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<br /> Prime Minister <keyword id="6354477" type="PERSON" weightage="60" keywordseo="Narendra-Modi">Narendra Modi</keyword>'s surprise move last week to invalidate some 86 per cent of the value of rupees in circulation has caused chaos as hundreds of millions of people figure out what to do with their Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes.<br />
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It's not the first time distress has spread in the wake of a currency reform. While major operations in developed nations, such as the decimalisation of<a href="http://Indian IT sector should not take Donald Trump, Brexit lightly, says Vishal Sikka"> British </a>pounds in 1971 or the introduction of the cash euro in 2002 went smoothly, others in emerging markets have not -- especially when mounted by governments that, unlike India's, weren't democratically elected<a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/The-pros-and-cons-of-e-wallets-like-Paytm-Freecharge-and-Mobikwik/articleshow/55437683.cms">. Here are some examples: </a><br />
<br /> <keyword id="6365126" type="COUNTRY" weightage="20" keywordseo="Soviet-Union">Soviet Union</keyword><br /> On its last legs, the country under <keyword id="60596" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Mikhail-Gorbachev">Mikhail Gorbachev</keyword> in January 1991 withdrew large-ruble bills from circulation in a move to take on the black economy -- one of <keyword id="6354642" type="PERSON" weightage="100" keywordseo="Modi">Modi</keyword>'s motives -- and shore up the currency's value. The government said the 50- and 100- ruble notes being invalidated amounted to about one-third of the money in circulation, the <keyword id="53556" type="CITY" weightage="20" keywordseo="New-York-Times">New York Times</keyword> reported at the time.<br />
<br /> The reform failed to halt inflation and instead served mainly t o accelerate a slide in public confidence in the government. As political infighting combined with economic collapse, <keyword id="66341" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Gorbachev">Gorbachev</keyword> faced a coup attempt that August which destroyed his authority and led to the Soviet break-up the following year. Learning lessons, <keyword id="6358826" type="COUNTRY" weightage="20" keywordseo="Russia">Russia</keyword>'s 1998 redenomination of the ruble, when it removed three zeroes, went altogether more smoothly.<br />
<br /> <keyword id="13473" type="COUNTRY" weightage="20" keywordseo="North-Korea">North Korea</keyword><br />
<br /> In 2010, the regime of then-dictator <keyword id="85336" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Kim-Jong-Il">Kim Jong-Il</keyword> mounted a reform that knocked off two zeros from the face value of the old currency in an effort to tighten control of the economy and close black markets. Combined with a poor harvest, the measure left the country with severe food shortages, according to reports at the time. Surging rice prices stoked unrest that prompted an unusual apology from <keyword id="1158" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Kim">Kim</keyword>, and -- reports suggested -- the execution of the ruling party's head of finance.<br />
<br /> <keyword id="351382" type="CITY" weightage="20" keywordseo="Zaire">Zaire</keyword><br /> Dictator <keyword id="223919" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Mobutu-Sese-Seko">Mobutu Sese Seko</keyword> faced increasing economic disruptions in the early 1990s when his administration mounted successive banknote reforms. A plan to withdraw obsolescent currency from the system in 1993 saw a surge in inflation and a collapse in the exchange rate against the dollar. After a civil war, <keyword id="3577808" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="mobutu">Mobutu</keyword> was ousted in 1997.<br />
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Myanmar<br />
In 1987, the country's military junta invalidated as much as 80 percent of the value of money in circulation, according to reports at the time -- as in other such initiatives, it was directed at curbing the black market. One result was the first student demonstrations in years. Deepening economic unease helped trigger mass protests across the nation the following year that led to a government crackdown that killed thousands of people.<br />
<br /> <keyword id="60252" type="COUNTRY" weightage="20" keywordseo="Ghana">Ghana</keyword><br />
The country in 1982 got rid of its 50 cedi note to crack down on tax evasion, address corruption and mop up excess liquidity. The move eroded confidence in the banking system as people turned to foreign currency or physical assets instead. The black market for currency flourished. As rural dwellers had to walk miles to the nearest banks to exchange their money, and after the deadline passed, there were accounts of bundles of notes abandoned as worthless.<br />
<br /> <keyword id="6354767" type="COUNTRY" weightage="20" keywordseo="Nigeria">Nigeria</keyword><br /> In 1984, the military government led by <keyword id="6388022" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="Muhammadu-Buhari">Muhammadu Buhari</keyword> instituted an anti-corrupt ion crackdown that involved issuing new banknotes with a different color, forcing the replacement of old ones within a limited period. The move was one of a series that failed to fix a debt-burdened and inflation-ridden economy. <keyword id="1385471" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="Buhari">Buhari</keyword>, who is now in power again, was eventually ousted in a coup the following year.<br />
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PM Modi, take note: These countries failed at demonetization

<ul class="summary-list"><li>Mt. Nyiragongo erupted on May 22, triggering earthquakes and a chaotic evacuation of Goma - a city of 2 million in eastern <keyword id="67854" type="COUNTRY" weightage="60" keywordseo="Congo">Congo</keyword>. </li><li>Amid the exodus, hundreds of children were separated from their families, including 6-year-old Elie.</li><li>This is the story of how one family made it through a hellish series of natural disasters in one of the most vulnerable places on earth.</li></ul><p>When <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/a-volcano-erupted-in-eastern-congo-2021-5">Mount Nyiragongo</a> erupted in eastern Congo on May 22, there was no <a href="https://www.insider.com/drone-captured-volcanic-eruption-waste-to-a-city-in-congo-2021-6">warning</a>. </p><p>On that first night, as the lava <a href="https://www.insider.com/drone-captured-volcanic-eruption-waste-to-a-city-in-congo-2021-6">flowed</a> towards the city of Goma, it covered 13 villages and wiped out 3,629 homes, before coming to a halt half a mile from the city's airport and less than two miles from one of its central markets. At least 37 people have been reported dead.</p><p>Nyiragongo is one of the world's most dangerous volcanoes - it last erupted 19 years ago - and its presence 10 miles from Goma casts a perennial shadow over the city. And yet, even since the 2002 eruption, which buried large patches of Goma in volcanic rock, the city's population has swelled, largely as a consequence of the violent conflicts in the surrounding area, pushing hundreds of thousands to seek refuge in Goma. </p><p>Goma, the largest city in the region, has over the last two decades become a hub for the United Nations and countless humanitarian agencies and the economic opportunities that have come with the <keyword id="6356001" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="international">international</keyword> presence. The city's geographic proximity to the region's mining riches, and its location just over the border from Rwanda, made it even more attractive to the entrepreneurial. In the calm years, Nyiragongo has come to be something of a tourist draw: travelers who come to Goma on their way to see mountain gorillas in the nearby Virunga National Park sometimes include a hike up Nyiragongo as part of their itinerary. </p><div type="image" title="displaced kids Sake" height="3991" width="5986" msid="83291762" hostid="261"></div><p>Now, two weeks after the initial eruption, the immediate danger from Mount Nyiragongo seems to have passed, and Goma's residents are now faced with putting their lives back together. </p><p>For one of Goma's residents, 40-year-old Moise Lukusha, it has been two weeks of misery and uncertainty. </p><p>On the first night, Elie, his 6-year-old son, went missing. </p><h2><strong>A frantic exodus </strong></h2><p>Lukusha was downtown when he learned of the eruption; as panic overtook Goma's residents, he rushed home. </p><p>Two of his children -Elie, 6, and Gedeon, 9 - had been watching television in the living room when the eruption began, and everyone started to run. They went outside and got swept away in the crowds. </p><p>By the time Lukusha reached their home, Elie and Gedeon were gone. </p><p>Lukusha thought they might have gone to Sake, 15 miles away. Goma sits between Lake Kivu and Congo's eastern border with Rwanda and, for those fleeing on foot, Sake was one of the only places <em>to </em>go. And so, Lukusha joined the thousands of people making their way to Sake.