Trump Organization pleads not guilty to tax evasion
The conglomerate of the former US president and its financial director Allen Weisselberg, accused in particular of having set up a “vast system of illegal payments”, affirmed Thursday to be not guilty.
Allen Weisselberg, a staunch supporter of former President Donald Trump, arrived handcuffed at Manhattan court on Thursday around 2:15 p.m. (8:15 p.m. in Switzerland).
KEYSTONE/EPA/JUSTIN LANE
The Trump Organization, the company of the former US president and its chief financial officer Allen Weisselberg have been charged with 15 counts of tax evasion. They said they were “not guilty” on Thursday, claiming that the accusations were “politically motivated”.
Allen Weisselberg, 73, a staunch supporter of former President Donald Trump, arrived in court around 2:15 p.m. (8:15 p.m. in Switzerland), hands behind his back, handcuffed. He was released after about 15 minutes, after having to surrender his passport, pending a new hearing on September 20.
One of the prosecutors, Carey Dunne, told the hearing that Donald Trump’s company – which brings together golf clubs, luxury hotels and other real estate properties – and he had put together a “vast and daring system of illegal payments ”since 2005.
Undeclared benefits
According to the indictment released after the hearing, Allen Weisselberg and his company “systematically conducted themselves” to undervalue the remuneration of the latter and other unspecified employees, in order to pay taxes ” substantially less ”than the sums actually due. Allen Weisselberg is notably accused, between 2005 and 2021, of having deliberately concealed from the tax authorities some $ 1.7 million in benefits in kind.
Among those supposedly undeclared perks are his apartment in Manhattan’s upscale Upper West Side, leasing two Mercedes for him and his wife, or cash for his vacation.
This discreet man, who was officially paid some $ 940,000 per year between 2011 and 2018, is also accused of having lied by claiming not to be a resident of New York City, to avoid taxes. The most serious of the charges against him could earn him up to 15 years in prison, according to legal experts.
“Witch hunt”
Before and after the hearing, one of the attorneys for the Trump Organization, Alan Futerfas, claimed that the whole case was “politically motivated”. A spokesperson for the company assured that Allen Weisselberg was used by prosecutors as “a pawn (…) to harm the former president.”
In a statement, Donald Trump accused the two prosecutors who head the case – Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance and New York State Attorney Letitia James, two Democrats – of “continuing their witch hunt”, an expression that ‘he has used throughout his tenure with regard to his critics.
“It divides our country like never before,” said the former Republican president, who maintains ambiguity about a possible new candidacy presidential election in 2024. These claims were vigorously refuted by one of the prosecutors, Carey Dunne.
“Contrary to what the company claims, these are not standard business practices,” Carey Dunne told the audience. “They were orchestrated by executives at the highest level of the company, who benefited financially by obtaining secret increases.”
Trump spared, for now
The charges made public Thursday are the first fruits of an investigation launched more than two years ago by Cyrus Vance, with the help of Letitia James. Cyrus Vance notably fought for months to obtain the tax returns of the former New York magnate, the first American president since the 1970s not to have published them.
The former Republican president has not been implicated at this stage, nor any member of his family. But “the investigation will continue, and we will follow the facts wherever they take us,” Letitia James warned after the hearing.
Donald Trump was, in 2016, the first billionaire to enter the White House. When he left for Washington, he refused to sell his business as ethics experts recommended, and simply left the reins to Allen Weisselberg and his two eldest sons, Donald Junior and Eric Trump.
One of the lawyers for the Trump Organization had admitted earlier this week, after being warned of the charges to come this week, that Donald Trump was “not yet out of the woods”.
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