Paul Manafort’s Soho condo appears on the market for $3.6M

A Soho condo linked to President Donald Trump’s former campaign manager Paul Manafort—one of several of Manafort’s New York properties seized by the federal government as part of a plea agreement—is now up for grabs.

The New York Post reports that the apartment, located at 29 Howard Street, has been put on the market by the US Marshals Service market for $3.663 million. Manafort claimed that the two-bedroom pad was his daughter’s primary residence, but it was actually being rented on Airbnb. Manafort purchased the Howard Street apartment in 2012 with funds the feds allege he made while lobbying for pro-Russian groups in Ukraine.

The property is one of five owned by Manafort in the area, and one of three that a 2017 WNYC investigation found played into a curious pattern where Manafort would buy a home in an all-cash deal using a shell company, transfer the property into his own name for no money, and then take out large mortgages against them.

The pattern is not outright illegal, but current and former law enforcement officials told WNYC at the time that it did “merit scrutiny,” and that it was consistent with a pattern used in money laundering.

Manafort surrendered four of his New York City properties, including the Howard Street apartment, in late 2018 as part of a plea deal reached during special council Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russian meddling during the 2016 presidential election.

Manafort’s name recognition probably won’t help the Howard Street property sell, a broker familiar with the building told the Post, while also noting that its interiors are not quite up to snuff in the posh Manhattan market. “It’s fine, it’s livable, but it probably needs some work,” the broker, Ari Harkov, said.

A listing for the property on StreetEasy says the apartment has been “recently renovated with new solid walnut floors, central A/C, a new kitchen with stone & stainless steel finishes & new baths,” but makes no mention of its former owner.