According to the National Anticorruption Bureau of Ukraine, the "black ledger" of the Party of Regions mention US spin doctor Paul Manafort's name 22 times. Manafort used to work for now deposed Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych. He is now the chief of Republican presidential candidate Donal Trump's election campaign, NY Times has said.
Handwritten ledgers show 12.7m dollars in undisclosed cash payments designated for Mr. Manafort from Mr. Yanukovych’s pro-Russian political party from 2007 to 2012.
The bureau said the they have yet to determine if he actually received the cash. The purpose of the payments is not clear. Nor is the outcome, since the handwritten entries cannot be cross-referenced against banking records, and the signatures for receipt have not yet been verified.
Manafort's lawyer also said that his client had not received any cash payments from the Party of Regions.
NBC TV journalist Hallie Jackson published Manafort's response to the publication on Twitter. Manafort flatly denied working for either Ukrainian or Russian authorities or receiving "black cash".
Paul Manafort on @nytimes/Ukraine report: suggestion he accepted cash payments "unfounded, silly and nonsensical" pic.twitter.com/EyQzIOradc
— Hallie Jackson (@HallieJackson) 15 серпня 2016 р.
On 28 May, a former deputy head of the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU), Viktor Trepak, gave the NABY the documents confirming the Party of Regions' illegal cash payments to a number of former and incumbent high-ranking officials. In his words, the Party of Regions list bribes worth around 2bn dollars.