President Trump’s former campaign chairman Paul Manafort partnered on a failed $850 million real estate deal in New York with an ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin and a Ukrainian who the Justice Department considers an “organized crime member.”
The Daily Beast reported Monday Manafort worked with Dmitry Firtash, the Ukrainian, and Oleg Deripaska, the Putin associate, to acquire New York’s Drake Hotel.
The Justice Department is seeking the extradition of Firtash, so he can stand trial for a 2013 racketeering indictment in a Chicago federal court.
Firtash was financier for the Party of Regions in Ukraine, the pro-Kremlin political party for which Manafort did consulting work.
Firtash’s alliance with Manafort to acquire the Drake has been reported before.
But Deripaska’s role has been less established.
In 2006, according to the Associated Press, Deripaska signed a $10 million annual contract with Manafort for what Manafort pitched as political and economic efforts inside the U.S. to “greatly benefit the Putin Government.”
Manafort, Firtash, and Deripaska intended to convert the Drake into a luxury office and residential space called Bulgari Tower, The Daily Beast says.
But the deal never moved forward.
Manafort resigned as Trump’s campaign chairman in August 2016 while concerns mounted over his past work for Party of Regions, the pro-Kremlin Ukrainian party.
Manafort is a central subject of investigations into Russia’s election interference and possible collusion with the Trump campaign.
His deal with Firtash and Deripaska is expected to be a focus of special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia probe, The Daily Beast said.
