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Gates was indicted last week alongside his business partner, Paul Manafort, who served as Trump’s campaign chair, in special prosecutor Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russian interference in the election. He is charged with money laundering and failing to disclose his lobbying efforts on behalf of a foreign government. Manafort and Gates were both served federal indictments including conspiracy against the United States, money laundering and working as unregistered foreign agents. Federal investigators’ interest in Manafort and Gates goes back well before the special counsel was appointed. For about a decade, Manafort worked for Yanukovych and his Russia-friendly Party of Regions.
Manafort’s work spurred a separate federal investigation in 2014, which examined whether he and other Washington-based lobbying firms failed to register as foreign agents for the Yanukovych regime. The sale came two years after Gates, 49, was sentenced to 45 days in jail and three years of probation after pleading guilty to conspiracy charges in the special counsel probe into Russian influence on the 2016 election. Richard W. Gates, III, commonly known as Rick Gates, is a lobbyist and political consultant who, on 30 OCT 2017, was indicted under Special Counsel investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 United States elections along with his business partner, Paul Manafort. The two were charged with laundering $75M for foreign governments and for conspiracy against the United States. The indictment accuses Manafort and Gates of orchestrating a nearly decade-long conspiracy to covertly work for Ukrainian interests and launder millions of dollars through offshore accounts. Under the order unsealed Tuesday by US District Judge Amy Berman Jackson, in order for Gates to be released, he'll have to agree to post a property that he owns in Richmond as well as two other properties owned by individuals whose names are redacted in the order.
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Among the clients Gates worked with were Ukrainian president Viktor Yanukovych and Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska, taking over this work when Davis left the firm in 2008 to work on the presidential campaign of John McCain. Together, they were instrumental in brokering a meeting between McCain and Deripaska in 2006. Gates and Manafort were both indicted in October 2017 on charges related to their consultation work with pro-Russian political figures in Ukraine. The investigation into Manafort intensified after Mueller was named as special counsel in May. Mueller has hired a team of prosecutors who have examined Manafort’s financial and tax history stretching back 11 years to January 2006, while he was working in Ukraine. Since midnight network news crews have been camped outside the $1.8 million home of former President Donald Trump campaign official Rick Gates.
Residents say a couple of police cars patrol the normally quiet street and officers talk to neighbors about what's going on. Many were surprised to hear about the Richmond connection to an international story. Jackson has ordered all of the parties and lawyers to not make any public comments that could be prejudicial to the case. When Mr. Manafort joined the Trump campaign in March 2016, Mr. Gates became his deputy. However, when Mr. Manafort was ousted in August 2016, Mr. Gates remained and stayed mostly below the public radar.
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In addition to Manafort’s Ukraine business dealings, his real estate dealings, overseas business ventures and bank accounts in offshore havens like Cyprus have also come under scrutiny. They are the first two officials in Trump’s orbit charged in connection with the special counsel investigation, which is exploring whether Trump’s actions surrounding the firing of former FBI Director James Comey amount to obstruction of justice. Mueller has taken a broad approach to his mandate that includes a focus on the financial dealings of Trump’s team. The Mueller investigation also resulted in a guilty plea from former Trump campaign foreign policy adviser George Papadopoulos.
On January 23, 2018, CNN reported that Gates had added white-collar attorney Tom Green to his defense team. The action could relate to a change in strategy, e.g. from a flat not-guilty plea to some kind of cooperation with prosecutors. On February 22, The Daily Beast reported that Gates fired Green, but later corrected its story.
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The project fell apart, and Deripaska sued Manafort and Gates in the Cayman Islands for mishandling his money. Deripaska, a Russian citizen, has offered to cooperate with Capitol Hill investigations in exchange for immunity. The indictment alleges that Gates was instrumental in helping Manafort defraud U.S. institutions and that they both concealed from the U.S. their work with the Ukraine and its political parties and leaders.
"He welcomes the opportunity to confront these charges in court," said spokesman Glenn Selig. He graduated with a bachelor’s degree in government from the College of William & Mary and a master’s in public policy from George Washington University. The buyers of the 6,900-square-foot house in the Westmoreland Place neighborhood are listed in property records as Matthew and Taryn White, a local couple relocating from nearby Windsor Farms.
