Donald Trump’s company was convicted of tax fraud on Tuesday in a case brought by the Manhattan district attorney, a major repudiation of the former US president’s business practices.
A jury found two corporate entities of the Trump Organization guilty of 17 counts, including conspiracy charges and falsifying business records.
The guilty verdict came on the second day of deliberations after a trial in which the Trump Organization was accused of complicity in a scheme by top executives to avoid paying personal income taxes on benefits employment opportunities such as rent-free apartments and luxury cars.
The conviction is a validation for New York prosecutors, who have spent three years investigating the former president and his businesses, although the penalties are not expected to be severe enough to jeopardize the company’s future from Trump
As punishment, the Trump Organization could be fined up to US$1.6 million, a relatively small amount for a company of its size, although the conviction could complicate some of its future deals.
Trump, who recently announced he would run for president again, has said the case against his company was part of a politically motivated “witch hunt” waged against him by vindictive Democrats.
Former Trump Organization CFO Allen Weisselberg leaves a New York courtroom on November 15. (Yuki Iwamura/Reuters)
Speaking outside court after the verdict, Trump Organization attorney Alan Futerfas vowed to appeal.
The verdict adds to already mounting legal troubles for Trump, who faces a criminal investigation in Washington over both the withholding of top-secret documents at his Florida estate, Mar-a-Lago, and the efforts to undo the results of the 2020 presidential election.
These inquiries are being led by a newly appointed Justice Department special counsel. The district attorney in Fulton County, Georgia, is also leading an investigation into attempts by Trump and his allies to overturn his loss in that state.
The Trump Organization’s attorney, Alan Futerfas, has vowed to appeal the verdict. (Yuki Iwamura/The Associated Press)
Although Trump himself was not indicted, the verdict marks a new setback for the former president, who has faced a series of self-inflicted crises since launching his latest campaign for the White House last month.
That includes anger over his dinner with a Holocaust-denying white nationalist and the anti-Semitic rapper formerly known as Kanye West and an authoritarian call for Trump to “end all rules, regulations and articles, even those that found in the Constitution” to address. his baseless claims of massive electoral fraud.
The Manhattan district attorney’s case against the company hinged largely around the testimony of former Trump Organization chief financial officer Allen Weisselberg, who previously pleaded guilty to charges of manipulating the books of the company and his own compensation package to illegally reduce his taxes.
Weisselberg testified in exchange for a promised five-month prison sentence.
‘personal greed’
To convict the Trump Organization, prosecutors had to convince jurors that Weisselberg or his subordinate, senior vice president and controller Jeffrey McConney, were “high-level” agents acting on behalf of the company and that the company also benefited from his scheme.
Lawyers for the Trump Organization repeated the mantra “Weisselberg did it for Weisselberg” during the month-long trial. They claimed the executive had gone rogue and betrayed the company’s trust. No one in the Trump family or the company was to blame, they argued.
Although he testified as a prosecution witness, Weisselberg also tried to take responsibility on the witness stand, saying no one in the Trump family knew what he was doing.
“It was my own personal greed that led to this,” an emotional Weisselberg testified.
Trump Organization attorneys William Brennan and Michael van der Veen return to the Manhattan Criminal Courthouse after a break following jury deliberations in New York City on Tuesday. (Eduardo Muñoz/Reuters)
Manhattan prosecutors alleged that Trump “knew exactly what was going on” with the scheme, although he and the company’s lawyers have denied that.
Weisselberg, who pleaded guilty to evading taxes on $1.7 million in fringe benefits, testified that he and McConney conspired to conceal this extra compensation from their earnings by deducting its cost from their pretax wages and issue falsified W-2 forms.
During his closing argument, prosecutor Joshua Steinglass tried to refute the claim that Trump knew nothing about the scheme. He showed jurors a lease Trump signed for the apartment paid for by Weisselberg’s company and a note Trump signed authorizing a pay cut for another executive who got benefits.
“Mr. Trump is explicitly sanctioning tax fraud,” Steinglass argued.
The verdict does not end Trump’s battle with Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, a Democrat who took office in January.
Bragg has said a Trump-related investigation that began under his predecessor, District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr., is “active and ongoing.”
In this wide-ranging investigation, investigators have examined whether Trump misled banks and others about the value of his real estate, golf courses and other assets, allegations at the heart of the pending lawsuit by the New York attorney general. , Letitia James, v. Former President and Former President. your company
The district attorney’s office has also investigated whether any state law was broken when Trump allies made payments to two women who said they had sex with the Republican years ago.
Toward the end of his term last year, Vance ordered lawmakers to present evidence to a grand jury for a possible indictment of Trump. After taking office, however, Bragg let the grand jury disband so it could take a fresh look at the case.
On Monday, he confirmed that a new lead prosecutor had been hired to handle that investigation, again noting that it was still active.