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Tax evasion investigation: Trump Organization’s CFO surrenders
Allen Weisselberg is the first Trump Organization official to be charged in a three-year investigation conducted by Manhattan district attorney in conjunction with New York state attorney general.
Trump Organization’s long-time chief financial officer (CFO) Allen Weisselberg surrendered to authorities in Manhattan, New York on Thursday in connection with criminal charges possibly related to tax evasion that are to be announced against former president Donald Trump’s company later in the day.
Weisselberg entered the Manhattan criminal courthouse through an employee entrance early in the morning. “Mr Weisselberg intends to plead not guilty, and he will fight these charges in court,” Mary E Mulligan, his attorney, said.
The Trump Organization called Weisselberg a “loving and devoted husband, father and grandfather who has worked at the organisation for 48 years”, in a statement.
“He is now being used by the Manhattan district attorney as a pawn in a scorched earth attempt to harm the former president. The district attorney is bringing a criminal prosecution involving employee benefits that neither the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) nor any other district attorney would ever think of bringing,” the statement said. “This is not justice; this is politics.”
Weisselberg is the first Trump Organization official to be charged in a three-year investigation conducted by Manhattan district attorney Cyrus Vance in conjunction recently with New York state attorney general Letitia James, stemming from Trump’s one-time personal lawyer Michael Cohen’s congressional testimony that Trump Organization inflated the value of its assents when seeking bank loans and undervalued them for taxation purposes.
Vance’s office is expected to unveil the charges later in the afternoon, but reports suggested they may have to do with the non-payment of taxes on fringe benefits provided by the Trump Organization to its employees, such as private school tuitions, accommodation and vehicles.
Former president Trump or members of his family are not expected to be charged, not yet at least.
Manhattan prosecutors have tried unsuccessfully to force Weisselberg to cooperate but the chief financial officer who has been with the Trump family for four decades and is considered to be one of the most important figures in Trump Organization.
Trump has dismissed the case as politically motivated.
