I love it that YANKEES BASEBALL tickets might doom Paul Manafort.

[pnwmom]

IMHO, it was a very smart move to save the baseball ticket stuff for close to the end. This is stuff ordinary jurors can relate to.

The potential lending bank questioned Manafort on a $200,000 charge he owed on his American express card. Manafort LIED and said that he'd just lent the card to his pal Rick Gates and that Gates had made the charge.

But then the Yankees team said that Manafort himself bought the tickets, that he'd bought these $700 per seat/per game season tickets for years, and that the $200,000 worth of season passes were in HIS name and sent to HIS address.

Sure looks like fraud to me, but I'm just a regular person who wouldn't buy one $700 baseball ticket, much less $200,000 worth -- like most of the jurors looking at Paul Manafort right now.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/local/wp/2018/08/10/paul-manafort-trial-day-9-live-coverage/?utm_term=.e6bb2d1ff5b5

Kirimca’s testimony is important because it links to the $16 million in loans Manafort received from Federal Savings Bank. During the loan processes, bank officials flagged the hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt on Manafort’s American Express credit card. The outstanding debt would make it more unlikely that the bank would offer a loan, and prosecutors have accused Manafort of falsifying his financial information –including information about the American Express charges– to secure the cash.

After Federal Savings Bank employees emailed Manafort to inquire about the American Express debt, Manafort told them that he loaned the card Rick Gates who purchased Yankees season tickets.

No correspondence with the Yankees indicated Gates would pay for the tickets or had them shipped to his home, Kirimca testified. He also testified that the Yankees don’t have any records showing Gates ever being a season ticket holder, information that undermines Manafort’s representation to the bank about the charges.

Prosecutor Brandon Van Grack introduced an email between Manafort a Yankees employee confirming renewal of his season tickets — $700 per seat at a total of $226,800. Manafort said he wanted to renew and informed the Yankees they would receive a wire transfer of $226,800 from Global Highway Limited.

[nycbos]

1. This Yankees fan is okay with that.

[oberliner]

2. Have ever sat in the Legends Club section?

[NCTraveler]

4. The best part of having the Rays as your local team.

Yankees fans can pay more for transportation costs than some of the best seat at the Trop, it’s air conditioned, and half the players on or team will play for the Yankees at some point anyway.

[oberliner]

6. I hear it's a real pain getting to the ballpark in St. Pete

Not worse than the Bronx, I'm sure though.

[nycbos]

5. Lol no.

I sit in the bleachers.

[oberliner]

17. Maybe someday!

It looks like fun.

[malaise]

3. Delish!

[Initech]

7. Honestly the best comedy writers in the world couldn't come up with a scenario this crazy.

[KSNY]

8. Big Bronx cheer

as Mueller exposes Manafort' s and associates' crimes.

[triron]

9. Good example of Mueller crossing his t's and dotting his i's.

[pnwmom]

10. That's exactly what I thought. When people saw that baseball tickets were on the list

of evidence, it seemed like a relatively trivial thing . . . but it might not be after all.

[rusty fender]

11. I'm surprised that the judge

didn’t say something like: there’s nothing wrong with buying baseball tickets! The wealthy are people, too!

[LiberalFighter]

13. I wish he had. :)

[FakeNoose]

12. This is something every member of the jury can relate to

They might not understand the international banking shenanigans, but Yankee tickets are REAL! The emails and wire transfers from Manafort are real too.

Manafort might have saved it by saying he sold the tickets for cash, or gave them to a (Russian) client. Instead he tried to say Gates ripped him off, and the federal prosecutors are 3 steps ahead. Budda-boom!

[LiberalFighter]

14. The prosecutors in essense had Manafort testify against himself via the bank.

I love it.

[KY_EnviroGuy]

15. For anyone interested in reviewing the indictment....

Go here (31-page PDF):

http://dig.abclocal.go.com/wls/documents/manafort-gates_indictment_filed_and_redacted.pdf

...........

[pnwmom]

16. Thank you!

[jmowreader]

18. There is not a baseball ticket in the world that's worth $700

The best seat I ever bought for a baseball game was $65 at Safeco. For that, I was one row back from the field.

A $700 baseball ticket, in my eyes, better come with a three-course lobster dinner (and all three courses need to be lobsters!), full-body massage, two game-used baseballs and the jersey worn by the player who stood closest to my seat during the game.

[WhiteTara]

19. no matter who charged the tickets, the card

was in his name and he agreed to pay all charges. Sounds like the bank had a bunch of grifters and fraudsters, too. I've never had a bank say, hey, you didn't charge this and you owe it, but you don't; alrighty here's your 16 million!