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Manafort Left an Incriminating Paper Trail Because He Couldn't Figure Out How to Convert PDFs to Word Files (slate.com)
There are two types of people in this world: those who know how to convert PDFs into Word documents and those who are indicted for money laundering. Former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort is the second kind of person , Slate reports. From the report: Back in October, a grand jury indictment charged Manafort and his business associate Rick Gates with a variety of crimes, including conspiring "to defraud the United States." On Thursday, special counsel Robert Mueller filed a new indictment against the pair, substantially expanding the charges. As one former federal prosecutor told the Washington Post, Manafort and Gates' methods appear to have been "extensive and bold and greedy with a capital 'G,' but ... not all that sophisticated." One new detail from the indictment, however, points to just how unsophisticated Manafort seems to have been. Here's the relevant passage from the indictment. I've bolded the most important bits:
Manafort and Gates made numerous false and fraudulent representations to secure the loans. For example, Manafort provided the bank with doctored [profit and loss statements] for [Davis Manafort Inc.] for both 2015 and 2016, overstating its income by millions of dollars. The doctored 2015 DMI P&L submitted to Lender D was the same false statement previously submitted to Lender C, which overstated DMI's income by more than $4 million. The doctored 2016 DMI P&L was inflated by Manafort by more than $3.5 million. To create the false 2016 P&L, on or about October 21, 2016, Manafort emailed Gates a .pdf version of the real 2016 DMI P&L, which showed a loss of more than $600,000. Gates converted that .pdf into a "Word" document so that it could be edited, which Gates sent back to Manafort. Manafort altered that "Word" document by adding more than $3.5 million in income. He then sent this falsified P&L to Gates and asked that the "Word" document be converted back to a .pdf, which Gates did and returned to Manafort. Manafort then sent the falsified 2016 DMI P&L .pdf to Lender D. So here's the essence of what went wrong for Manafort and Gates, according to Mueller's investigation: Manafort allegedly wanted to falsify his company's income, but he couldn't figure out how to edit the PDF.
Manafort and Gates made numerous false and fraudulent representations to secure the loans. For example, Manafort provided the bank with doctored [profit and loss statements] for [Davis Manafort Inc.] for both 2015 and 2016, overstating its income by millions of dollars. The doctored 2015 DMI P&L submitted to Lender D was the same false statement previously submitted to Lender C, which overstated DMI's income by more than $4 million. The doctored 2016 DMI P&L was inflated by Manafort by more than $3.5 million. To create the false 2016 P&L, on or about October 21, 2016, Manafort emailed Gates a .pdf version of the real 2016 DMI P&L, which showed a loss of more than $600,000. Gates converted that .pdf into a "Word" document so that it could be edited, which Gates sent back to Manafort. Manafort altered that "Word" document by adding more than $3.5 million in income. He then sent this falsified P&L to Gates and asked that the "Word" document be converted back to a .pdf, which Gates did and returned to Manafort. Manafort then sent the falsified 2016 DMI P&L .pdf to Lender D. So here's the essence of what went wrong for Manafort and Gates, according to Mueller's investigation: Manafort allegedly wanted to falsify his company's income, but he couldn't figure out how to edit the PDF.
Is there anybody with an IQ above room temperature still working in the US executive branch?
I don't respond to AC's.
Open source could have saved the day for this a-hole. But luckily for the rest of us he's an idiot.
trump can't pay $200 /year for adobe pro?
Microsoft Office is to goddamned complimicated to figure out.
the preceding comment is my own and in no way reflects the opinion of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
step 1: load your word doc
step 2: After 30-40 futile attempts to download a converter in windows, finish removing the last of your malware and load your converted
step 3: realize the PDF was converted from a JPG
step 4: Spend 3 hours on wikipedia learning about OCR and install Cygwin and related packages
step 5: feed your PDF based on a JPG into your converted
step 6: realize this is about as productive as feeding a toddler into a wood chipper
step 7: Wear out the delete key on your keyboard as you manually parse through your newfound unholy amalgam of character recognition and interplanetary gliphs desperately trying to glean a legible document
step 8: Brew a cup of coffee and give sincere thought to life in Prison.
step 9: close the 6 tabs you opened for youtube documentaries that have now given you the endurance to stay awake another 4 hours into the night.
step 10: voila! you now have justification to litter crucial evidence about your misdoings all over the desktop. Finish a lukewarm litre of gin next to the exaust fan of your laptop and get some well earned rest! DOC to PDF is easy as 123!