</p><p>But neither boy was there. </p><p>Gedeon had ended up aboard a truck taking people, free of charge, to another city, Masisi, about 50 miles northwest. There, a kind-hearted stranger took him in for three days, until she could arrange to have him ride in a car back to Goma. Back in the city, Gedeon knew his way back home. </p><p>But Elie did not turn up - not at their home in Goma, not in Sake, not in any of the reunification centers that had been set up for unaccompanied children. </p><p>"I lost my son and I'm still looking for him," Lukusha texted, days later. </p><h2><strong>"The conditions were inhumane"</strong></h2><p>When the lava flow stopped early the next morning, people, fearing that their homes might be looted, began returning to Goma. All the while, earthquakes regularly shook the city. By the morning of May 25, the Goma <keyword id="6357324" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="Volcano">Volcano</keyword> Observatory had recorded 269 earthquakes since the eruption. </p><div type="image" title="Leaving Goma" height="4000" width="6000" msid="83291756" hostid="261"></div><p>The highest magnitude reached 5.2 on the Richter scale, bringing down several buildings and homes. </p><p>Large cracks appeared in the ground, some snaking across main roads in central Goma. The tremors also damaged water distribution systems that had already been compromised by the lava flow, leaving 550,000 people without access to potable water. The local head of the French aid group Doctors Without Borders warned that residents were at a high risk of cholera. </p><p>Worse still, there were warnings of the potential for a second volcanic eruption and the explosion of deadly methane and carbon dioxide gases from Lake Kivu, which could kill hundreds of thousands within minutes. </p><p>On Thursday, May 27 - five days after the eruption - the local governor of North Kivu province ordered the mandatory evacuation of 10 of Goma's 15 neighborhoods. </p><p>The announcement sparked an even bigger exodus than the first one. </p><p>Over the next 24 hours, over 400,000 people - nearly a quarter of Goma's population - left the city on foot, on motos, on boats, or in cars, using the few available roads. Again, most headed towards Sake, causing a complete traffic blockage on the westbound road. Once the lava was cleared from the northbound road, others headed towards Rutshuru territory. A third flow of people went across the border to the east, into Rwanda. Yet a fourth run of people piled into boats and traversed 130 km to the southern tip of Lake Kivu, to seek refuge in Bukavu, the capital of neighboring South Kivu province.</p><p>The largest portion of the exodus, in the direction of Sake, included 100 armored vehicles and military trucks transporting hundreds of UN peacekeepers that had also been ordered to evacuate their bases. A separate convoy of 53 UN trucks carrying 250 staff and 1200 of their dependents would continue past Sake, and head south to Bukabu over land. With favorable weather and a Landcruiser, the 100 km journey along dirt roads could be traversed in 7 hours. With the evacuation traffic blockade, however, it took the UN convoy 40 hours to complete.</p><div type="image" title="Aid distrobution Sake  " height="4000" width="6000" msid="83291757" hostid="261"></div><p>In Sake alone, a town with a population of 70,000, over 180,000 people arrived that Friday, including Moise, his wife and six of his children. From Kinshasa - the country's capital, situated on the opposite end of the country's vast geographical stretch across the African continent, and accessible only by plane - the government's spokesman said that people fleeing to Sake should not expect more than "a minimum comfort."</p><p>"Those that will go to Sake will not find the comfort they had in their homes because they are going to a zone that isn't specially arranged to receive them," Patrick Muyaya Katembwe, the spokesman, said at a press conference.</p><p>Sure enough, Lukusha and his family found no aid distributions when they arrived. The family slept outside, and food and basic goods were difficult to find or afford. </p><p>Marcelin, Moise's 24-year-old step-son, said corn that would normally cost between 100 and 300 francs, was selling for 1000 francs in Sake. In a report detailing the situation, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs attributed the price increases to the near halt in economic activities in Goma and the massive spike in demand. </p><p>For most Congolese, 73 percent of whom live under the international poverty line of $1.90 per day, the costs in Sake were crippling. "Even to go to the toilet, we had to pay," Lukusha would later say. The fee - 1500 Congolese francs, the equivalent of nearly 1 US dollar - was exorbitant.</p><div type="image" title="Dad with running kids 20 " height="3000" width="4500" msid="83291765" hostid="261"></div><p>"The way we lived in Sake, it was a nightmare," Lukusha said. "The conditions were inhumane."  </p><p>Meanwhile, Lukusha was still searching for six-year-old Elie, going back and forth between Goma, Sake, and the other towns where people were seeking refuge. After days of this, he recalls sitting with his family on a soccer field in Sake amid crowds of evacuees, feeling certain that he would not see his boy again. </p><p>"The little means I had, I finished it all off searching for little Elie, to go to Minova, Masisi, Bweremana, everywhere. I lost everything I had," he said. </p><h2><strong>F</strong><strong>alse alarms and a city on edge</strong></h2><p>According to the International Organization for Migration, by Tuesday, June 1, about 160,000 of the 400,000 people displaced since the eruption of the volcano had already returned to their homes. They cited reasons that included unacceptable conditions in the refuge sites, a decrease in the magnitude and frequency of earthquakes, and fears that their abandoned homes would be looted. </p><p>Families scattered in the chaos of the evacuations were also gradually reunited. Of the 1,340 children reported missing, all but 332 are back with their families,, according to UNICEF and its partners.</p><p>All the while, the government continued issuing statements warning people to stay out of the "red zones," saying that earthquakes were still happening daily even if not all of them were felt. On June 1st, for example, the Goma Volcano Observatory recorded 71 tremors, the majority of which were not felt by the population. Moreover, surface deformations indicated potential movement of magma under the city of Goma itself, and possibly Lake Kivu. </p><div type="image" title="Diana add" height="3000" width="4500" msid="83293609" hostid="261"></div><p>Further confusing the general population, the Rwanda Environmental Management Authority's Lake Kivu monitoring team on Monday May 31, concluded that there is no imminent risk of gas explosions from Lake Kivu. But the local observatory was saying that lethal explosions were still a possibility. </p><p>There were also false alarms, further unnerving the battered population. There were also false alarms, further unnerving the battered population. Muyaya, the spokesman from the national government in Kinshasa, tweeted - and then deleted - that there had been an eruption "of weak intensity" at Mount Nyamulagira, another nearby volcano. Aerial surveillance soon confirmed that there had not, in fact, been an eruption. It was only smoke rising from charcoal production, a very common sight in the region. </p><p>Despite the ongoing evacuation order, Lukusha and his family were among those who had returned to Goma. That Sunday evening - eight days after the eruption - Lukusha  was sitting in his living room when he looked up to see Elie at his doorstep, holding the hand of a stranger. </p><p>He pulled the boy into his arms. And, soon enough, Lukusha finally learned what had happened to his son over their long week of separation.</p><h2>"Stay vigilant, stay vigilant"</h2><p>In the chaos that broke out on the evening of the volcanic eruption, Elie had followed the crowd heading west, towards Sake. Near Mugunga, one of the neighborhoods in the outskirts of Goma, he followed people into the hills, where he fell asleep for the night. </p><p>The next morning, he continued through the wealthy neighborhood of Himbi, passing near the home that once belonged to Congo's infamous dictator, Mobutu Sese Seko. "The little one was truly tired, his feet swollen," Lukusha would say, recounting the story as he'd been able to piece it together. "He slept by the entrance to a gated property."