Tax fraud scheme
Trump Organization, CFO indicted
NEW YORK — Donald Trump’s company and its long-time finance chief were charged on Thursday in what prosecutors called a “sweeping and audacious” tax fraud scheme in which the executive collected more than $1.7 million in off-the-books compensation, including apartment rent, car payments and school tuition.
Mr Trump himself was not charged with any wrongdoing, but prosecutors noted he signed some of the checks at the centre of the case. And one top prosecutor said the 15-year scheme was “orchestrated by the most senior executives” at the Trump Organization.
It is the first criminal case to come out New York authorities’ two-year investigation into the former president’s business dealings.
According to the indictment, from 2005 through this year, the Trump Organization and chief financial officer Allen Weisselberg cheated tax authorities by conspiring to pay senior executives off the books by way of lucrative fringe benefits and other means.
Mr Weisselberg alone was accused of defrauding the federal government, state and city out of more than $900,000 in unpaid taxes and undeserved tax refunds.
The most serious charge against Mr Weisselberg, grand larceny, carries five to 15 years in prison. The tax fraud charges against the company are punishable by a fine of double the amount of unpaid taxes, or $250,000, whichever is larger.
The 73-year-old Mr Weisselberg has intimate knowledge of the Trump Organization’s financial dealings from nearly five decades at the company.
The charges against him could enable prosecutors to pressure him to cooperate with the investigation and tell them what he knows.
Both Mr Weisselberg and lawyers for the Trump Organization pleaded not guilty. Mr Weisselberg was ordered to surrender his passport and was released without bail, leaving the courthouse without comment.
In a statement, Mr Trump condemned the case as a “political Witch Hunt by the Radical Left Democrats”
Mr Weisselberg’s lawyers said he will “fight these charges”. The case is being led by Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr and New York AttorneyGeneral Letitia James, both Democrats.
Mr Vance has been investigating a wide range of matters involving Mr Trump and the Trump Organization, such as hush-money payments made to women on Mr Trump’s behalf and whether the company falsified the value of its properties to obtain loans or reduce its tax bills.