The Trump Organization, the real estate business that catapulted former President Donald Trump to fame, was indicted Thursday on charges of fraud and tax crimes, in connection with what prosecutors say has been a 15-year scheme to redress. his executives went from the ledgers.
Allen Weisselberg, a long-time chief financial officer of the Trump Organization and a loyalist to former Republican President Donald Trump, pleaded not guilty to tax crimes in a New York court on Thursday.
he was brought into the courtroom in handcuffs shortly before 2:45 pm ET (1:45 pm Mexico City time).
The CFO and representatives of the company appeared in a Manhattan court after a grand jury indicted them in the framework of the open investigation into the businesses of the former president of the United States.
The Prosecutor’s Office accuses the executive and the company of several criminal charges that include grand theft, fraud, conspiracy and falsification of documents for an alleged 15-year plot to evade taxes.
According to documents released this Thursday, the company operated between 2005 and mid-2021 a system with which it paid Weisselberg and other executives “under the table”, giving them a significant part of their compensation so that payment could be limited. taxes, both by individuals and the company.
Among other things, they denounce that Weisselberg evaded taxes on an income of about 1.7 million dollars as part of a plot organized by senior officials of the Trump Organization.
After the hearing, Weisselberg was released, although he was ordered to surrender his passport to prevent an escape abroad.
The former president, who began a new tour last week to relaunch his political career, said the charges against his companies “divide the country.”
“The political witch hunt by radical left Democrats, with New York now taking over, continues,” Trump said in a statement after the Trump Organization and Allen Weisselberg were indicted in a New York court.
“You are dividing our country like never before!”
The accusations unveiled this Thursday are the first in the framework of the investigations into the businesses of the former US president that New York prosecutors have been ongoing for about three years.
Trump is clear of accusations … for now
At the moment, Trump is not charged in the case, but it is not ruled out that the case could be expanded, since the Prosecutor’s Office has sought the cooperation of Weisselberg and this Thursday stressed that the investigation remains open.
“This investigation will continue, and we will follow the facts and the law wherever they lead us,” New York State Attorney General Letitita James, who is collaborating on the case with Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance, said in a statement. .
The consortium’s chief financial officer has worked for the Trump family since the 1970s and is a very close figure to the former president, who put him and his older sons in charge of the business while he was in the White House.
Investigations into the former US president’s company have accelerated in recent months, with the prosecution recently focusing on alleged tax evasion linked to some compensation received by executives such as vehicles, apartments and private school tuition.
The investigations have also covered other issues such as possible insurance fraud and the secret payments of money that the Trump electoral campaign made to the porn actress Stormy Daniels to prevent her from making public an alleged sexual relationship with the then presidential candidate.
Trump has at all times denied any wrongdoing and has repeatedly denounced that the investigations are the result of political persecution by Democratic prosecutors.
This Thursday, his company insisted on that idea, denouncing in a statement that Weisselberg is being used by prosecutors as a “pawn” in an attempt “to harm the former president.”
“The district attorney is filing a criminal charge on employee compensation that neither the IRS (the US tax authority) nor other prosecutors would ever think of filing. This is not justice, this is politics,” the company noted.
With information from AFP and EFE