Good people go to bed earlier.
Open with -> Word
At least the toddler-in-chief didn't hire SMART criminals.
I doubt he needs this skill where he's going.
"The likes of Facebook and WhatsApp are free to those whose privacy is of zero value."
Fear the intelligent evil people. The stupid ones do this kind of stuff.
Even Ross Ulbricht (Sik Road pioneer and jail bird) got caught in part because he asked about a techy problem on on a techy forum using his own name, while developing the code.
When I consider how to get away with crimes, the primary thing is working out how to break any link between yourself and your actions and between yourself and the victims. The secondary thing is to leave no trace in your personal effects. My legit job seems like a far better deal though.
I should use this sig to advertise my book ISBN-13 : 978-1501515132.
FTFA: He then sent this falsified P&L to Gates and asked that the “Word” document be converted back to a .pdf, which Gates did and returned to Manafort.
His issue is he didn't know how to convert .doc to .pdf.
Asking for a friend
Two possible ways to go here:
1) Hire teenager, who for dirt cheap has the time to sail the rocky shoals of PDF and DOC standards to do what you want, is way too disorganized for investigators to find anything. Cost: $200 and a few illegal beer runs. Downside: May take several passes to correct grammar.
2) Hire Russian (to be more specific, Ukrainian) hacker to simply re-work the original PDF Postscript into what you want. When the investigators come knocking do you think they will be able to find the Russian hacker to get original documents? No. Cost: $50k, delivered in ETH please, and dead drops of USB sticks in place of meetings. Downside: All USB sticks you get back will be laden with latest viruses that will track you while you shower.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
Also asking for a friend.
#DeleteFacebook
if your in politics or any dirty work. But i wonder if there was such a person, and he did the conversion, would he also be liable in this case, if not the one blamed fully?
Neither of these two people have worked for the US Executive branch.
But, according to TFA, Gates would've passed the "Can you convert PDF to MS Word" test, which you consider so vitally important to determining one's intelligence.
In Soviet Washington the swamp drains you.
That is why you keep two sets of books. One for the tax man, showing a loss. And one for the banks, showing a profit.
That's why it's called double-entry bookkeeping.
Iâ(TM)m not slow. Indeed itâ(TM)s not a useful skill for one in a million people to have. So how does one do this?
Some drink at the fountain of knowledge. Others just gargle.
No real evidence of Russian Collusion by the Trump campaign....
Which was the basis for the Special Prosecutor.
No one seems to care how far off the rails this investigation is going...
5 out of 6 people enjoy Russian Roulette & 6 out of 7 Dwarfs are not Happy
There was a lot more, but this is what is being used for charging evidence.
Oh, and, yes, we still have your cloud data.
-- Tigger warning: This post may contain tiggers! --
with the best of the best!
Translation: I will surround myself with ninnies and nincompoops!!!!
Sees no "Russians" required.
Who needs Russians when you can work with a Russia-aligned former Ukrainian president. You know, that country that Russia invaded?
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/22/us/politics/paul-manafort-new-charges-mueller.html
This sig is false.
FFS, can you for once get off the "no collusion", " but what about her emails", "obama is a muslim" train and see that these are the people that YOUR president dealt with on a daily basis, hired, and defended on his campaign and presidency? The fact that there is an investigation where two people have pleaded guilty to Federal crimes in which they were dealing with Russian entities doesn't bother you one bit because you are too busy being a trumpkin apologist dosn't bother you one bit?
We KNOW how far off the rails this investigation is going and we are glad it is seeping into every direction it needs to go to weed out all these corrupt people in the white house and beyond. But wait you don't care...political party before country. Yes, I see how you voted. nice try.
You are aware that a large part of the crime that they're accused of - and of which Gates is now pleading guilty - involves their work on behalf of a then Russian client state, do you not?