</p><div type="image" title="Diana add 2" height="3000" width="4500" msid="83293610" hostid="261"></div><p>That's where the owner of the home found him. The man assumed that Elie was a street kid and, taking pity on him, brought him some avocados, bread and a bottle of water. </p><p>The story then took a bizarre turn, according to what the man told Lukusha: the man decided he would adopt Elie. </p><p>The idea, though, quickly fell apart. At church that Sunday, the man said his pastor advised him that Elie's parents were likely feeling frantic as they searched for their missing son. </p><p>"This, while we were searching for the child, going up to the center of Masisi, Minova, Bweremana, everywhere," Lukusha said, incredulous. </p><p>Insider was unable to confirm the details of the story, and the pastor could not immediately be reached. Lukusha said it appeared that Elie - reunited with his siblings as they played in their home in Goma - was doing well. </p><p>For most of the city, this is still a time of limbo. It's not clear what the recovery will look like, or how long it will take to get back to some semblance of normalcy. </p><div type="image" title="ALHUGUET_034" height="3000" width="4500" msid="83291755" hostid="261"></div><p>There is also suspicion that the central government, 1000 miles away in Kinshasa, might be dragging out the relief effort in this long-neglected part of the country to maximize the political currency that comes with delivering help. On Saturday, June 6, just hours after Goma's international airport was reopened, the country's prime minister Jean-Michel Sama Lukonde touched ground with much fanfare, making a rare visit to the unstable but mineral-rich eastern part of the country.  </p><p>As for Goma, it's not yet clear if the city is truly safe yet. </p><p>"They say the city of Goma is still in danger. We don't know if it's true," said Marcelin, Lukusha's step-son. "Really we have no idea what is happening in our city because they send us [text] messages 'stay vigilant, stay vigilant' but I don't even know if that means there was a second volcanic eruption."</p><p>"Really," he said, "I have no idea."</p>

A volcano, hundreds of earthquakes, and a missing 6-year-old: How one family survived 14 hellish days in eastern Congo

<p></p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"></div><p></p></div></div><ul><li><strong>Businessman Rick Gates was indicted along with Paul Manafort on Monday.</strong></li><li><strong>Gates was Manafort's&#xa0;protégé. The two met as Washington lobbyists three decades ago.</strong></li><li><strong>He&#xa0;joined Donald Trump's election efforts in 2016 when Manafort became the campaign manager.</strong></li></ul><p><br>Paul Manafort, the former campaign manager for Donald Trump during the 2016 election, was indicted Monday morning along with his former business associate Rick Gates, according to multiple media reports.</br></p><p>The two associates were charged on 12 counts, including conspiracy to launder money, conspiracy against the US, and false and misleading statements surrounding their foreign bank and financial accounts.</p><p>Robert Mueller, the special counsel to the US Justice Department leading the probe into the Trump campaign's possible coordination with Russia in last year's election, had been investigating Manafort and Gates for their relationships with foreign leaders and suspicious financial dealings abroad.</p><p>Manafort, who has strong ties to Trump's inner circle, has been at the center of Mueller's investigation. Gates is a lesser known figure in Washington, but still an influential Trump booster with wide-ranging connections to powerful leaders and businessmen around the world. Here's what we know about him.</p><h2>Gates' early days in Washington politics</h2><p>Gates met Manafort nearly three decades ago while he was an intern at Black, Manafort, Stone, Kelly - one of the most powerful lobbying firms in DC.</p><p>The firm worked to help boost the image of dictators and strongmen around the world, including Ferdinand Marcos of the Philippines, Mobutu Sese Seko of the Democratic Republic of Congo, and the Russian-aligned former president of Ukraine, Viktor Yanukovych.</p><p>Although Manafort left the firm the same year Gates joined, the two reunited in 2006 at a new consulting company called Davis Manafort.</p><p>Two years later, Gates took over the company's affairs in Eastern Europe, flying to London, Paris, and Moscow, meeting with potential business partners, developing deals, and negotiating contracts, according to <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/16/us/politics/rick-gates-russia.html">The New York Times</a>. His trips to Russia included meeting with associates of Oleg Deripaska, a Russian oligarch linked to organized crime&#xa0;who is an ally of President Vladimir Putin.</p><h2>Connections to the Trump campaign</h2><p></p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"></div><p></p></div></div><p>Gates joined Trump election efforts in the spring of 2016 when Manafort became the campaign manager, working&#xa0;as&#xa0;Manafort's deputy. He traveled with Trump and grew close with many top campaign officials, including former chief of staff Reince Priebus and adviser Tom Barrack.</p><p>After Manafort was ousted as Trump's campaign chief in August 2016, Gates continued working on behalf of the soon-to-be president, helping fundraise $25 million for the pro-Trump nonprofit America First Policies and working on Trump's inaugural committee. As Mueller's probe intensified in the early months of the Trump administration, Gates <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2017/03/23/politics/rick-gates-manafort-russia-ties/index.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">left the nonprofit</a> altogether.</p><p>As recently as June, however, <a href="https://www.thedailybeast.com/despite-russia-controversy-paul-manaforts-partner-is-still-lurking-around-the-white-house">The Daily Beast reported</a> that Gates was still visiting the White House and working under Barrack, who has remained one of Trump's most trusted advisers.</p><p>Trump reportedly "had no idea [Gates] was in the building, otherwise he wouldn't be too happy," a source told the outlet. Whether Trump was aware or not, Gates still had access to the West Wing, even if it wasn't directly with the president.</p><h2>Secret payments in Cyprus</h2><p data-para-count="391" data-total-count="7748"></p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"></div><p></p></div></div><p data-para-count="391" data-total-count="7748">During his tenure at Davis Manafort, Gates helped start a private equity fund called Pericles that was set up to buy companies in Russia and Eastern Europe.</p><p data-para-count="391" data-total-count="7748">The money that was funneled through that fund, reportedly through offshore bank accounts in Cyprus, believed to be at the center of Mueller's indictment of Manafort and Gates.</p><p data-para-count="391" data-total-count="7748">Jason Maloni, a spokesman for Manafort, told the New York Times in June that "Paul's payments for his work abroad have all come through traceable wire transfers to his U.S. accounts."</p><p data-para-count="391" data-total-count="7748">Manafort and Gates have denied any wrongdoing, even though both of their names appear on documents linked to those shell companies in Cyprus.</p><h2 data-para-count="391" data-total-count="7748">Read the full indictment for Gates and Manafort below:</h2><div><p style=" margin: 12px auto 6px auto; font-family: Helvetica,Arial,Sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 14px; line-height: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; -x-system-font: none; display: block;">   <a title="View Manafort-gates Indictment Filed and Redacted on Scribd" href="https://www.scribd.com/document/363001751/Manafort-gates-Indictment-Filed-and-Redacted#from_embed" style="text-decoration: underline;">Manafort-gates Indictment Filed and Redacted</a> by <a title="View Rebecca Harrington's profile on Scribd" href="https://www.scribd.com/user/331042483/Rebecca-Harrington#from_embed" style="text-decoration: underline;">Rebecca Harrington</a> on Scribd</p></div>    <div class="margin-top">        <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/us-government-run-janet-airlines-area-51-2017-5">There is a secret US government airline that flies out of commercial airports</a></h3>        <div>                    </div>    </div></hr>

Meet Rick Gates - the Trump ally indicted in the Russia probe and charged with conspiracy against the US

