Paul Manafort, a founding partner with McCain campaign manager Rick Davis in the firm Davis Manafort, is a political consultant perhaps best known for his 1989 congressional testimony in which he described his role in the HUD scandal as "influence peddling."[1] According to reports at the time, "Manafort admitted that he and a group of partners had obtained $31 million in federal subsidies for a housing project they were developing in New Jersey after a pivotal meeting in 1986 between [McCain bundler-lobbyist] Laurence Gay, then a member of his lobbying firm, and Debra Gore Dean, the chief assistant to HUD Secretary Samuel R. Pierce Jr."[2]
Although Manafort was never charged with any crimes, the firm he was then associated with, Black, Manafort, Stone and Kelly, had a reputation for representing shady characters. Among the firm's clients in the 1980s were such dictators as the Phillipines' Ferdinand Marcos, Zaire's Mobutu Sese Seko, Nigeria's Sani Abacha, and Somalia's Mohamed Siad Barre, as well as Angolan rebel Jonas Savimbi.[3] Manafort has also represented a number of gaming interests, including GTECH, now one of the country's largest lottery companies, and the Schaghticokes Indian tribe.[4]
Manafort also came under fire recently when it was revealed that his firm had arranged a 2006 meeting between McCain and Russian aluminum magnate Oleg Deripaska.[5] Deripaska, critics noted, is not only one of the richest men in Russia and an ally of Vladimir Putin, but has also been linked to organized crime and had his American visa revoked. Nevertheless, Deripaska is not the only shady figure to benefit from close relations with Manafort. He has also done political consulting for former Ukrainian Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovich, who had close ties to Putin and was defeated in that country's 2004 Orange Revolution.[6]
[1] Edward T. Pound, "Troublesome Resumes," U.S. News & World Report, May 28, 2007.
[2] Lyn Bixby, "Tribe's Lobbyist No Stranger To Scandal," Hartford Courant, August 5, 1999.
[3] Steve Burkhold, "On the Town With Jonas Savimbi," Common Cause Magazine, Winter 1993.
[4] Rick Green, "Two Tribes Are Down to the Wire," Hartford Courant, October 10, 2005.
[5] Jeffrey H. Birnbaum and John Solomon, "Aide Helped Controversial Russian Meet McCain," January 25, 2008.
[6]Clifford Levy, "Ukrainian Prime Minister Reinvents Himself," The New York Times, September 30, 2007.