Business Insider – Trump directly implicated himself in the Trump Organization tax investigation with an offer to pay school fees, report saysEstimated Reading Time: just 4 min

As reported on Business Insider:

Trump Tower
Donald Trump.

Dominick Reuter/AFP via Getty Images

  • Trump has been connected to the Trump Org. tax investigation for the first time, per The Daily Beast.
  • A witness reportedly told investigators that Trump once offered to personally guarantee perks in lieu of taxable salary.
  • Trump has not been charged by the Manhattan DA so far.
  • See more stories on Insider’s business page.

A cooperating witness told Manhattan prosecutors last month that former President Donald Trump offered to personally pay for perks in place of a taxable income, The Daily Beast reported, citing sources who heard the conversation. The development directly implicates Trump in the criminal tax scheme that his company and its longtime CFO, Allen Weisselberg, were indicted for.

The Manhattan district attorney’s office is currently investigating whether Trump Organization executives illegally took benefits without paying taxes on them, and whether the company broke tax, insurance, and bank fraud laws by misrepresenting property values.

Weisselberg was accused of participating in a scheme of corporate gifts in lieu of higher salaries, thereby avoiding paying a chunk of taxes for both the company and its employees, according to the indictment.

Two unnamed sources told The Daily Beast that they heard an interview between investigators and the witness, Jennifer Weisselberg, who is Allen Weisselberg’s former daughter-in-law, in which she said that Trump personally guaranteed one of those perks. The outlet did not say how the sources were connected to the investigation.

The agreement was made in January 2012 during a meeting at Trump Tower that included Trump, Jennifer Weisselberg, her then-husband Barry, and Allen Weisselberg, The Daily Beast reported. Barry Weisselberg is also a Trump Organization employee.

Jennifer Weisselberg is said to have told prosecutors that Trump said he would pay for her and Barry’s children’s education instead of giving Barry a raise, the report said.

According to The Daily Beast, Jennifer Weisselberg told prosecutors that at one point in the 2012 meeting, Trump turned to her and said: "Don’t worry, I’ve got it covered."

Investigators also asked Weisselberg, who is in the middle of divorce proceedings, if Trump was personally involved in the alleged scheme, and Weisselberg said he was, sources told The Daily Beast.

The Manhattan DA’s office charged the Trump Organization and Allen Weisselberg earlier this month with 15 felony counts including scheme to defraud, conspiracy, grand larceny, tax fraud, and falsifying business records.

Though Trump was not criminally charged, prosecutors referenced him several times in court and in the 25-page indictment. The charging document said that Trump personally signed tuition checks for Allen Weisselberg’s family members.

Specifically, from 2012 to 2017, "Trump Corporation personnel, including Weisselberg, arranged for tuition expenses for Weisselberg’s family members to be paid by personal checks drawn on the account of and signed by Donald J. Trump, and later drawn on the account of the Donald J. Trump Revocable Trust, dated April 7, 2017," the indictment said.

Prosecutors said that Weisselberg "intentionally" omitted the tuition payments from his personal tax returns even though he knew the payments "represented taxable income and were treated as compensation by the Trump Corporation in internal records."

Weisselberg and the Trump Organization pleaded not guilty to the charges against them. Trump slammed the investigation as a "witch hunt."

This month’s indictment represents the first charges to come out of the Manhattan DA’s three-year investigation into Trump’s business dealings. But prosecutors said the inquiry is still ongoing, and legal experts previously told Insider that the charges may just be the tip of the iceberg where Trump is concerned.

"It’s not going to be lost on Trump’s lawyers that the government showed with this indictment how quickly they were able to put together what looks like a very solid case, considering how short a time they’ve had Trump and his company’s records," said Patrick Cotter, a former federal prosecutor who was on the team that convicted the Gambino crime boss John Gotti.

Investigators could also bring charges against other Trump Organization employees, many of whom prosecutors said received the same type of untaxed benefits Weisselberg did.

"As prosecutors go through this evidence and threaten other company executives, they may not all be guys in their 70s" like Allen Weisselberg, Cotter said. "They might be in the prime of their life and they’re going to think about the fact that they could go to jail for five, six, seven years if they get the wrong judge. Those are the guys that may have more motivation to cooperate."

Alan Futerfas, the Trump Organization’s lawyer, did not provide a comment to The Daily Beast. Liz Harrington, Trump’s spokesperson, did not immediately reply to Insider’s request for comment.

Read the original article on Business Insider



Source: Business Insider
Author: mjankowicz@businessinsider.com (Mia Jankowicz,Sonam Sheth)
Date: July 16th 2021
Link: https://www.businessinsider.com/trump-implicated-manhattan-trump-org-tax-investigation-report-2021-7

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