<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"></div><p></p></div></div><span>Paul Manafort's work for a pro-Putin Russian billionaire a decade ago could create serious legal complications for the former campaign chairman for President Donald Trump.</span></p><p>While Manafort <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-politics/wp/2016/08/19/trump-campaign-chairman-paul-manafort-resigns/?utm_term=.a672eac2d8af">stepped down</a> from the campaign role in August after reports surfaced of his collaboration with ousted Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych, a new Associated Press report <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/ap-manaforts-plan-to-greatly-benefit-the-putin-government-2017-3">alleges that he collaborated with Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska</a> for years to promote the interests of the Putin government and stifle anti-Russian opposition across numerous post-Soviet countries.</p><p>Matt Miller, a former spokesperson for the Department of Justice under Eric Holder, told Business Insider that he "was not terribly surprised" when <keyword id="6355005" type="COMPANY" weightage="60" keywordseo="News">news</keyword> of Manafort's connection to Deripaska came to light.</p><p>"If you look at the questions that exist about coordination with Russian intelligence, Paul Manafort is likely to be at the center of those questions," he said.</p><p>The AP report alleged that Manafort maintained a business relationship with Deripaska, a Russian aluminum magnate, until 2009 and signed a $10 million contract with his company Rusal (the largest aluminum company in the world) in 2006. <span>A Rusal spokesperson confirmed that Manafort provided the company with <a href="https://sputniknews.com/us/201703221051844067-manafort-business-consultation-services-rusal/">extensive consultation services</a> the following day.</span></p><p><span>During his work with Deripaska, Manafort allegedly lobbied on behalf of Russian clients with Putin ties to the Justice Department, according to the AP. He also allegedly never revealed that he did so to the government, which could put him in violation of the Foreign Agents Registration Act.</span></p><p><span>Originally passed in 1938 to curb Nazi propaganda in the US, FARA requires individuals representing foreign governments or foreign political parties to register with the federal government. </span><span>Depending on whether a court views his work for Deripaska as political, Manafort could be in violation of FARA.</span></p><p><span>Miller, the former DOJ spokesman, said that the reports have made it "pretty clear" that Manafort spent years lobbying "to try and benefit Putin's interests."</span></p><p><span>A 2005 memo </span><span>from Manafort obtained by the AP directly mentions the Putin government.</span></p><p><span>"We are now of the belief that this model can greatly benefit the Putin Government if employed at the correct levels with the appropriate commitment to success," the memo reads.</span></p><p><span>But, according to Lydia Dennett, a FARA expert and investigator for the nonprofit Project on Government Oversight, a FARA investigation would need a significant amount of evidence to prove that private citizens are directly connected to a foreign government.</span></p><p>"Determining if the government or a political party is a principal primary beneficiary can be difficult," she told Business Insider.</p><p><span>If his lobbying work with Deripaska wasn't classified as political but business-related, Manafort would still be subject to the much less stringent Lobbying Disclosure Act, Joseph Sandler, a lawyer specializing in FARA and former general counsel for the Democratic National Committee, told Business Insider.</span></p><p><span>"It's not enough to be pro-Putin but it also doesn't relieve you of the obligation [to register] just because someone else is paying the bill," said Sandler, who added that lobbyists for foreign companies are still required to register under LDA.</span></p><p>Sandler and Dennett suggested that the AP's report and the subsequent Rusal Memo could <span>add fodder to <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2016/08/19/politics/paul-manafort-donald-trump-ukraine/">the ongoing FBI and DOJ anticorruption investigation about Manafort's work in Eastern Europe</a> that began last year.</span></p><p><span>Over the last three decades, Manafort advised Republicans presidents like Gerald Ford, Ronald Reagan and George H. W. Bush. In between, he founded a political lobbying firm that consulted </span><span>Mobutu Sese Seko of Zaire (now the Democratic Republic of Congo) and Ferdinand Marcos of the Philippines, according to <a href="http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2016/06/2016-donald-trump-paul-manafort-ferinand-marcos-philippines-1980s-213952">Politico</a>.</span></p><p>Human Rights Organizations have repeatedly declared both leaders to be dictators by human rights organizations, the New York Times reported in <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/1986/01/27/opinion/the-truth-and-ferdinand-marcos.html">1986</a> and <a href="https://partners.nytimes.com/library/world/090897obit-mobutu.html">1997</a>.</p><p>The allegations against Manafort have come as <span>numerous <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/trump-advisers-russia-investigation-2017-1">Trump associates are under investigation</a> for ties to the Russian government. L</span>ast month, <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/michael-flynn-russian-blackmail-2017-2">Trump's national security adviser Michael Flynn resigned</a> after news about his correspondence with Russian diplomat Sergey Kislyak came to light.</p><div>"In this type of investigation, you look for big names to start dropping," said Miller. "[Manafort] may be the first one."</div><div><p><span>Manafort told the AP that allegations of his political collaboration with Deripaska were "inappropriate or nefarious" and a "smear campaign." </span></p><p><span>"I worked with Oleg Deripaska almost a decade ago representing him on business and personal matters in countries where he had investments," he said to the AP. "My work for Mr. Deripaska did not involve representing Russian political interests."</span></p></div>    <div class="margin-top">        <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/5-ways-city-manipulates-controls-behavior-benches-spikes-skaters-cameras-cars-speeding-police-life-2017-3">5 ways your city manipulates and controls your behavior</a></h3>        <div>            <div>        <div class="ooyala-video-player" data-video-autoplay="false" data-video-id="piaTg3YTE6l3IZn_F4MBoyUd-cwh4x9b" data-player-variable="ooyalapopvideo" id="ooyalaplayer_popvideo" style="width:1280px;height:720px"></div>        </div>        </div>            </div>

Paul Manafort's lobbying past could create major legal problems for him

<p><span><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"></div><p></p></div></div>On February 20, 2014, Ukrainian riot police opened fire on thousands of demonstrators who had gathered in central Kiev. They were protesting then-President Viktor Yanukovych's last-minute decision to back out of a deal with the European Union that would have distanced Ukraine from Russia and fostered closer ties with the West.</span></p><p>A human-rights lawyer representing the victims of the mass police shootings, <span>Eugenia Zakrevska, now wants to know who was advising or influencing Yanukovych when he ordered Ukrainian security forces to crush the protests with force. One familiar name that has emerged in recent weeks: Paul Manafort.</span></p><p>Late last month, hackers broke into Manafort's daughter's iPhone and published four years of purported text messages - roughly <span>300,000 messages - on the dark web, an encrypted network that can only be accessed with a special browser.</span></p><p>Now, <span>Zakrevska is calling on Manafort "<span>to clarify the allegations contained in the text messages and to contact us with any information he may have" on the events that occurred in central Kiev between February 18-20, 2014, <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2017/03/10/politics/ukraine-manafort-hacked-texts/">she told CNN</a> earlier this month.</span></span></p><p><span><span>Reached for comment on Friday, <span>Zakrevska told Business Insider that <span>"there is still no answer to my request and I don't expect it so quickly."</span></span></span></span> </p><p><span>Manafort did not respond to request for comment from Business Insider. <a href="http://www.politico.com/story/2017/02/manaforts-ukrainian-blood-money-caused-qualms-hack-suggests-235473">He confirmed to Politico</a> late last month that his daughter, Andrea, had been hacked, and he corroborated specific exchanges while declining to comment on others.</span></p><h2><span>'That money we have is blood money'</span></h2><p>In a series of texts reviewed by Business Insider allegedly sent by Andrea to her sister, Jessica, in March 2015, Andrea said that their father "<span>has no moral or legal compass." </span></p><p><span><span>"Don't fool yourself," Andrea Manafort allegedly wrote to her sister. "That money we have is blood money."</span></span></p><p><span><span>"You know he has killed people in Ukraine? Knowingly," she continued, according to the reviewed messages. "As a tactic to outrage the world and get focus on Ukraine. R</span></span>emember when there were all those deaths taking place. A while back. About a year ago. Revolts and what not. Do you know whose strategy that was to cause that, to send those people out and get them slaughtered."