He sharing a link to the original Times article - but said Monday on CNN he was trying to shed light on media bias, not embarrass Manafort

Clinton campaign said the revelations were 'troubling'; fired Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski seemed delighted

Statement said: 'The suggestion that I accepted cash payments is unfounded, silly and nonsensical'

Donald Trump's campaign manager has furiously denied claims he was paid millions in cash by an ally of Kremlin hardman Vladimir Putin.

A secret ledger allegedly links Paul Manafort to $12.7 million in illegal cash payments from ousted Ukrainian leader Viktor Yanukovych's party, according to a report in the New York Times.

Yanukovych was deposed in Ukraine's Orange Revolution of 2014 and was found to have amassed a huge fortune by looting from the country's coffers.

Manafort's work as a political consultant for Yanokovych's pro-Russia party has been disclosed before but not how he was paid for his services. The Times now links him with 'off-the-books cash' payments discovered by investigators.

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Links: A picture purported to have been taken of Paul Manafort and Rinat Akhmetov, a Ukrainian billionaire oligarch, possibly in Davos, Switzerland. The two's relationship is said to have led to Manafort working for the pro-Putin leader of the country, who is now deposed

A secret Ukrainian ledger has linked Donald Trump's (left) campaign chief Paul Manafort (right) to $12.7 million in cash payments

Manafort is pictured above at the Republican National Convention with Trump and Trump's daughter Ivanka. The Trump aide says the charges against him in the New York Times are false

The senior Trump aide's name is mentioned 22 times in the handwritten 'black ledger,' as it is being called in Ukraine, recovered from the office of Yanokovych's party, but it is not been proven that he accepted those payments between 2007 and 2012.

Anti-corruption officials in Ukraine have verified that Manafort is in the documents but that they are still working to confirm whether it is his signature, ABC News reported.

'We can’t say 100 percent that this is his signature. We have an analysis going on to confirm whether this is his signature or not and, if not, who this signature belongs to,' a spokesman for the country's anti-corruption bureau said, the network reported.

But Manafort says he did not accept any cash and unleashed a lengthy attack on what his lawyer called a 'smear'.

'I have never received a single 'off-the-books cash payment' as falsely 'reported' by the New York Times, nor have I ever done work for the governments of Ukraine or Russia,' he responded.

A statement said: 'The suggestion that I accepted cash payments is unfounded, silly and nonsensical.'

His lawyer Richard Hibey has also denied he received 'any such payments' or that he was involved with anyone who broke the law. Hibey says the allegations are politically motivated and meant to 'smear' his client.

Manafort started working in Ukraine following the Orange Revolution of 2004- 2005, a series of political and public protests.

He first worked for Rinat Akhmetov, a Ukrainian billionaire oligarch with whom he was purportedly photographed in 2006, possibly in Davos, Switzerland, at the World Economic Forum.

The authenticity of the image cannot be verified.

Manafort then served as a political adviser to Yanukovych, helping the pro-Russian Party of Regions to win the largest bloc in the parliamentary elections of 2006 and in 2007.

Investigators from the National Anti-Corruption Bureau are examining the ledger and other documents found in the office in a bid to get to the bottom of a corruption network they say was used to 'loot Ukrainian assets and influence elections' during Yanukovych's administration, according to the Times.

They allege the ledger was used by the Party of Regions to keep track of payments that were illegal and secret, some of which were made to election officials.

Officials say the payments designated for Manafort are a key part of their investigation.

Prosecutors are also investigating offshore shell companies which funded the extravagant lifestyles of Yanukovych and his inner circle.

This includes the former leader's palatial residence – which boasted a private zoo, helicopter pad and a golf course.

The companies also tried to sell $18 million in Ukrainian television assets, the documents revealed, to none other than Paul Manafort and a business partner - a Russian oligarch named Oleg Deripaska with close ties to the country's president, Vladimir Putin.

Manafort is linked to $12.7million in cash payments over a period of five years from ousted pro-Russian leader Viktor Yanukovych's (above) party

Yanukovich left the sprawling luxury estate in Mezhyhirya and fled to Russia following his removal from power in 2014.

Although Manafort is not a focus of the inquiry involving the offshore companies, prosecutors say he must have realized what was occurring.

Vitaly Kasko, a former senior official with the general prosecutor's office in Kiev, told the Times: 'He understood what was happening in Ukraine.

'It would have been clear to any reasonable person that the Yanukovych clan, when it came to power, was engaged in corruption.

'It's impossible to imagine a person would look at this and think, 'Everything is all right.''

Manafort's legal counsel countered the claims in the Times.

'These are suspicions, and probably heavily politically tinged ones,' said Mr. Hibey, a Washington-based lawyer.

'It is difficult to respect any kind of allegation of the sort being made here to smear someone when there is no proof and we deny there ever could be such proof.'