It's retaining distinct copies of a document before, and after, adding fraudulent content that trapped the man. Simply discarding previous, fraudulent versions of the document would have cleared the paper trail. Worse for careless criminals: Word documents normally retain some local history of changes on the author's computer, and are far more dangerous in terms of tracking when someone added fraudulent content. PDF is _much_ safer.
PDF is not as user-familiar, and the better What You See is What You Get editors for it do cost money. But the idea that a criminal is making themselves more vulnerable because they work in PDF, not World, is foolish indeed.
How about if they are only a part time clown and are working on passing the CPA exam? Asking for a friend.
It's all parallel construction by the NSA from his comments about getting rid of the deep state and limiting the spy agencies power. I think no one cares because we all realize we lost control of this country long ago.
Aside from top Trump campaign officials being caught meeting a Russian government agent, then denying having met, and when faced with clear evidence one person present admitting that they were there to be given dirt on the opponent - but still insisting it doesn't count because the dirt was poor.
Yup, target rich environment. Well, target rich for the IG. Which is why a shitload of the people involved in the investigation are being demoted, reassigned, or outright quitting.
Manafort altered that "Word" document by adding more than $3.5 million in income. He then sent this falsified P&L to Gates and asked that the "Word" document be converted back to a .pdf, which Gates did and returned to Manafort.
Manafort didn't know how to turn a word document into a PDF, not the reverse as the headline claims.
Seriously, don't the editors even read the submissions?
Ken
Dah Comrade. Sing it! Earn your rubles.
She was like chocolate when she drank... semi-sweet at first and then increasingly bitter.
First, none of these people ever worked in the White House or as part of the Executive Branch. They were campaign staff who were fired by Trump when he lost confidence in them.
Second, without the collusion angle there is no reason for a special prosecutor.
Third, where did "obama is a muslim" come from?
Open source could have saved the day for this a-hole. But luckily for the rest of us he's an idiot.
How often do you think these guys do their own paper work? If it s legitimate, it goes through their clerical staff and all they ever see is a working draft for mark-up or the end product.
Scene: Home office, Manafort look-alike is typing on his computer. "Now how do I alter this spreadsheet? -- Gates will know". Overhead shot lets us see him starting to type an email. Cut to Mueller look-alike in a large office with an FBI logo on the wall. He is giving a high-five to other individuals wearing dark suits and sunglasses. Cut to Putin look-alike, saying "Need to alter a pdf? Get Adobe Acrobat Pro!"
Word 2013+ has built-in export PDF (Save As). Word 2016 opens PDF files for editing. Albeit the editing part is not entirely 100%.
You investigate and the guilty act guilty and run in a panic to cover everything up. More conspiracies form if they didn't already exist. The new mess of new crimes all has to be unraveled in the process. A minor rule violation or lesser crime involved in the primary investigation ends up as a huge distraction in the pursuit of the thing being investigated. GUILTY people do this and also innocent people who freak out over side issues that might come into view (could be as simple as attempting to hide an affair being disclosed which is completely unrelated to the investigation...)
It is not wrong to end up finding nothing went wrong or minor crimes instead of the primary purpose for the investigation but when everybody runs around in a panic and crimes are committed to PREVENT the investigation it is guilty and illegal as hell. Nobody knows if all that illegal activity is to obstruction of justice or simply unrelated or minor cover ups of tangential secrets. It's not like a warrant limiting a search, what they find can be referred for prosecution... it's an extremely powerful tool to dig at the truth. A jay walking stooge wanting to avoid a ticket could trade it for some useful information... It's how they take down organized crime, etc.
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For reasons other than collusion ....
This is just a fishing expedition, designed to remove an elected president. Russians would be proud.
Using biased FBI civil servants. All documented Dems except ONE.
Using FAKE FISA warrants obtained using a collection of FAKE data bought by Hillary. Lied to a judge to get that "insurance policy" going.
Meanwhile Comey signs off on those warrants (illegally) and laughs .... the Russians are very happy.
5 out of 6 people enjoy Russian Roulette & 6 out of 7 Dwarfs are not Happy