Former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort was involved in around $60 million in loan dealings with Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska, a billionaire with close ties to the Kremlin, NBC News reported.
Manafort — who left the campaign amid allegations of improper financial dealings — is a central figure in special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into alleged collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia.
According to NBC News, its investigation found $26 million was transferred from Oguster Management Ltd. — which is wholly owned by Deripaska— to Yiakora Ventures Ltd.
Yiakora, according to Cyprus financial documents, is a "related party" to Manafort's interests on the island —a financial term meaning that Manafort's interests have significant influence over Yiakora.
NBC News reported it also confirmed a smaller loan of $7 million from Oguster to another Manafort-linked company, LOAV Advisers Ltd., a figure first reported by The New York Times in July — and that the entire amount was not backed by any collateral.
NBC News also reported documents that showed loans of more than $27 million from two Cyprus entities to a third company connected to Manafort, a limited-liability corporation registered in Delaware.
"Money launderers frequently will disguise payments as loans," Stefan Cassella, a former federal prosecutor, told NBC News. "You can call it a loan, you can call it Mary Jane. If there's no intent to repay it, then it's not really a loan. It's just a payment."
NBC News reported last June that the business relationship between Deripaska and Manafort began in 2007, and The Wall Street Journal reported the pair worked together to further Russian interests in Georgia.
Manafort went on to spend nearly a decade working as a consultant for a pro-Russian political party in Ukraine.
Manafort's spokesman, Jason Maloni, declined to give specific answers about the loans, but released a statement to NBC News saying, in part, "Mr. Manafort is not indebted to former clients today, nor was he at the time he began working for the Trump campaign."
According to NBC News, he later revised the statement to state:
"Recent news reports indicate Mr. Manafort was under surveillance before he joined the campaign and after he left the campaign. He has called for the U.S. Government to release any intercepts involving him and non-Americans in hopes of finally putting an end to these wild conspiracy theories. Mr. Manafort did not collude with the Russian government."
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