</p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"></div><p></p></div></div></p><p>Andrea Manafort did not respond to a request for comment.</p><p>Manafort was a top adviser to Yanukovych from 2004 to 2014. Ukrainian authorities have said Yanukovych created the conditions that led to the security forces opening fire. Ukraine's interior minister <a href="http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-26320004" target="_blank">issued a warrant for his arrest</a> shortly after the uprising. He fled to Russia and was granted asylum.</p><p>Manafort has not been linked to the killings.</p><p>Manafort, a Republican operative who had advised authoritarian leaders like the Democratic Republic of Congo's <span>Mobutu Sese Seko and the Philippines' Ferdinand Marcos, is credited with revamping Yanukovych's image and helping him win the presidency in 2010. </span></p><p><span>Manafort continued advising Yanukovych until he was ousted amid the Euromaidan protests and forced to flee to Russia, where he is now living under the Kremlin's protection. Manafort resurrected the Party of Regions in late 2014, rebranding it as the Opposition Bloc and expanding it to include parties that were opposed to the protests and, later, to the new pro-EU president Petro Poroshenko. </span></p><h2><span><span>'Ukraine is late in paying him'</span></span></h2><p><span><span>In a series of texts to another friend in March 2015, Andrea allegedly wrote that Ukraine was "late in paying" her father. </span></span></p><p><span>"He is cash poor right now," the text read. <span style="color: #000000;">"</span>And now Ukraine is late in paying him."</span></p><p><span><span>In a later exchange with a man who appeared to be Andrea's cousin - and one of her father's former employees - Collin Bond, Andrea allegedly wrote that her mother and father couldn't go through a "public divorce" because Manafort has "too many skeletons" and "his </span></span><span><span><span>work and payment in Ukraine is legally questionable."</span></span></span></p><p><span><span><span>Bond worked as a political consultant and election law attorney for Manafort's consulting firm, Davis Manafort Partners, Inc., from 2005 to 2010, according to a LinkedIn page with his name. A description of his work at the firm says that he "worked<span> with a team that guided the client to victory in the 2010 Ukrainian Presidential election."</span></span></span></span></p><p><span><span><span><span>Bond did not respond to request for comment.</span></span></span></span></p><p><span><span><span>"He is a sick f------ tyrant," Andrea allegedly wrote to Bond about her father. "And we keep showing up and dancing for him ... We just keep showing up and eating the lobster. Nothing changes."</span></span></span></p><p><span><span><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/trump-aide-manifort-designated-payments-from-ukraine-2016-8">Secret ledgers</a> uncovered by an anti-corruption center in Kiev in 2016 suggested that the Party of Regions had designated $12.7 million in undisclosed cash payments for Manafort between 2007 and 2012. Manafort's lawyer has <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/15/us/politics/paul-manafort-ukraine-donald-trump.html">denied</a> that he ever collected the earmarked payments. </span></span></p><p><span><span><span>The New York Times <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/20/world/europe/paul-manafort-ukraine-allegations-trump.html">reported on Monday</a> that a Ukrainain member of parliament has accused Manafort</span><span> of trying to</span><span> hide $750,000 in payments from the Party of Regions by funneling it to offshore accounts. Manafort's spokesman told the Times that allegations were "baseless" and should be "<span>summarily dismissed."</span></span></span></span></p>    <div class="margin-top">        <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/health-care-trumpcare-trump-obamacare-medicaid-medical-universal-2017-3">Animated map shows which states are the biggest winners and losers from 'Trumpcare'</a></h3>        <div>            <div>        <div class="ooyala-video-player" data-video-autoplay="false" data-video-id="xrd3VjYTE65nHDmvlJuMzjHmQa5cC62X" data-player-variable="ooyalapopvideo" id="ooyalaplayer_popvideo" style="width:1280px;height:720px"></div>        </div>        </div>            </div>

Hacked text messages allegedly sent by Paul Manafort's daughter discuss 'blood money' and killings, and a Ukrainian lawyer wants him to explain

<p><div class="image-container float_right"><div class="image"><p class="source">REUTERS/Brendan McDermid</p></div></div><keyword id="45802" type="PERSON" weightage="60" keywordseo="Nelson-Mandela">Nelson Mandela</keyword>, former South African president and <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/nelson-mandela-dead-south-african-former-president-dies-2013-6">anti-apartheid leader, died in Johannesburg on Thursday </a>at the age of 95. Mandela had suffered from a recurring lung infection.</p>
<p>Mandela's death prompted many to worry for nation, even as they mourned his death. </p>
<p><keyword id="275434" type="PERSON" weightage="60" keywordseo="Dennis-Gartman">Dennis Gartman</keyword>, editor and publisher of the Gartman letter writes that it was Madiba, as Mandela was fondly called, who "kept South Africa together after the end of Apartheid," and that he now "fears" for South Africa. </p>
<p style="padding-left: 30px;">"It was Nelson Mandela who forced the blacks in S. Africa to push ahead with the reconciliation councils rather than physically attacking whites living there. It was Madiba who chided radical blacks bent upon revolution rather than reconciliation, and it was Madiba who brought the whole of S. Africa into the modern world and showed the world that the leaders such as Mugabe from Zimbabwe, or Mobutu Sese Seko of the Congo needn't be the hallmarks of a new African leadership.</p>
<p style="padding-left: 30px;">"We do fear for S. Africa now that Madiba has passed away, for we fear that it was his presence that kept radicals such as Julius Malema at bay and away from the wheels of power there. One "look" from Madiba... one comment... one statement was sufficient to force Malema to be ousted from his position of authority within the ANC's Youth League. President Zuma... a man in which we've no confidence whatsoever and a man given to the most lunatic decisions and actions... at least had to remain within the bounds of common sense knowing that Nelson Mandela could and would call his hand at a moment's notice.</p>
<p style="padding-left: 30px;">"Hence we fear for S. Africa once the period of mourning for the passing of this great man is passed; but for now we mourn the loss of this truly great man... a man for the ages, the likes of which we shall not likely see in our lifetime again."</p>
<p>Gartman goes on to compare President Obama and Madiba, saying the President is a man of the left moving farther in that direction. Mandela on the other hand, he writes, "was a man of the Left who moved to the centre and created a nation."</p>

GARTMAN: I Fear For South Africa Now That Mandela Has Died

<p><strong><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"></div><p></p></div></div></strong>President Donald Trump's former campaign chairman, Paul Manafort, is under fire amid new reports that he secretly worked to advance Russian interests for years before he joined Trump's presidential campaign last April. </p><p>Manafort's ties to foreign oligarchs and dictators have raised questions for decades, but his work for the Trump campaign likely has him under FBI investigation.</p><h2><strong>Raised in <keyword id="6358883" type="PERSON" weightage="100" keywordseo="Politics">politics</keyword> and business </strong></h2><p>Manafort was born in 1949 and raised in <span>New Britain, Connecticut, a majority Democratic town where his father served three terms as a popular Republican mayor.</span></p><p><span>Like Trump, Manafort comes from a real estate family. Alongside his political work, his father also ran the family construction company, Manafort Brothers Inc, founded by his Italian immigrant father. </span></p><p><span>Instead of taking over the family business, Manafort decided to pursue his interest in politics and moved to Washington, D.C., where he earned both an undergraduate business degree and a law degree at Georgetown University. </span></p><h2><strong>A Republican operative and international "gun for hire" <br /></strong></h2><p>While working at a private law firm two years after graduating from law school, Manafort began advising Republican president <a href="http://bigstory.ap.org/article/072ea7a7ea934c27ad3438d5b8b905b1/manafort-has-served-top-us-pols-and-sketchy-cast-abroad">Gerald Ford's 1976 campaign</a>. Since the 1970s, he has established deep and sometimes murky, connections in Washington and around the world, serving as political lobbyist, adviser, and an international political consultant for leaders around the world, including dictators Mobutu Sese Seko of the Democratic Republic of Congo and Ferdinand Marcos of the Philippines. </p><p>Manafort's international work has long raised eyebrows among Democrats in Washington. In 2004, he became a top adviser to <span>Ukrainian </span><span>President Viktor </span><span>Yanukovych, a pro-Russian strongman who Manafort is widely credited with helping <span>win the presidency in 2010. </span></span></p><p><span><span><span>Yanukovych </span>was ousted in 2014 after widespread demonstrations against his <span>decision to back out of a deal with the European Union that would have distanced Ukraine from Russia and fostered closer ties with the West. On<span> February 20, 2014, Ukrainian riot police opened fire on thousands of demonstrators who had gathered in central Kiev. Fifty-three protesters were killed that day, and dozens more over the next few days.