Paul Manafort Hit With Stop Work Order On Brooklyn Home

CARROLL GARDENS, BROOKLYN — Paul Manafort has been accused of lying to the FBI and may have violated a court order by drafting an op-ed with someone who has ties to Russian intelligence.

Now, President Trump's former campaign manager is facing another headache, this time a little closer to home. One of his homes, at least.

A stop work order has been issued on a brownstone in Carroll Gardens that Manafort owns, one of several properties that prosecutors say Manafort used to launder money he made working for pro-Russian politicians in Ukraine.

The order was issued after an inspection on Nov. 28, when the city's Department of Buildings said Manafort's contractor was "unable to provide approved plans upon inspection" and a sprinkler system was installed without a permit.

The brownstone, on Union Street between Hoyt and Smith streets, became the talk of the neighborhood when local blogger Katia Kelly first noticed in February that it was owned by the political operative.

More curiously, Kelly observed at the time, the property was sold to a holding company for $2,995,000 and approved for a $527,900 renovation to turn it into a one-family home.

Manafort, though, was able to take out loans against the home totaling nearly $7 million.

That was apparently a red flag for special counsel Robert Mueller, who named the property in his sweeping indictment against Manafort. The charges said Manafort paid for the property using money that came from a bank account in Cyprus and wasn't reported on his tax return.

He even used part of the loan taken out against the Carroll Gardens home to "make a down payment on another property in California," prosecutors said.

And neighbors say the stop worker order hasn't actually stopped work from being done at the home. Readers told Kelly, who first reported on the order, that workers continue to bang away at night out of the prying eyes of inspectors.

"The Sheriff drove up and they shut lights off," one resident told Kelly. "Sheriff drove away, they resumed work. Lights on at night for weeks. Sadly, this charade goes on every weekend. And at night."

Read more from Pardon Me For Asking here.

It's unclear what will happen to the brownstone with Manafort's future in jeopardy.

Manafort agreed to forfeit four properties totaling more than $10 million in value if he doesn't show up in court as part of a bail agreement, but the Union Street brownstone was not among those.

The Real Deal also reported after Mueller's indictment that the Corcoran Group has a contract to sell the property. A Manafort associate told the real estate website that the property could be listed for as much as $9 million.

Photo by Marc Torrence, Patch Staff