Given how the judge threw a fit over the word oligarchy.

Whether it's an ostrich coat or or a Swiss Sanatorium/investment in a research lab to care for/cure his beloved critically ill nanny who contracted a rare orphan disease that should have killed her decades ago - he still laundered money.
Doesn't matter what he does with it, he still intentionally committed a crime. Isn't Law and Order what the GOP is all about?

Haele

Manafort made a lot of cash purchases. Certain crimes,ie...embezzling, money washing, drug dealing, tend to feature perps spending cash for expensive items.

They are likely just giving some background.

made by the Prosecutors?

They say most of their clothes buying clients pay with credit cards, etc.

But Manafort always paid for his clothing with wire transfers from foreign banks.

They do a paragraph or two summary of each witness

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/local/wp/2018/08/01/paul-manafort-trial-day-two/?utm_term=.bbfd8cdbf0b4

Latest is the Mercedes dealer

3:42 p.m.: Manafort’s vehicle purchases detailed

Prosecutors’ fifth witness Wednesday, and sixth overall, was Daniel Opsut, a salesman at Mercedes Benz of Alexandria.

Opsut testified that Kathleen Manafort, Paul Manafort’s wife, paid for a new SL550 in 2012 with a wire transfer from Lucicle Consultants Ltd, one of the Cypriot shell companies prosecutors say Manafort used to hide his Ukrainian income. The car cost $124,000 but Manafort traded in two older Mercedes, an E350 convertible and an SL500, saving herself $56,000.

“It’s not common, but it’s not unheard of” for customers to pay by wire transfer, Opsut testified.

The government also introduced a stipulation that Paul Manafort and his daughter Andrea used a $83,525 wire transfer from Lucicle Consultants to buy a 2012 Land Rover Range Rover from Don Beyer Motors in April of 2012. A stipulation means Manafort’s defense does not contest that piece of evidence.

Paul and Kathleen Manafort used the same company to lease a 2012 Range Roger with a $12,525 down payment that same month. In June, they bought a Range Rover, and, again, $67,655 of the cost was paid for through Lucicle Consultants.

Were they using golden thread in his garments?

Or, to they just raid their hotels for small change?

Which are a big part of the case.

I would need to know more details about it.

because he couldn't recognize income in United States accounts

if he recognized income and paid his taxes on the 15 or is it 60 Million then it wouldn't be an issue. What they are saying is that he paid for those items with laundered funds

how Manafort insisted on paying with wire transfers from a bank in Cyprus (where he was hiding his Ukraine money) (other shoppers paid w credit cards)

Judge didn’t want pics of clothes, but the financial stuff is being explored examined

question is "where did that money come from and how did they get it?"

Worth following if you can

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/local/wp/2018/08/01/paul-manafort-trial-day-two/?utm_term=.bbfd8cdbf0b4

His financial records are in evidence as well.

He was paying for this stuff out of a bank in Cyprus where he was hiding his Ukraine money from the IRS.

If your legitimate income is only $500,000 - and you are consistently spending $750,000/year, and can't explain where the additional $250,000 comes from, chances are you are making money illegally (and not paying taxes on it).

So the Ostrich coat isn't specifically of interest - but it is, as part of showing the money he was spending wasn't his money to spend (because expenditures greatly exceeded legitimate income).

kind of rich a-holes

not that there could be no evidence at all of the purchases, like sales receipts. And that's fine. I suspect that most of the jurors, like most other people (including me) wouldn't be able to tell from a photo whether they were looking at a multi-thousand-dollar bespoke suit from Savile Row or one bought off the rack for $150 at a JC Penney closeout sale. I sure couldn't. And I wouldn't know ostrich leather from Naugahyde from a photo, either. Show me the receipts; that's what's important anyhow.

But then, I've had a fascination with textiles and clothing all my life. The multi thousand dollar suit would lie flat, and neatly, with absolutely no puckers or wrinkles at the seams, while the JC Penney suit would wrinkle and pucker at the seams, and possibly have variations in weave and weft from using different bolts of cloth. There's always a reason for the difference in price - professional seamstresses are the reason.

I could probably tell the difference if I could look at the actual items, but I'd probably miss the details in a photo (unless it was something like plaids not lined up or buttons hanging by threads). If people were wearing them I could tell by the way they fit (which makes me wonder where Spanky gets his suits, because it looks like he found them in a dumpster behind a K-Mart).

He's gained weight since he bought those coats, and those pants are off the rack - or his tailor hates him, because they't too tight in the...seat. He sometimes looks like he's slept in them, or just threw them over a chair.

and he never buttons the jackets, probably because he can't.

He went to the haberdashery for research -- yeah, research. LOL. Anyway, he decided to find out what it was all about and whether hand-tailored bespoke shirts really felt different.

I gather it was a wonderful, if wallet-lightening, experience, and that yes, those shirts were like nothing else in his middle-class existence.

That said, I admit to some Schadenfreude at the thought of Paul Manafort in prison garb.

Just buy a decent quality shirt from Macy’s or some such store.

Find a good tailor and you can have them adjusted to fit you perfectly. My tailor charges less than 30 dollars and it looks custom fit. I regularly get comments on the shirts I wear and I never have more than $70 invested in them.

And with Manafort the issue is not the purchases. But the way he was laundering Money.

It's not genius, it's the IRS. If you claim on your tax returns that you make, say, $100,000 per year, but you own a $2,000,000 house or two, plus a Lamborghini -- it makes the IRS want to give you a deep deep audit.

Red Don's early morning tweet about Al Capone is directly related to this: the feds couldn't get hm for murder, but famously they finally got him for tax evasion.

Guess the ostrich suit makes it easier for him to bury his head in the sand.

leopard skin pillbox hat ?

Maybe the Trump boys could get him a rhino codpiece or a lion robe.

Not that confusing really.

Someone with expensive tastes may get desperate enough to do some shady things to support the habit.

Also, if a person is buying things apparently beyond their reported income, it suggests tax fraud.

I was in the doctor's waiting room and picked up a copy of the NYT "fashion" magazine.

Flipping the pages, I came across a photo spread and stopped short at one of the prices:

A tan wool coat (more like a poncho), that had what looked like leather trim around the edges.

Price: $24,900.