Rick Gates testified Tuesday about money issues that Manafort and his various entities began to experience in 2015 and 2016.
Gates characterized the period by saying that vendors would reach out to him and Manafort because "loans had not been paid."
- By late 2015, DMP (Manafort's consulting group) had no clients, according to Gates. He said that they were attempting to secure another political consulting contract in the Ukraine but had not been able to.
- By March 2016, Gates said that he was hired to work on a presidential election that Manafort was also working on. Gates did not name Trump.
- In this time, Manafort's company was still not earning any money, according to Gates' testimony — he said that he was told that by the accountants that they worked with.
Gates said at the time he worked on the presidential campaign, his salary was paid by savings and investments from Manafort. Gates also received income from Map Global Holdings, a PR and movie production company; and ID Watchdog.
In government exhibit 375, which was not dated, an email exchange between Manafort and Gates succinctly summarized the frustration felt by Manafort: "WTF," Manafort wrote to his employee.
"How could I be blindsided like this," Manafort wrote to Gates in response to a tax impact that had been prepared. The taxes were much higher than what had been anticipated.
Gates admitted that during this time he also supplied false information to banks in order to help Manafort secure bank loans. He admitted to altering the profit and loss documents, which he said was per Manafort's direction.
In January 2016 Manafort asked Gates to refinance a property in New York City on Howard Street — a property that Manafort never lived in because he stayed at his Fifth Ave apartment when he was in the city, but still claimed to use as a second home in order to secure maximum benefits for the mortgage refinance loan.