Trump Organization fined $1.6 million for tax fraud scheme

The Trump Organization, former President Donald Trump’s business empire, was hit with a $1.6 million superb Friday for tax fraud and other crimes committed as a part of a yearslong scheme to assist a few of its top executives avoid paying taxes on compensation.

The Trump Corp. and The Trump Payroll Corp., two subsidiaries of the Trump Organization, were each sentenced to the utmost possible fines under Recent York laws. The Trump Organization has denied all wrongdoing and is planning to appeal the decision.

The subsidiaries were found guilty last month on 17 counts, including tax fraud, falsifying business records and conspiracy, as a part of what prosecutors had called a “sweeping and audacious” scheme to compensate company executives “off the books.” The decision by a Recent York City jury marked the first-ever criminal convictions of Trump’s firms.

One in every of those executives was former Trump Organization Chief Financial Officer Allen Weisselberg, who pleaded guilty to tax fraud charges last summer and agreed to cooperate with prosecutors against his longtime employer.

The Manhattan district attorney’s office accused Weisselberg of receiving greater than $1.7 million in unreported compensation over greater than a decade. That compensation got here in the shape of rent payments on luxury apartments, home furnishings, Mercedes-Benz cars for him and his wife, parking garage expenses, and personal school tuition payments for his grandchildren, prosecutors alleged.

Weisselberg and Trump’s firms “conducted and benefitted from sweeping fraud for well over a decade,” Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg said in an announcement after the sentence got here down Friday morning.

“While corporations cannot serve jail time, this consequential conviction and sentencing serves as a reminder to corporations and executives that you just cannot defraud tax authorities and get away with it. It is usually a very important reminder that our state law must change in order that we are able to impose more significant penalties and sanctions on corporations that commit crimes in Recent York,” Bragg said.

The DA added that his office’s investigation of Trump and his businesses stays ongoing.

In an announcement after the sentence got here down, Recent York Attorney General Letitia James said it “proves once more that nobody is above the law, not even Donald Trump or his business.”

James’ office is leading a civil probe into Trump, his family and his businesses regarding allegations of widespread financial fraud. She has filed a sweeping civil lawsuit against those parties and others looking for not less than $250 million in damages.

Weisselberg, a 75-year-old former executive who has worked for Trump’s family since 1973, was sentenced Tuesday to 5 months in jail. Reuters reported that the Trump Organization continues to be paying Weisselberg’s lawyers, in addition to a jail consultant to assist prepare him for jail at Recent York’s notorious Rikers Island facility.

“Allen Weisselberg is a victim. He was threatened, intimidated and terrorized. He was given a selection of pleading guilty and serving 90 days in prison or serving the remainder of his life in jail — all of this over a company automobile and standard worker advantages,” a Trump Organization spokesperson said in an announcement later Friday morning.

The spokesperson also called Trump and his company victims, accusing the Recent York prosecutors of pursuing a political “witch-hunt” while ignoring other crimes in the town.

“We did nothing unsuitable and we’ll appeal this verdict,” the spokesperson said.

Trump himself was not charged within the case. He has decried the guilty verdict against his company as “a continuation of the Best Political Witch Hunt within the History of our Country.” The conviction got here shortly after Trump announced his 2024 presidential campaign.

Weisselberg’s attorney, Nicholas Gravante, said in an announcement Tuesday that Weisselberg “regrets the harm his actions have caused to the Trump Organization and members of the Trump family.”