</span></span></span></span></p><p><span><span>Ukrainian prosecutors have said Yanukovych ordered the security forces' attack on protesters, and at least one human rights lawyer representing the victims is <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/paul-manafort-daughter-text-messages-ukraine-2017-3">investigating what role</a>, if any, Manafort played in encouraging Yanukovych's crackdown. Yanukovych fled to Russia amid the protests and is now living under the protection of the Kremlin.</span></span></p><h2><strong><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"></div><p></p></div></div></strong></h2><h2><span><span>Manafort's Trump connections </span></span></h2><p><span><span>In March 2016, Trump hired Manafort to manage the Republican National Convention and wrangle delegates into supporting Trump. Manafort <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/politics/first-draft/2016/03/28/donald-trump-hires-paul-manafort-to-lead-delegate-effort/">had experience</a> convincing delegates to support Gerald Ford in 1976 - the last time the Republican party began a convention without having selected its presidential nominee. </span></span></p><p><span><span>In May 2016, Manafort was promoted to the position of campaign chairman and chief strategist. He became the campaign's de facto manager after Trump fired Corey Lewandowski <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2016/06/21/us/politics/corey-lewandowski-donald-trump.html">in late June</a>. Manafort served in this senior role until August 2016, when he resigned over reports about his legally questionable work mixing politics and business in Ukraine. </span></span></p><p><span><span>The New York Times, citing ledgers<span> uncovered by an anticorruption center in Kiev, </span>reported on August 16 that <span>$12.7 million in undisclosed cash payments from </span><span>Yanukovych's pro-Russia Party of Regions had </span><span>been earmarked for Manafort for his work with the party from 2007-2012.</span></span></span></p><p><span><span><span>According to <a href="http://www.politico.com/story/2016/08/paul-manafort-resigns-from-trump-campaign-227197">a Politico report</a>, Trump's family was also unhappy with <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/trump-gop-policy-ukraine-wikileaks-dnc-2017-1">changes made to the Republican party platform</a> that many saw as pro-Russian and in which they believed Manafort played a role.</span></span></span></p><h2><strong>Why is Manafort under fire now? </strong></h2><p>On March 22, the Associated Press <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/ap-manaforts-plan-to-greatly-benefit-the-putin-government-2017-3" target="_blank">reported that Manafort was paid</a> $10 million between 2006-2009 to lobby on behalf of Russian billionaire Oleg Deripaska, a close Putin ally, using a strategic "model" that would "greatly benefit the Putin Government if employed at the correct levels with the appropriate commitment to success."</p><p>AP reporter <span>Jeff Horwitz <a href="http://insider.foxnews.com/2017/03/22/ap-reporter-paul-manafort-gun-hire-advance-russian-interests">told Fox News</a> that Manafort was "a gun for hire" who was willing to work explicitly "on behalf of Russian interests."</span></p><p>Manafort's name <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/sean-spicer-trump-manafort-2017-3">had been connected</a> to Deripaska's before the AP reported on their lucrative contract. The two were involved in a partnership that went south, and wound up with Deripaska accusing Manafort of "disappearing" with nearly $19 million intended for investments. Deripaska filed a lawsuit against Manafort in the Cayman Islands in 2014, and was still trying to get his money back in August 2015, <a href="http://www.politico.com/f/?id=00000156-9ffd-de38-a3df-bffd9f450000" target="_blank">according to documents obtained by Politico</a>.</p><p><span>White House press secretary Sean Spicer <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/sean-spicer-trump-manafort-2017-3">denied on March 22</a> that President Donald Trump had been aware that Manafort had lobbied on behalf of <span>Deripaska.</span></span></p><p><span>On top of this, a<span> Ukrainian member of parliament <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/ap-ukraine-lawmaker-manafort-tried-to-hide-750000-payment-2017-3">has accused Manafort</a> of accepting nearly $1 million from Ukraine's pro-Russia Party of Regions, and then laundering it via a company that claims to sell computers. </span><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/paul-manafort-daughter-text-messages-ukraine-2017-3">Ukrainian lawyers</a> <span>also want to question Manafort about what role he played, if any, in the 2014 police killings of protesters in Kiev.</span></span></p><p><span>In another bizarre twist, late last month, <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/paul-manafort-daughter-text-messages-ukraine-2017-3">hackers broke into</a> Manafort's daughter's iPhone and published four years' worth of purported text messages - roughly 300,000 messages - on the dark web. </span></p><p>In a series of texts reviewed by Business Insider that appear to have been sent by Andrea to her sister, Jessica, in March 2015, Andrea said their father had "no moral or legal compass."</p><p>"Don't fool yourself," Andrea wrote to her sister, according to the texts. "That money we have is blood money."</p><p>"You know he has killed people in Ukraine? Knowingly," she continued, according to the reviewed texts. "As a tactic to outrage the world and get focus on Ukraine. Remember when there were all those deaths taking place. A while back. About a year ago. Revolts and what not. Do you know whose strategy that was to cause that, to send those people out and get them slaughtered."</p><p>In another text to her cousin, who was also her father's business partner, Andrea called Manafort "<span>a sick f---ing tyrant."</span></p><h2><span><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"></div><p></p></div></div></span></h2><h2><span>Are Trump and Manafort still aligned? </span></h2><p><span></span>Manafort and Trump have been connected <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/apr/27/paul-manafort-donald-trump-campaign-past-clients">since the 1980s</a>, when Trump hired Manafort's lobbying firm to help the Trump Organization. Trump became close with Manafort's business partner at the time, Roger Stone, a self-proclaimed "<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/21/us/roger-stone-donald-trump-russia.html">dirty trickster</a>" who served as an early adviser to Trump's presidential campaign. Earlier this month, <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/roger-stone-dnc-hacker-guccifer-democratic-party-2017-3">Stone said</a> he <span>exchanged private messages on Twitter with a hacker implicated in a massive cyberattack that targeted the Democratic National Commit ee during the 2016 election.</span></p><p>In 2006, Manafort and his wife <a href="http://ny.curbed.com/2016/10/25/13405036/trump-tower-residents-list">bought a Trump Tower apartment</a>, which Manafort still owns and resides in when he's in Manhattan.</p><p><span><span><span>Manafort has denied all of the allegations against him. In February, <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/ap-investigations-into-russia-to-continue-after-flynns-exit-2017-2">Manafort said</a> he had "n<span>ever knowingly spoken to Russian intelligence officers, and I have never been involved with anything to do with the Russian government or the Putin administration."</span></span></span></span></p><p><span><span>The White House appears to be creating as much distance between Manafort and the Trump campaign as possible. On Monday, Spicer told reporters that Manafort "<span>played a very limited role for a very limited amount of time" in the campaign, despite having spent five months on the campaign, and nearly three of those months as the chairman.