Trump Organization’s ex-CFO receives 5-month jail term in New York over fraud conviction

L’former chief financial officer of the Trump Organization, Allen Weisselberg, a close friend of former United States President Donald Trump and who had pleaded guilty to tax evasion, was sentenced in New York on Tuesday to five months in prison and more than two million dollar fine.

Mr Weisselberg had pleaded guilty to 15 counts of tax evasion and evasion involving $1.76 million in unreported income for years, in a massive financial fraud case in which the Trump Organization was also found guilty on December 6, a criminal first for this group.

“In Manhattan, you have to play by the rules whoever you are and whoever you work for,” New York State Attorney for the District of Manhattan, Alvin Bragg, thundered in a statement announcing a five-month prison sentence and more than two million dollars in back taxes, fines and interest owed to the state and New York City tax authorities.

“The Trump Organization’s chief financial officer Allen Weisselberg used his position to secure lavish perks such as a free rental of a luxury Manhattan apartment, a number of Mercedes-Benz cars, and tuition in private schools for his grandchildren, all without paying the required taxes,” denounced the prosecutor, an elected Democrat.

“Jail for his crimes”

“Weisselberg will serve his prison sentence for his crimes,” added Mr. Bragg, while American media present in the courtroom claimed that the former financial director had been taken handcuffed to Rikers Island prison in New York.

This prison, of sinister reputation, notably saw the former film producer Harvey Weinstein and the former director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) Dominique Strauss-Kahn pass for cases of sexual assault.

The case of the Trump Organization, whose conviction by the same criminal court in Manhattan is expected on Friday, concerns a system of false accounting declarations to hide for years (from 2005 to 2018) from the tax services financial compensation in kind of some senior leaders.

In particular Mr. Weisselberg, who had testified at the trial of his former company Trump Organization in November after pleading guilty in August.

“Weisselberg admitted all the charges against him and testified in the open in court,” Mr. Bragg said.

The Trump Organization, which brings together golf clubs, luxury hotels and real estate properties, had tried to blame its former financial director, assuring that he himself had “declared under oath (to have) + betrayed + the trust (of the society”.

Trump not indicted

If he is not currently the subject of any indictment, Donald Trump is the target of legal proceedings which accumulate as he approaches in a more difficult position than he hoped for the race for the nomination of the Republican Party for the presidential election of 2024.

A special prosecutor, Jack Smith, notably resumed work already well advanced by the dozens of federal prosecutors and FBI police officers who have gathered a mass of evidence on the Republican leader’s maneuvers to challenge the 2020 presidential election and the actions of his supporters that led to the unrest of January 6, 2021.

From October 2023, the billionaire will appear on the other hand in New York, with three of his children, Donald Jr, Eric and Ivanka, accused like them of fraudulent tax practices within the Trump Organization.

But it will be a civil trial.

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 is claiming $250 million in damages on behalf of the state, as well as bans from running companies for the ex-president and his relatives.

01/10/2023 23:03:43 – New York (AFP) – © 2023 AFP

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