Paul Manafort judge grows impatient as prosecutors trot out invoices for $1M in suits, other custom clothing

ALEXANDRIA, Va. – Paul Manafort had a big appetite for fine things.

Trump's former campaign manager's desire for custom clothing, however, vaulted him to among the most exclusive clients of custom haberdashers in Manhattan and Beverly Hills, according store representatives called to testify by prosecutors Wednesday at his criminal trial here.

For more than an hour Wednesday, prosecutors walked jurors through volumes of clothing invoices, attempting to show that the Republican political operative lived well beyond the means depicted in his annual income tax reports.

But U.S. District Judge Judge T.S. Ellis III grew impatient with the heavy focus on Manafort's wardrobe in a trial focused on bank fraud and tax evasion. "I understand that this is an effort to show that he lived lavishly," Ellis interjected at one point during prosecutor Greg Andres' examination, urging him to move on.

But Andres countered, saying the payments were a reflection of money Manafort allegedly never reported to tax authorities.

Andres outlined that during the course of five years ending in 2014, Manafort spent nearly $1 million alone on suits, sport coats, shirts and jackets at Alan Couture in New York. And a three-year tab at the House of Bijan in California totaled more than $300,000.

The amount of Manafort’s purchases wasn't the only thing distinguishing this valued client.

Every invoice, the store representatives testified Wednesday, were paid by international wire transfers – some sending hundreds of thousands of dollars at a time.

Maximilian Katzman, manager at Alan Couture, said Manafort was the only one of up to 50 regular clients who paid in such a way.

Katzman, wearing a form-fitting blue suit befitting the New York tailor's international reputation, described Manafort as one of the shop's "top five clients."

He identified Manafort, seated a few feet away at the defense table, as the same man who appeared for fittings and who corresponded with him by email to settle his accounts.

In 2013, Manafort's purchases totaled $444,160.

Ron Wall, a financial contractor for the exclusive House of Bijan where clothing is described as "wearable art," recognized Manafort from years of invoices as a "very good customer" for at least three years.

A single bill for assorted Bijan jackets, suits and shirts totaled $128,000, Wall said.

The money flowed, prosecutors asserted, almost exclusively from secret accounts Manafort held in Cyprus, where the political operative allegedly stashed tens of millions of dollars that he did not report as income for work he performed in Ukraine.

The same method of payment was used to settle accounts with a favored New York home remodeling contractor, a Virginia Mercedes-Benz dealer and former neighbor who doubled as Manafort's real estate agent.

Steve Jacobson, now retired, told the jury that his remodeling company was paid at least $3.2 million over five years for work on at least four homes linked to Manafort and his wife, Kathleen, including a Long Island vacation residence in the Hamptons.

Manafort's repeated use of international wire transfers, Jacobson said, sometimes delayed timely payment, especially when one of Jacobson's business accounts was closed.

The government's detailed cataloging of dozens of wire transfers, however, clearly wore on Judge Ellis as some vendors offered strikingly similar accounts of Manafort preference for reconciling his debts.

After a Virginia contractor offered an elaborate explanation for the $104,000 design of a backyard garden at the $1.9 million Arlington, Virginia, home of Manafort's daughter, Ellis cut off prosecutors and began questioning the witness himself.

"This is hardly a good expenditure of time," Ellis snapped, referring to the contractor's "exquisite" description of a pergola adorned with climbing wisteria and hydrangeas.

"You're done," Ellis called out to the prosecutor. "Let's move on!"

Manafort's time working for Donald Trump is not directly related to the proceedings in this case, which is focused on Manafort's business dealings in Ukraine, where he worked for a pro-Russian political faction and former Ukraine President Viktor Yanukovych, who is now in exile in Russia.

Manafort is charged with 18 criminal counts, including tax evasion, bank fraud and conspiracy.

WFTV