In a Monday court filing, Manafort is accused of earning more than $60 million as a political consultant in Ukraine, providing the first insight into income that he "failed to report a significant percentage of" on his tax returns, according to prosecutors. 

While the trial will focus on financial crimes that have nothing to do with Trump or his 2016 campaign, it should nonetheless provide fireworks as Manafort is accused of a wide variety of crimes, including laundering $30 million through offshore entities, doctoring financial documents, defrauding banks and lying to tax preparers - much of which was done while working for a pro-Russia Ukrainian political party along with lobbyist Tony Podesta. 

Manafort and Podesta made millions together in Ukraine without registering as foreign agents - except Podesta had the uncanny foresight to retroactively file as a foreign agent last April, while Manafort did not as noted in the original 12-count indictment handed down last October.