An executive for a California bank from which Paul Manafort obtained a $1 million loan said Thursday that he likely would not have qualified had he submitted financial statements for his firm, Davis Manafort Partners International, that had been altered to inflate its income.
Gary Seferian, a senior vice president at Banc of California, told the 12-member jury during testimony Manafort originally applied for a $5 million loan in 2016 to flip houses in the Los Angeles-area with his then-son-in-law, Jeffrey Yohai.
A $2 million loan was then believed by the bank to be more appropriate after documentation was reviewed, and Manafort ultimately qualified for a $1 million loan.
[More: Federal prosecutors paint Manafort as person who lied to support life of luxury]
Manafort submitted to Banc of California a 2015 financial statement for Davis Manafort Partners International that indicated the firm had a net income of $4.4 million. However, Rick Gates, Manafort’s former business associate, told the court earlier this week Manafort had instructed him to change the document to inflate the firm’s income for 2015.
The original document from Manafort’s bookkeeper reported a net income for the firm of nearly $400,000.
Seferian told the court that had the bank received the original financial statement, he doesn’t believe Manafort would have qualified for the loan. Additionally, he said that had he known about the modified profit-and-loss statement, Seferian said he would have stopped Manafort’s loan application.
In addition to receiving the profit-and-loss statement, federal prosecutors suggested Manafort excluded from the initial loan application to Banc of California a $3.4 million mortgage loan Manafort received for a condominium he owned on Howard Street in New York City.
Melinda James, an employee of Citizens Bank, which extended Manafort the $3.4 million loan, testified earlier in the day Manafort falsely claimed he was using the Howard Street property as a second residence, when it was really being used as a rental.
The prosecution is expected to call four more witnesses Friday, including James Brennan and Dennis Raico of Federal Savings Bank, who were granted immunity in exchange for their testimony.
Greg Andres, a lawyer on special counsel Robert Mueller’s team, told Judge T.S. Ellis III he anticipates the prosecution will rest its case Friday.
