Manafort sued by bank that loaned mortgage on his Hamptons home
In a lawsuit filed Tuesday in federal court in Brooklyn, New York, the Federal Savings Bank of Chicago sued Manafort and his wife, Kathleen, claiming they defaulted on a $ 9.5 million loan for their home. sprawling in Water Mill, New York. After starting the mortgage payments on January 1, 2016, the couple have not made any payments on the house at 174 Jobs Lane since November 1, 2017, and as of March 2, they still owe more than $ 9.27 million, according to the Bank.
In 2019, federal prosecutors indicted Stephen Calk, the founder of the Federal Savings Bank, with bribery, alleging that he made $ 16 million in “high-risk” loans despite numerous red flags as he was looking for a position in the Trump administration. Although Manafort was not named in court documents in the case, the description of the senior Trump administration official who received the loans matches him.
The loan to Manafort was rejected by the Federal Savings Bank in October 2016, but after Trump’s election in November 2016, Calk prompted the bank to change course and approve it, prosecutors said.
Calk then sent a document classifying the administrative positions he wanted in exchange for the money – from Treasury secretary to 19 ambassadors topped by the UK and France, according to the government. Calk pleaded not guilty and his lawyer Dan Stein said the loans to Manafort were “good loans”.
After Manafort was forgiven, prosecutors have dropped the lawsuits against Manafort in search of the Hamptons home, a Brooklyn brownstone he owns, and his Manhattan apartment that was part of a preliminary forfeiture order.
Todd Blanche, a lawyer for Manafort, did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment on the lockdown.