In a statement of his own, released after the article was published, Manafort said, 'Once again The New York Times has chosen to purposefully ignore facts and professional journalism to fit their political agenda, choosing to attack my character and reputation rather than present an honest report.'

'The simplest answer is the truth: I am a campaign professional. It is well known that I do work in the United States and have done work on overseas campaigns as well.

'I have never received a single 'off-the-books cash payment' as falsely 'reported' by The New York Times, nor have I ever done work for the governments of Ukraine or Russia.'

Prosecutors are also investigating offshore shell companies which funded the extravagant lifestyles of Yanukovych and his inner circle

Continuing, he said, 'Further, all of the political payments directed to me were for my entire political team: campaign staff (local and international), polling and research, election integrity and television advertising.

'The suggestion that I accepted cash payments is unfounded, silly and nonsensical.

'My work in Ukraine ceased following the country's parliamentary elections in October 2014.

'In addition, as the article points out hesitantly, every government official interviewed states I have done nothing wrong, and there is no evidence of "cash payments" made to me by any official in Ukraine.

'However, the Times does fail to disclose the fact that the Clinton Foundation has taken (and may still take) payments in exchange for favors from Hillary Clinton while serving as the Secretary of State.

'This is not discussed despite the overwhelming evidence in emails that Hillary Clinton attempted to cover up.'

Clinton's campaign used the allegations against Manafort as a cudgel against Trump.

The Democratic presidential candidate's campaign manager Robby Mook said late Sunday night that Trump must disclose his advisers' links to Russian actors.

'On the eve of what the Trump campaign has billed as a major foreign policy speech, we have learned of more troubling connections between Donald Trump's team and pro-Kremlin elements in Ukraine,' a statement read.

Mook said, 'Given the pro-Putin policy stances adopted by Donald Trump and the recent Russian government hacking and disclosure of Democratic Party records, Donald Trump has a responsibility to disclose campaign chair Paul Manafort's and all other campaign employees' and advisers' ties to Russian or pro-Kremlin entities, including whether any of Trump's employees or advisers are currently representing and or being paid by them.'

Yanukovych's presidential mansion – which boasted a private zoo and a golf course. Above, a bedroom in Yanukovych's Mezhyhirya estate

A billiards table in a room inside President Viktor Yanukovych's Mezhyhirya estate

The papers documenting the payments were found in a third floor room in the political party's former headquarters in Kiev, the Times' report said.

An ex-party leader, Taras V. Chornovil, told the news publication the room used to contain two safes filled with $100 bills. 'They had it on the table, stacks of money, and they had lists of who to pay,' he said.

The purpose of the payments and not designated and the completion of the transactions are not yet provable as banking records were not included and the signatures for delivery have not been verified.

Detectives with the newly formed Ukrainian ant-corruption bureau said that while Manafort is included in the 'so-called 'black accounts of the Party of Regions,'...We emphasize that the presence of P. Manafort's name in the list does not mean that he actually got the money, because the signatures that appear in the column of recipients could belong to other people.'

The allegations against Manafort come at a time when his candidate's relationship with Russia and knowledge about regional politics and world events has come into question.

Trump has repeatedly praised Russian leader Vladimir Putin and recently urged the country's hackers to find his rival Hillary Clinton's missing emails after reports said they instigated the hack of sensitive Democratic Party emails.

He says he was merely joking. Nonetheless the comments have left a bad taste in the mouth of some members of the intelligence community.

Trump caused more damage to his campaign within days as he claimed that Russia wouldn't invade Ukraine, even though it already has.

NOT BITTER AT ALL: Trump's ousted campaign chief Corey Lewandowski appeared to be delighted by the report, sharing a link on his Twitter to the article. But he told his current employer, CNN, he was backing up Trump's claim that the Times is biased

Meanwhile, Trump's ousted campaign chief Corey Lewandowski appeared to be delighted by the report implicating Manafort in illicit activity in Ukraine, sharing a link on his Twitter page to the Times article.

Hillary Clinton's spokesman Brian Fallon mocked Lewandowski on Twitter and said, 'Stay tuned for more recommendations from Corey's summer reading list.'

The fired campaign hand told his current employer, CNN, he did not share the story to embarrass his nemesis, rather he was backing up Trump's claim - related to a separate story that ran over the weekend - that the Times is biased.

'The media is now focusing on a private person who had a private business model, which no one says there's anything illegal about what he did,' Lewandowski said on New Day.

The Republican commentator invoked Clinton's former chief of staff at the State Department and a report detailing a trip she took to New York to help pick a new executive for her boss' husband's charity.

'No. 1, Paul says there was no money received. No. 2, there's no proof of any money received. No. 3, Cheryl Mills was a government employee at the time,' he said, accusing her of misconduct.