Paul Manafort's associate Sam Patten charged with lobbying law violation

A former associate of Paul Manafort, Sam Patten, was charged Friday with failing to register in the US as a foreign agent for his work lobbying on behalf of a Ukrainian political party.

US Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s office referred the case to the US Attorney in the District of Columbia, according to William Miller, a spokesman for US Attorney Jessie Liu.

From 2014 until now, Patten worked with a Russian national on lobbying and political consulting services, including on behalf of a Ukrainian oligarch and a Ukrainian political party, according to a document filed by the U.S. in federal court in Washington.

As part of his lobbying work, he violated the Foreign Agents Registration Act, the US said. The charge is a felony and carries a maximum prison sentence of five years, Miller said. Because it’s a pending case, the US Attorney declined to comment further.

The charges are spelled out in a criminal information, which often precedes a guilty plea. A company not identified in the document received more than $1 million for work for the Ukrainian opposition bloc, the US said.

Patten is scheduled to appear in federal court in Washington before US District Court Judge Amy Berman Jackson at 11 a.m.

Patten worked for multiple political parties and office-holders in Ukraine, according to his website. He previously worked on the micro-targetting operations of Cambridge Analytica during the 2014 election cycle, the Daily Beast reported in April.

His work for Cambridge Analytica was later adopted by "at least one major US presidential candidate," the Daily Beast said. Patten told the publication that his work for Cambridge Analytica was separate from the work of his consulting firm.

He headed the International Republican Institute’s Moscow office from 2001 to 2004, and provided technical assistance to a range of political parties and non-governmental organizations, according to the website.

He worked closely with the late opposition leader Boris Nemtsov, whose center-right party, the Union of Right Forces, pushed for free market and democratic reforms. From 2009 to 2011, Patten served as Eurasian program director at Freedom House, an advocacy group, where he continued to focus on Russian affairs, as well as those in the broader region.