Jannah Theme License is not validated, Go to the theme options page to validate the license, You need a single license for each domain name.
Florida

Trump’s longtime CFO faces judgment on tax evasion scheme

NEW YORK (AP) — Allen Weisselberg, a longtime executive in Donald Trump’s real estate empire, said his testimony helped convict the former president of corporate tax fraud.

New York Judge Juan Manuel Marchan is expected to sentence Weisselberg, a senior adviser to the Trump Organization and former chief financial officer, to five months in prison under a plea deal agreed in August. there is

Weisselberg, 75, was promised that sentence when he pleaded guilty to 15 tax offenses he has worked for since the mid-1980s and agreed to testify against the company.

When he begins serving his sentence, Weisselberg is expected to be confined to New York City’s infamous Rikers Island prison complex. Eligible.

As part of the plea bargain, Weisselberg also has to pay nearly $2 million in taxes, fines and interest, which he says has gone significantly ahead. He must also complete five years of probation.

Weisselberg could face up to 15 years in prison if he broke his contract or failed to testify truthfully at the Trump Organization trial. He is the only person indicted in the Manhattan District Attorney’s three-year investigation into Trump and his business practices.

Weisselberg testified over three days, giving us a glimpse into the inner workings of Trump’s real estate empire. Weisselberg was hired in 1973 by developer father Fred as Trump’s accountant, who has worked for the Trump family for nearly 50 years. He then joined Donald Trump in 1986 and helped expand the family-owned company’s focus beyond New York City into a global golf and hotel brand.

Mr. Weisselberg told jurors that he had secured the trust of the Trump family by colluding with his men to hide more than a decade of extras from his income, including a free Manhattan apartment, a luxury car, and his grandson’s private school tuition. He said they falsified payroll records and issued falsified W-2 forms.

A Manhattan jury found the Trump Organization guilty last December, saying Weisselberg was a representative of “senior management” charged with acting on behalf of the company and its various entities. Certified. Mr. Weisselberg’s arrangement reduced his own personal income tax, but also saved his company money by not having to pay him to cover the cost of his perks.

Prosecutors said other Trump Organization executives also accepted off-the-books compensation. In Weisselberg alone, the federal government, states, and cities have accused him of defrauding over $900,000 in unpaid taxes and unfair tax refunds.

The Trump organization is set to be sentenced on Friday and faces fines of up to $1.6 million.

Weisselberg testified that neither Trump nor his family knew the plot was going on, and was choked when he told jurors: But prosecutors said in closing arguments that Trump “knew exactly what was going on,” and evidence such as the lease he signed for Weisselberg’s apartment was “Mr. Trump is clear.” are sanctioned for tax evasion.”

Attorney for the Trump Organization, Michael van der Veen, said Weisselberg concocted the plan without the knowledge of Trump or the Trump family.

Weisselberg said Trump remained loyal to him after the 2016 election, even as the company rushed to end some of its questionable pay practices. He ordered Trump’s eldest son, who was tasked with running the company when he was president, to pay him 20 after an internal audit found that he had cut his salary and bonuses at the cost of perks. He said he gave him a $10,000 raise.

Although he is currently on leave, the company will continue to pay Weisselberg a salary of $640,000 and a vacation bonus of $500,000. After he was arrested in July 2021, he punished him only nominally, reassigned him to senior adviser and moved his office.

He celebrated his 75th birthday with cake and colleagues at Trump Tower in August, just hours after finalizing a plea bargain that would lead to his conversion from loyal executive to prosecution witness.

Rikers Island, a complex of 10 prisons on land on the East River just off the main runway of LaGuardia Airport in Queens, has suffered in recent years from violence, inmate deaths and a staggering understaffing. It has been.

Only 5 miles (8 kilometers) from Trump Tower, it’s a world away from the lavish living Weisselberg planned to build. It’s a far cry from Weisselberg’s planned gilded Fifth Avenue office and apartment with a view of the Hudson River. as a reward.

___

Follow Michael Sisak on Twitter at twitter.com/mikesisak and visit https://www.ap.org/tips/ to send us your secret tips.



https://fox40.com/news/national/ap-us-news/ap-trumps-longtime-cfo-faces-sentencing-for-tax-fraud-scheme/ Trump’s longtime CFO faces judgment on tax evasion scheme

Show More

Related Articles

Back to top button