Experts say case is ‘strong’ against Trump’s CFO
NEW YORK >> Companies give perks to their employees all the time. Many top executives at Fortune 500 companies have access to a corporate jet for personal use, a company apartment, or an expense account for fancy meals. Even lowerlevel employees regularly get access to perks like tuition reimbursement or cash to join a gym. But the extravagant perks prosecutors say the Trump Organization lavished onto its CFO Allen Weisselberg — apartments, cars, cash for holiday trips, tuition for his grandchildren to name a few — are well beyond the level of compensating a valued employee, some tax law experts said.
And the case against Weisselberg appears to be much stronger than was originally expected by those watching the progress of the Manhattan District Attorney’s investigation of the Trump Organization, its employees and its namesake leader.
“This is an overwhelmingly strong case,” said Daniel Hemel, a law professor at the University of Chicago.
According to the indictment unsealed Thursday, Weisselberg cheated tax authorities by taking a hefty chunk of his annual compensation in fringe benefits. They say that over 15 years these off-the-books perks were worth nearly $1.8 million.
Weisselberg alone was accused of defrauding the federal government, state and city out of more than $900,000 in unpaid taxes and undeserved refunds. He is pleading not guilty.
Meanwhile, former President Donald Trump and his allies have tried to frame the indictment against Weisselberg and the Trump Organization as a “witch hunt” by Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr. and New York Attorney General Letitia James, both Democrats. They have said the perks involved were standard for successful American companies. “The dollar figures and the charges are more serious than what we had thought over the last few days with the little information we had,” said Daniel R. Alonso, a former chief assistant district attorney in the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office. “In particular, the tax loss alleged is $900,000. That is a fraud amount that is definitely in the jail range for typical cases of that magnitude.”
Melissa Jampol, who as a former assistant district attorney in Manhattan specialized in prosecuting white-collar crimes, said the indictment’s allegations stretched far beyond the allegations of fringe benefit abuse. Thomas M. Cryan, Jr., a Washington tax lawyer, said prosecutions over fringe benefits issued to employees are rare, but an unusually large volume of perks and an intent to conceal them as income could tip a civil matter into a criminal case.