ALEXANDRIA, Va. (CN) - Philip Ayliff, a tax preparer for Paul Manafort, testified Friday that he and his firm received multiple emails from the former Trump campaign chairman and his business associate, Rick Gates, assuring them they had no foreign bank accounts.
Ayliff, of Kositzka, Wicks and Company in Richmond, Virginia, told jurors he asked Manafort directly in a 2011 email if he, his wife or any other family members had foreign accounts.
Manafort said they did not, Ayliff said.
As he spoke, a copy of the email exchange was shown to the jury.
A year later, Gates assured the accountant that there was no need to file any documentation with the IRS related to Manafort's interest in Cypriot accounts.
When Ayliff and his colleagues broached the topic again in 2013, Gates emailed back, "As discussed, to my knowledge, nothing has changed."
“Can you provide proper tax advice to Mr. Manafort if you are not aware of all his foreign accounts?” prosecutor Uzo Asonye asked.
“No,” Ayliff responded.
Asonye also read Ayliff a list of foreign entities Manafort controlled that were reported as doing business with Davis Manafort Partners International.
Ayliff said he did not recall what he thought the relationship was between some of the entities and Davis Manafort Partners International, but that he believed others were clients based on how they were coded in the company’s general ledger.
Prosecutors say Manafort used these overseas entities to shield money from taxes.
Ayliff testified that neither Manafort nor Gates ever told KWC that Manafort controlled these companies and that Manafort’s interest in the properties would have been significant for tax purposes.
“I want to make sure that income is being picked up and reported correctly,” Ayliff said.
Among the charges Manafort faces in his trial in federal court in Alexandria are four charges that he failed to disclose foreign bank accounts and transactions to the federal government.
Manafort has pleaded not guilty to all the charges against him.
At one point during Ayliff's testimony, Manafort's wife, Kathleen, left the courtroom, visibly upset. She returned a few minutes later.
Earlier on Friday, Ayliff told Asonye he met Manafort at least 30 times over the years the former lobbyist retained his firm.
Davis Manafort Partners became a client of KWC in 1995, but by 1997 Manafort hired them for personal tax services for himself, his wife and two daughters.
Ayliff testified it was Manafort who gave him all the direction necessary when it came to his personal accounts but when it came to Davis Manafort Partners, he described the responsibility as something shared between Manafort and Rick Gates.
“How would you describe the role Mr. Gates had in the business?” Asonye said.
“He was his right-hand person,” Ayliff said.
“But who was in charge?” Asonye continued.
It was Manafort who was “in charge,” he said.
When Asonye asked if he believed or had known Gates to be deceptive about business practices at Davis Manafort, Ayliff said he had not.
Gates never “hid information” from Manafort,” Ayliff said.
During Ayliff’s testimony, prosecutors had the tax preparer review several personal and business-related tax forms filed by Manafort – or Davis Manafort Partners Inc. from 2010 to 2014.
