(Reuters) – Paul Manafort is under $3,000,000 in legal action by the U.S. Justice Department. He failed to report his foreign financial interests in a timely manner.

Trump granted Manafort’s pardon in 2020. He was already convicted of bank fraud and tax evasion in 2018.

The United States of America has filed this lawsuit to recover the civil penalties against Defendant Paul J. Manafort, for failing to report in time his foreign financial interests in bank accounts.

Justice Department stated that it wanted $2,976,350.15

Jeffrey Neiman (Manafort’s attorney) stated in a statement, that the government wanted a monetary punishment against Manafort for “just failing to file tax forms.”

Mr. Manafort knew the Government would file suit, as he had tried to settle this civil matter for many months. Neiman stated that the government insisted on filing suit to “embarrass Mr. Manafort”.

Prosecutors had charged Manafort with hiding $16 million from U.S. authorities as a pro-Russian political consultant in Ukraine. This money was used to finance an extravagant lifestyle, and then lying about it to banks in order to obtain $20 million loans.

In a report of 966 pages, the 2020 Republican-led U.S. Senate Committee concluded that Russia had used Manafort (a Republican long-time political operative) and WikiLeaks to aid Trump’s 2016 victory.