Paul Manafort is an American lawyer, lobbyist and political consultant with forty years of experience. Served fruitfully as an advisor during most of the presidential campaigns. One of Manafort's most recent accomplishments is the success of Donald Trump. Recently, the political consultant became a participant in several high-profile proceedings related to his professional activities.
The beginning of the way
Paul Manafort was born in 1949 in the small American town of New Britain, Connecticut. His Italian grandfather emigrated to the United States at the beginning of the last century. Having mastered, he opened a construction company, his sons continued his business. Father Paul Sr. served in the engineering troops during the war; in the 60s, his fellow countrymen elected him head of the city three times. Paul graduated from Georgetown University and became a specialist in business administration. The next step in his education was the School of Law, after which he received a doctorate in law.
Victories and defeats
Paul Manafort gained his first experience in 1976 during the election campaign of Geralda Ford. He oversaw eight US states where voters supported this presidential candidate. I must say that at that time Ford lost to Jimmy Carter, but the experience gained as a political strategist and the acquired connections became decisive in the further fate of Manafort. Two years later, he headed the election campaign of Ronald Reagan, and, I must say, very successfully. The reward for the victory was the position of Deputy Chief of Staff for Human Resources at the White House. In addition, the elected head recommended Paul to the leadership of a state agency representing domestic private business abroad.
A few years later, he took up the position of adviser to the presidential campaign of George W. Bush. At the end of the 80s, for the first time, the name of Manafort sounded in the scandalous story of the appropriation of the budget of construction programs. Having lobbied for the interests of a group of entrepreneurs, Paul received his reward in the amount of more than 300 thousand dollars. Many of the participants in this case ended up behind bars, but not him. In 1996, a political strategist worked at Bob Dole's headquarters, but despite all his efforts, the candidate lost to Bill Clinton in the elections.
The best time for a famous lobbyist was during the presidency of George W. Bush in the early 2000s. During his reign, Manafort's business achieved great success, and Paul's role in the Republican Party was significantly strengthened. But in the next election, John McCain unexpectedly lost to Democrat Barack Obama.
Foreign clients
Manafort's clients weren't just Americans. Together with partners, Paul created the law firm "Davis, Manafort and Freedman", through which he has been very successful in representing the interests of the leaders of other states on several occasions. The company has collaborated with many regimes that violate human rights in Nigeria, Kenya, the Dominican Republic and Equatorial Guinea. The list included the Philippine dictator Ferdinand Marcos, who cost $ 900,000 for the services of a lobbyist. The leader of the Angolan guerrillas, Jonas Savimbi, paid 600 thousand dollars.
In the mid-2000s, Paul was especially interested in the eastern part of Europe. Among his customers were the Ukrainian tycoon Renat Akhmetov and the big businessman Oleg Deripaska. Since 2004, he has been a consultant to the Party of Regions and its leader Viktor Yanukovych. Manafort's office in the Ukrainian capital existed for more than 10 years and was closed after the well-known events of 2014. After the resignation of Yanukovych, he continued to cooperate with the new organization "Opposition Bloc", created from the party members-regionals. According to the lobbyist himself, his activities were aimed at bringing Ukraine closer to Europe.
At the center of scandals
Recently, the name of Paul Manafort has been pronounced not for his merits, but because of the numerous scandals associated with the professional part of his biography. Two years ago, the Ukrainian prosecutor's office began proceedings in connection with the activities of a lobbyist in this country. There is information about illegal payments that the political strategist received from the Ukrainian treasury back in 2009. The amount of corrupt transfers amounted to tens of millions of government money. He is accused of concealing the fact of lobbying the interests of Ukraine, which was a violation of the law on information. Paul defended the line that all financial issues in Ukraine were connected exclusively with the interests of big business and were in no way political in nature. In addition, Manafort was charged with hiding foreign bank accounts and tax fraud. The charges were brought under 18 articles. If all of them are proven, then the American faces a term of tens of years in prison. The process continues, and the famous political strategist is in custody.
A new scandal was the publication in the American press, telling about a possible secret meeting of Manafort and Trump's aides with Russian lawyer Veselnitskaya to facilitate the upcoming elections. Trump's supporters were promised incriminating evidence on his rival, Democrat Hillary Clinton. Paul's residence in Alexandria, Virginia was thoroughly searched, and he himself testified to the FBI. During this period, the American actually visited Russia almost two dozen times, and later the fact of this meeting was confirmed, but it had nothing to do with a secret foreign conspiracy. Thus, allegations of Kremlin interference in the American election process were refuted.
Manafort's resignation did not break him, he, as always, is unshakable. To date, his fortune is estimated at $ 18 million. He is considered the best in his field, fellow lobbyists, no matter what, highly value his professional qualities and many years of service. The personal life of a celebrity is in the shadows. It is known that Paul's family is a wife and a daughter.