Gates surrendered Monday to Justice Department special counsel Robert Mueller, along with former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort. Because it was off-market, the sale was not reflected in the regional multiple listing service typically used by area real estate agents. Both Manafort and Gates were released on house arrest Monday after posting $10 million and $5 million bond respectively. The 31-page indictment says he transferred the money from offshore accounts to other accounts he controlled. Once released from house arrest, Gates must get the court's permission for any domestic travel beyond Richmond, except for visits to Washington, DC, for court appearances and to meet with his lawyers. He won't be allowed to travel abroad, and he'll be required to stay away from "transportation facilities," such as airports and train stations, except for approved travel.
Manafort also was one of eight people in attendance at a June 2016 meeting between the president's son Donald Trump Jr. and Kremlin-linked Russian lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya. The meeting was arranged after Trump Jr. learned that she had damaging information from the Russian government regarding Democratic Party candidate Hillary Clinton. Jackson said she also is considering imposing a gag order to halt the parties from making public statements about the case. Gates said he needed to be able to travel for work purposes, but since neither the defense or prosecution filed any motions, Jackson wasn't clear whether the men were seeking to be released from home confinement or GPS tracking. U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson said Gates may leave his Richmond, Va., home this weekend to attend his children's sporting events, and both men may leave their residences for legal, court and medical appointments, and religious observances. Gates attended the College of William & Mary and got his master's degree in public policy from George Washington University.
Under Jackson's December order, Manafort will be allowed to leave home confinement once he submits a series of documents to the court, including forfeiture agreement and records verifying that his family members have the necessary assets on hand to serve as sureties. Once those are docketed, Jackson wrote, she would issue a separate order releasing Manafort from home confinement in Alexandria, Virginia, where he's been since his October court appearance. Early on, he was an intern at the Washington consulting firm Black, Manafort, Stone and Kelly and worked with Republican lobbyist Rick Davis, eventually working in 2006 with Mr. Manafort and Mr. Davis at their new consulting firm in an office in Kiev, Ukraine. He graduated in 1994 from the College of William & Mary with a degree in government and earned a master’s in public policy from George Washington University. Mr. Gates, 45, is accused of personally transferring more than $3 million into offshore accounts he controls and not properly reporting the income.
Gates must report to the Eastern District of Virginia court at noon for monitoring, CNN reports. Gates, along with Trump’s former campaign chairman, Paul Manafort, will have to check in daily with authorities by phone, and will only be allowed to leave their home to see their attorneys, appear at court or for medical and religious necessities. RICHMOND, Va. (WRIC/CNN/AP) — Rick Gates, one of the two men indicted Monday in Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election, is due in court in Richmond on Tuesday. Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska has sued Paul Manafort and Rick Gates for more than $25 million in damages over business deals involving his companies. The complaint filed in a New York state court in 2018 alleges that Manafort and Gates bilked his companies out of millions of dollars given to them to invest. The lawsuit relies, in part, on allegations that were outlined in Special Counsel Robert Mueller's indictments against Manafort and Gates.
In a February 7, 2019, hearing, prosecutors speculated that Manafort had concealed facts about his activities to enhance the possibility of his receiving a pardon. They said that Manafort's work with Ukraine had continued after he had made his plea deal and that during the Trump campaign, he met with Gates and Konstantin Kilimnik, in an exclusive New York cigar bar. In June 2016, when Donald Trump promoted Manafort to the post of campaign manager, Gates worked as Manafort's deputy handling the day-to-day activities of the campaign including taking responsibility for apparent plagiarism in Melania Trump's speech at the Republican National Convention. Gates stayed on as number two in the campaign under Steve Bannon after Manafort was forced to resign, and then worked as deputy chairman of the Donald Trump Inaugural Committee.
Later, he earned a Master of Public Policy degree from George Washington University. Before the indictment, the FBI in July executed a so-called no-knock search warrant with guns drawn at Manafort’s home in Alexandria, Virginia, seizing financial and tax documents, including some that had already been provided to congressional investigators. The bio said Gates had "worked on several U.S presidential campaigns" and "has participated in many international political campaigns in Europe and Africa." Gates and his wife, Sarah, own a $1.86 million home in the Westmoreland Place subdivision in the Near West End, according to city of Richmond property records.
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