</span></span></span></p><p><span><span><span>But others close to Trump have made opposing claims about Manafort's influence. </span></span></span></p><p><span><span><span><span> "We couldn't be more happy with the work that he's doing, the way he's tackling these things, the way he's handling the organization of everything going forward," Donald Trump, Jr. <a href="http://www.pbs.org/newshour/rundown/trump-chief-stars-campaign-controversy/">told the AP</a> last July.</span></span></span></span></p><p>In August 2016, former House Speaker and Trump loyalist Newt Gingrich <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4rsEhtHvkeQ">told Fox News host</a> Sean Hannity that "n<span>obody should underestimate how much Paul </span>Manafort<span> did to get this campaign to where it is right now."</span></p><h2><strong>Manafort under FBI investigation?</strong></h2><p>The revelations about Manafort's work with a Russian oligarch come amid reports that the FBI <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2017/03/22/politics/us-officials-info-suggests-trump-associates-may-have-coordinated-with-russians/index.html">has evidence to suggest</a> that Trump campaign associates colluded with Russia during the presidential election to undermine Hillary Clinton.</p><p><span>FBI Director James Comey </span><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/james-comey-testimony-trump-russia-2017-3">said publicly</a><span> for the first time, during a hearing before Congress on Monday, that the bureau is conducting a counterintelligence investigation that includes an examination of whether Trump associates worked with Russian officials to influence the election. </span></p><p><span><span>Comey declined to say whether Manafort was under investigation, but it has </span><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/19/us/politics/trump-russia-associates-investigation.html">been reported</a><span> that he and Roger Stone are both </span><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/21/us/roger-stone-donald-trump-russia.html">subjects of FBI scrutiny</a><span>. Trump's former national security adviser and top campaign surrogate, Michael Flynn, is also reportedly under FBI investigation. </span></span>Flynn was paid $35,000 to speak at a gala celebrating state-sponsored <keyword id="6355005" type="COMPANY" weightage="60" keywordseo="News">news</keyword> agency Russia Today in December 2015. A few months earlier, he was <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/mike-flynn-and-russia-2017-3">paid $11,250</a> to speak at an event hosted by Russia's top cybersecurity firm, Kasperky Lab.</p><p><span>In response to the AP's latest report about Paul Manafort's dealings with Deripaska, House Intelligence Committee member <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/ap-ap-exclusive-us-probes-banking-of-ex-trump-campaign-chief-2017-3">Rep. Jackie Speier said that</a> the Trump-Russia investigation is no longer a "drip, drip, drip. This is now dam-breaking with water flushing out with all kinds of entanglements."</span></p>    <div class="margin-top">        <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/watch-sean-spicer-spar-reporters-trump-wiretap-claims-senate-intelligence-committee-2017-3">'CALM DOWN': Watch Sean Spicer spar with reporters over Trump's wiretap claims</a></h3>        <div>            <div>        <div class="ooyala-video-player" data-video-autoplay="false" data-video-id="F5eXdjYTE6R9LBBAkvtxZY-5FGKyQIaF" data-player-variable="ooyalapopvideo" id="ooyalaplayer_popvideo" style="width:1280px;height:720px"></div>        </div>        </div>            </div>

Paul Manafort is now at the center of the Trump-Russia investigation - here's everything you need to know about him

<p class="source"><span>Win McNamee/Getty Images</span></p><p class="caption">Paul Manafort, Campaign Manager for Donald Trump, speaks on the phone while touring the floor of the Republican National Convention at the Quicken Loans Arena as final preparations continue July 17, 2016 in Cleveland, Ohio.</p>Paul Manafort, President Trump's former campaign chairman, is in the center of a Russia controversy yet again as he was revealed to have been in a meeting with a Russian lawyer that has come under scrutiny.<p>More details about the meeting came out this week - Donald Trump Jr., the president's eldest son, published emails sent to himself, Manafort, and White House senior adviser Jared Kushner that show a music publicist with connections to Trump and Russia promising dirt on Hillary Clinton.</p><p>The music publicist, Rob Goldstone, suggested the top Trump advisers meet with a Russian lawyer to obtain the supposedly incriminating information about the soon-to-be Democratic presidential nominee. Goldstone also noted that the offer was part of the Russian government's support for Trump.</p><p>There have also been previous reports that Manafort secretly worked to advance Russian interests for years before he joined Trump's presidential campaign last April.</p><p>Manafort's ties to foreign oligarchs and dictators have raised questions for decades, but his work for the Trump campaign likely has him under FBI investigation.</p><h2><strong>Raised in politics and business</strong></h2><p>Manafort was born in 1949 and raised in New Britain, Connecticut, a majority Democratic town where his father served three terms as a popular Republican mayor.</p><p>Like Trump, Manafort comes from a real-estate family. Alongside his political work, his father also ran the family construction company, Manafort Brothers Inc., founded by his Italian immigrant father.</p><p>Instead of taking over the family business, Manafort decided to pursue his interest in politics and moved to Washington, DC, where he earned both an undergraduate business degree and a law degree at Georgetown University.</p><h2><strong>A Republican operative and international 'gun for hire'<br /></strong></h2><p>While working at a private law firm two years after graduating from law school, Manafort began advising Republican president <a href="http://bigstory.ap.org/article/072ea7a7ea934c27ad3438d5b8b905b1/manafort-has-served-top-us-pols-and-sketchy-cast-abroad">Gerald Ford's 1976 campaign</a>. Since the 1970s, he has established deep and sometimes murky connections in Washington and around the world, serving as a political lobbyist, an adviser, and an international political consultant for leaders around the world, including dictators Mobutu Sese Seko of the Democratic Republic of Congo and Ferdinand Marcos of the Philippines.</p><p>Manafort's international work has long raised eyebrows among Democrats in Washington. In 2004, he became a top adviser to Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych, a pro-Russian strongman whom Manafort is widely credited with helping win the presidency in 2010.</p><p>Yanukovych was ousted in 2014 after widespread demonstrations against his decision to back out of a deal with the European Union that would have distanced Ukraine from Russia and fostered closer ties with the West. On February 20, 2014, Ukrainian riot police opened fire on thousands of demonstrators who had gathered in central Kiev. Fifty-three protesters were killed that day, and dozens more over the next few days.</p><p>Ukrainian prosecutors have said Yanukovych ordered the security forces' attack on protesters, and at least one human-rights lawyer representing the victims is <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/paul-manafort-daughter-text-messages-ukraine-2017-3">investigating what role</a>, if any, Manafort played in encouraging Yanukovych's crackdown. Yanukovych fled to Russia amid the protests and is now living under the protection of the Kremlin.</p><h2><strong><p class="source"><span>Spencer Platt/Getty Images</span></p><p class="caption">A memorial for protesters killed in Kiev.</p></strong></h2><h2>Manafort's Trump connections</h2><p>In March 2016, Trump hired Manafort to manage the Republican National Convention and wrangle delegates into supporting Trump. Manafort <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/politics/first-draft/2016/03/28/donald-trump-hires-paul-manafort-to-lead-delegate-effort/">had experience</a> convincing delegates to support Gerald Ford in 1976 - the last time the Republican Party began a convention without having selected its presidential nominee.</p><p>In May 2016, Manafort was promoted to the position of campaign chairman and chief strategist. He became the campaign's de facto manager after Trump fired Corey Lewandowski <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2016/06/21/us/politics/corey-lewandowski-donald-trump.html">in late June</a>. Manafort served in this senior role until August 2016, when he resigned over reports about his legally questionable work mixing politics and business in Ukraine.</p><p>The New York Times, citing ledgers uncovered by an anticorruption center in Kiev, reported on August 16 that $12.7 million in undisclosed cash payments from Yanukovych's pro-Russia Party of Regions had been earmarked for Manafort for his work with the party from 2007 to 2012.