor Yanukovych from 2006-14.
Mr. Yanukovych served as Ukraine’s President from 2010 until he was ousted in 2014 as a result of a popular uprising. After that, Mr. Manafort stopped working for him, eventually returned to the U.S. and, in 2016, joined Mr. Trump’s presidential election campaign.
Backed by Moscow, Mr. Yanukovych was eyed suspiciously at the time in much of Europe for his pro-Russia stance and widespread accusations of deep corruption.
Political comeback
Mr. Manafort is believed to have been behind Mr. Yanukovych’s spectacular political comeback after huge protests dubbed the Orange Revolution overturned his fraud-tainted victory in 2004. While the latest indictment did not charge Mr. Manafort with any crime specifically tied to the Hapsburg Group, those activities were cited to show Mr. Manafort had been actively lobbying for Ukraine and had allegedly broken laws by not registering as such in the U.S.
In Kiev, Ukrainian prosecutors said on Saturday they wanted to cooperate with Washington over Mr. Manafort and that would send a letter to Special Counsel Robert Mueller in the coming days.
