Former Trump Organization CFO Allen Weisselberg is accused of receiving more than $1.7 million in unofficial compensation from the institution over several years, including untaxed benefits such as rent, car payments and school fees.
Weisselberg is expected to plead guilty on Thursday, August 18, 2022, to tax violations. The plea deal would require him to speak in court about the company’s role in the alleged compensation agreement. He is likely to serve as a witness when the Trump Organization goes on trial in October on related charges.
Weisselberg, 75, is likely to receive a five-month jail sentence, to be served at New York City’s Rikers Island complex. He could be required to pay about $2 million in restitution, including taxes, penalties and interest.
If that punishment is upheld, he could be released after about a hundred days. He is the only person facing criminal charges so far in the Manhattan district attorney’s lengthy investigation into the company’s business practices.
Trump Organization and its former CFO on trial in New York for tax fraud
Seen as one of Trump’s most loyal business associates, Weisselberg was arrested in July 2021. His lawyers have argued that the Democratic-led district attorney’s office was punishing him because he had not offered information damaging to Trump.
The district attorney has also been investigating whether Trump or his company lied to banks or the government about their property values to get loans or lower tax bills.
Former district attorney Cyrus Vance Jr., who launched the investigation, last year ordered his deputies to present evidence to a grand jury and seek an indictment against Trump, according to former district attorney Mark Pomerantz, who previously led the investigation.
But after Vance left office, his successor, Alvin Bragg, allowed the Grand Jury to disband without charge. Both prosecutors are Democrats. Bragg has said the investigation is continuing.
Prosecutors alleged that the company provided tax-free fringe benefits to top executives, including Weisselberg, for fifteen years. Weisselberg alone was charged with defrauding the Federal Government, the state and the city out of more than $900,000 in unpaid taxes and unearned tax refunds.
Associated Press/OnCuba.
