Trump Campaign Manager Denies Accepting Cash From Ukraine

Paul Manafort, the campaign chairman for US Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, denied on Monday receiving almost $13 million from the political party of former Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych.

WASHINGTON (Sputnik) — On Sunday, The New York Times reported that Manafort may have illegally received some $12.7 million from Yanukovych's Party of Regions, while he was working as an adviser to the former head of state.

"The suggestion that I accepted cash payments is unfounded, silly and nonsensical," Manafort said in a statement.

Trump’s campaign chairman argued that the newspaper has chosen to "purposefully ignore facts and professional journalism to fit their political agenda."

Manafort stressed that he has never worked for the Ukrainian or Russian governments and ceased his work in Ukraine after the country's parliamentary elections in October 2014.

Earlier on Monday, the Ukrainian National Anti-Corruption Bureau (NABU) confirmed it has been given documents implicating Party of Regions, which was in power between 2012 and 2014, in making illegal payments amounting so some $2 billion to a number of current and former officials.

NABU confirmed that the documents contain Manafort's last name, adding that it “does not mean that he indeed received the money."