The Manhattan district attorney’s office is planning to charge the Trump Organization and its chief financial officer with tax crimes on Thursday, according to a report.
The Trump Organization and Allen Weisselberg, the company’s longtime CFO, are expected to face charges related to tax evasion on fringe benefits, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing sources familiar with the matter.
An indictment would mark the first criminal charges against the former president’s real estate company and could lead to more charges. Trump is facing a separate investigation by the New York state attorney general.
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Manhattan DA narrows focus on Trump Org CFO
The former president is not expected to be personally charged, according to his lawyer, the Journal reported.
Both the Manhattan district attorney’s office and New York state attorney general’s office were looking into whether Trump employees such as Weisselberg skirted paying taxes on company perks such as cars, apartments and school tuition, which are considered taxable benefits.
The former president has denied wrongdoing, claiming the charges are politically motivated. He said in a statement earlier this week that the case is made up of “things that are standard practice throughout the U.S. business community, and in no way a crime.”
Word leaked in May that prosecutors were probing tuition payments for Weisselberg’s two grandchildren at Columbia Grammar & Preparatory School. The children’s mother, Jennifer Weisselberg, told the Journal that checks signed by either Weisselberg or Trump paid $500,000 in school costs from 2012 to 2019.
According to a recent report by the New York Times, Trump Organization attorneys met on Monday with prosecutors in an attempt to ward off criminal charges against the company.
[WSJ] — Keith Larsen