</p><p>According to <a href="http://www.politico.com/story/2016/08/paul-manafort-resigns-from-trump-campaign-227197">a Politico report</a>, Trump's family was also unhappy with <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/trump-gop-policy-ukraine-wikileaks-dnc-2017-1">changes made to the Republican Party platform</a> that many saw as pro-Russian and in which they believed Manafort played a role.</p><h2><strong>Why is Manafort under fire now?</strong></h2><p>On March 22, the Associated Press <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/ap-manaforts-plan-to-greatly-benefit-the-putin-government-2017-3" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">reported that Manafort was paid</a> $10 million between 2006 and 2009 to lobby on behalf of Russian billionaire Oleg Deripaska, a close Putin ally, using a strategic "model" that would "greatly benefit the Putin Government if employed at the correct levels with the appropriate commitment to success."</p><p>AP reporter Jeff Horwitz <a href="http://insider.foxnews.com/2017/03/22/ap-reporter-paul-manafort-gun-hire-advance-russian-interests">told Fox News</a> that Manafort was "a gun for hire" who was willing to work explicitly "on behalf of Russian interests."</p><p>Manafort's name <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/sean-spicer-trump-manafort-2017-3">had been connected</a> to Deripaska's before the AP reported on their lucrative contract. The two were involved in a partnership that went south, and wound up with Deripaska accusing Manafort of "disappearing" with nearly $19 million intended for investments. Deripaska filed a lawsuit against Manafort in the Cayman Islands in 2014, and was still trying to get his money back in August 2015, <a href="http://www.politico.com/f/?id=00000156-9ffd-de38-a3df-bffd9f450000" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">according to documents obtained by Politico</a>.</p><p>White House press secretary Sean Spicer <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/sean-spicer-trump-manafort-2017-3">denied on March 22</a> that Trump had been aware that Manafort had lobbied on behalf of Deripaska.</p><p>On top of this, Ukrainian member of parliament <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/ap-ukraine-lawmaker-manafort-tried-to-hide-750000-payment-2017-3">has accused Manafort</a> of accepting nearly $1 million from Ukraine's pro-Russia Party of Regions, and then laundering it through a company that claims to sell computers. <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/paul-manafort-daughter-text-messages-ukraine-2017-3">Ukrainian lawyers</a> also want to question Manafort about what role he played, if any, in the 2014 police killings of protesters in Kiev.</p><p>In another bizarre twist, late last month, <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/paul-manafort-daughter-text-messages-ukraine-2017-3">hackers broke into</a> Manafort's daughter's iPhone and published four years' worth of purported text messages - roughly 300,000 messages - on the dark web.</p><p>In a series of texts reviewed by Business Insider that appear to have been sent by Andrea to her sister, Jessica, in March 2015, Andrea said their father had "no moral or legal compass."</p><p>"Don't fool yourself," Andrea wrote to her sister, according to the texts. "That money we have is blood money."</p><p>"You know he has killed people in Ukraine? Knowingly," she continued, according to the reviewed texts. "As a tactic to outrage the world and get focus on Ukraine. Remember when there were all those deaths taking place. A while back. About a year ago. Revolts and what not. Do you know whose strategy that was to cause that, to send those people out and get them slaughtered."</p><p>In another text to her cousin, who was also her father's business partner, Andrea called Manafort "a sick f---ing tyrant."</p><h2><p class="source"><span>Drew Angerer/Getty Images</span></p><p class="caption">Manafort with Trump senior adviser Stephen Miller.</p></h2><h2>Are Trump and Manafort still aligned?</h2><p>Manafort and Trump have been connected <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/apr/27/paul-manafort-donald-trump-campaign-past-clients">since the 1980s</a> when Trump hired Manafort's lobbying firm to help the Trump Organization. Trump became close with Manafort's business partner at the time, Roger Stone, a self-proclaimed "<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/21/us/roger-stone-donald-trump-russia.html">dirty trickster</a>" who served as an early adviser to Trump's presidential campaign.</p><p>Earlier this month, <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/roger-stone-dnc-hacker-guccifer-democratic-party-2017-3">Stone said</a> he had exchanged private messages on Twitter with a hacker implicated in a massive cyberattack that targeted the Democratic National Committee during the 2016 election.</p><p>In 2006, Manafort and his wife <a href="http://ny.curbed.com/2016/10/25/13405036/trump-tower-residents-list">bought a Trump Tower apartment</a>, which Manafort still owns and resides in when he's in Manhattan.</p><p>Manafort has denied all the allegations against him. In February, <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/ap-investigations-into-russia-to-continue-after-flynns-exit-2017-2">Manafort said</a> he had "never knowingly spoken to Russian intelligence officers, and I have never been involved with anything to do with the Russian government or the Putin administration."</p><p>The White House appears to be creating as much distance between Manafort and the Trump campaign as possible. In March, Spicer told reporters that Manafort "played a very limited role for a very limited amount of time" in the campaign, despite having spent five months on the campaign and nearly three of those months as the chairman.</p><p>Others close to Trump have made opposing claims about Manafort's influence.</p><p>"We couldn't be more happy with the work that he's doing, the way he's tackling these things, the way he's handling the organization of everything going forward," Donald Trump Jr. <a href="http://www.pbs.org/newshour/rundown/trump-chief-stars-campaign-controversy/">told the AP</a> last July.</p><p>In August, former House Speaker and Trump loyalist Newt Gingrich <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4rsEhtHvkeQ">told Fox News host</a> Sean Hannity that "nobody should underestimate how much Paul Manafort did to get this campaign to where it is right now."</p><h2><strong>Manafort under FBI investigation?</strong></h2><p>The revelations about Manafort's work with a Russian oligarch come amid reports that the FBI <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2017/03/22/politics/us-officials-info-suggests-trump-associates-may-have-coordinated-with-russians/index.html">has evidence to suggest</a> that Trump campaign associates colluded with Russia during the presidential election to undermine Hillary Clinton.</p><p>During a hearing before Congress in March, FBI Director James Comey <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/james-comey-testimony-trump-russia-2017-3">said publicly</a> for the first time that the bureau was conducting a counterintelligence investigation that included an examination of whether Trump associates worked with Russian officials to influence the election.</p><p>Comey declined to say whether Manafort was under investigation, but it has <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/19/us/politics/trump-russia-associates-investigation.html">been reported</a> that he and Roger Stone are both <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/21/us/roger-stone-donald-trump-russia.html">subjects of FBI scrutiny</a>. Trump's former national-security adviser and top campaign surrogate, Michael Flynn, is also reportedly under FBI investigation. Flynn was paid $35,000 to speak at a gala celebrating state-sponsored news agency <a href="https://www.rt.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Russia Today</a> in December 2015. A few months earlier, he was <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/mike-flynn-and-russia-2017-3">paid $11,250</a> to speak at an event hosted by Russia's top cybersecurity firm, Kasperky Lab.</p><p>In response to the AP's latest report about Manafort's dealings with Deripaska, House Intelligence Committee member <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/ap-ap-exclusive-us-probes-banking-of-ex-trump-campaign-chief-2017-3">Rep. Jackie Speier said that</a> the Trump-Russia investigation is no longer a "drip, drip, drip. This is now dam-breaking with water flushing out with all kinds of entanglements."</p>            <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/trump-president-twitter-buzz-aldrin-nasa-space-2017-7">People on Twitter are loving how baffled Buzz Aldrin appeared by Trump's 'space' talk</a></h3>                                    Please enable Javascript to watch this video

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