Manafort ex-aide Gates testifies at trial on Cyprus accounts

Reuters
Paul Manafort (L), former campaign chairman for U.S. President Donald Trump, in Washington, DC, U.S., December 11, 2017, and Rick Gates, former campaign aide to Trump, in Washington, U.S., December 11, 2017 are pictured in this combination photograph. REUTERS/Joshua Roberts/File Photo

ALEXANDRIA (Reuters) - The top aide to former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort testified at trial on Tuesday that Manafort told him not to tell their firm's bookkeeper about payments from accounts in Cyprus. Rick Gates, the U.S. government's star witness in Manafort's trial on tax fraud and bank fraud charges, testified in federal court in Alexandria, Virginia, that there were hundreds of emails showing Manafort approved payments out of Cypriot accounts. Gates testified on Monday that wealthy Ukrainian businessmen paid Manafort millions of dollars for his political services through wire transfers to Cyprus-based accounts. (Reporting by Nathan Layne, Lisa Lambert; editing by Grant McCool)