The family business of former US President Donald Trump, the Trump Organization, was sentenced in New York on Friday to a maximum fine of 1.6 million dollars for financial and tax fraud, a first in criminal law.
The group of the American billionaire, candidate for the nomination of the Republican Party for the presidential election of 2024, was tried for tax evasion and falsification of accounting declarations, in particular with the aim of hiding from the tax services financial compensation from certain senior leaders.
The Trump Organization was found guilty in early December and has been awaiting sentencing ever since.
>> Details in the article published after the verdict: Trump Organization found guilty of tax evasion
“Today, former President Trump’s businesses were fined the maximum fines allowed by law after historic convictions for a total of 17 misdemeanor felonies,” prosecutor Alvin Bragg said.
In concrete terms, the Trump Organization, which brings together golf clubs, luxury hotels and real estate properties, was accused of having granted financial or in-kind benefits to senior leaders, hiding them from the tax authorities to avoid paying taxes. , from 2005 to 2018.Prosecutors (left) and attorneys for the Trump Organization (right) gather in the Manhattan Criminal Court courtroom to hear sentencing, January 13, 2023. The former US president’s firm United will have to pay a fine of 1.6 million dollars. [Adam Gray – REUTERS]
Prison sentence for a former financial director
Among them, a historic former financial director of the company for a long time very close to Donald Trump, who pleaded guilty to 15 charges and was sentenced on Tuesday in the same case to five months in prison and more than two million dollars. fine.
When his sentence was announced, the 75-year-old man, who had started working in 1973 as an accountant for Donald Trump’s father, left in handcuffs for Rikers Island prison to serve his sentence.
He was accused of benefiting from the free rental of a luxury apartment in Manhattan, the provision of Mercedes cars or the payment of private school tuition for his grandchildren, approximately 1, $76 million in unreported income for years.
The Trump Organization had announced on December 6, when his guilt was announced, via one of his lawyers, Susan Necheles, that she would appeal, while seeking to blame the former accountant, ensuring that he had himself “declared under oath (to have) ‘betrayed’ the trust (of) the company”.
Donald Trump not personally targeted
Donald Trump, who has denounced a “witch hunt” several times, was not personally targeted in this trial and he is not charged in any legal case at this stage, but he sees the files accumulating in court so that he addresses the 2024 Republican Party nomination race.
In the two most resounding cases, the attack by his supporters on the headquarters of Congress on January 6, 2021, and the attempts to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election, the special prosecutor Jack Smith must in particular look into possible lawsuits for the role of the former US president (2017-2021).
Civil appearance
If he is not criminally charged, the billionaire must however appear in civil proceedings in New York, with three of his children, Donald Jr, Eric and Ivanka, accused like them of fraudulent tax practices within the Trump Organization.
In this case, New York State Attorney General Letitia James accuses the Trump family of having “deliberately” manipulated the valuations of the group’s assets to obtain more advantageous loans from banks or reduce its taxes.
She claims 250 million dollars in damages on behalf of the state, as well as prohibitions to run companies for the ex-president and his relatives.
>> To read also: Bad news keeps coming for Donald Trump
ats/ami
