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☆ DA in Trump Org closings accuses Donald Trump of 'sanctioning tax fraud' — and implies 1 witness was paid off
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-02 | by ( Laura Italiano | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

In closings, a prosecutor took the extraordinary step of accusing Trump of "sanctioning tax fraud." This 2012 memo shows Donald Trump 'explicitly sanctioning tax fraud,' a prosecutor said in closing arguments on December 2, 2022, in the Trump Organization tax-fraud trial. multiple defense lawyers shouted when the prosecutor accused Trump of "sanctioning tax fraud," interrupting the closing arguments. Judge, we go back to the issue that he just argued Donald Trump was explicitly authorizing tax fraud," she complained. The Manhattan case charges two corporate subsidiaries — the Trump Corporation and the Trump Payroll Corporation, both doing business as the Trump Organization — with scheme to defraud, conspiracy and related tax-fraud crimes.

☆ Trump company tax fraud trial nears end in battle over who to blame
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-01 | by ( Luc Cohen | Thomson Reuters | Reports On The New York Federal Courts. Previously Worked As A Correspondent In Venezuela | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +5 min

Joshua Steinglass, a prosecutor with the Manhattan district attorney's office, said Weisselberg was a product of the "culture of fraud and deception" at Trump's company, and not its only tax fraud beneficiary. Weisselberg is expected to serve five months in jail after pleading guilty to tax fraud and other charges. He told jurors his greed motivated him to cheat on taxes, and described the company's modest payroll tax savings as a "byproduct." Necheles told jurors: "The issue here is not whether as a byproduct the company saved some money. Steinglass urged jurors to dismiss the defense's "far-fetched argument" that Trump's company relied on Mazars to catch wrongdoing.

☆ Trump Org defense closings feature a clueless Donald Trump and a big little loophole
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-01 | by ( Laura Italiano | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +7 min

"Donald Trump was running a multi-billion-dollar corporate entity," one lawyer, Susan Necheles, told jurors of the Trump Organization's far-too-busy-for-fraud owner. But Weisselberg, she told jurors, hid his self-serving crimes from the Trumps, a family he'd worked for for more than 30 years. "You saw him on the witness stand almost crying" over betraying the Trump family, Necheles told jurors of the former finance chief, repeating for emphasis, "He was ashamed." "I ask you to remember that language," Necheles told the jury, reading it aloud. "The prosecution has been trying to convince you that Mr. Weisselberg's actions were done 'in behalf of' the company," Necheles said.

☆ Trump Org hopes to win its Manhattan tax-fraud trial with an 'ignorance' defense — a Trump hallmark
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-30 | by ( Laura Italiano | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Summations are Thursday and Friday in the Manhattan tax-fraud trial of the Trump Organization. Star prosecution witnesses with arguably mixed loyalties, the two told jurors they never let anyone named Trump in on the scheme. Jurors may well wonder how Donald Trump, or Eric Trump, or Donald Trump, Jr., could truly have been ignorant of the scheme when the three of them personally signed off on so many of the perks. "Donald Trump didn't know that Allen Weisselberg was cheating on Allen Weisselberg's taxes," as defense lawyer Susan Necheles told jurors in openings. In this trial, though, the ignorance defense goes into overdrive, and doesn't stop with a supposedly clueless Trump.

The company, which has pleaded not guilty, could face up to $1.6 million in fines for the three tax fraud counts and six other counts it faces, if convicted. The first witness called by the defense was Donald Bender, an accountant with the firm Mazars who handled the Trump Organization's taxes. Bender was granted immunity from prosecution for testifying before the grand jury that indicted the company and Weisselberg. Bender said he prepared tax returns for Weisselberg and his family members free of charge as an "accommodation." Mazars in February dropped the company as a client and said it could no longer stand behind a decade of Trump's financial statements.

☆ Loyal ex-CFO Allen Weisselberg is done testifying at Trump Org tax-fraud trial that Trump calls 'VERY UNFAIR!'
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-18 | by ( Laura Italiano | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Allen Weisselberg, Trump's ex-CFO, has finished testifying in the Trump Org trial. The Manhattan DA's case "has fallen apart," Trump grumbled, meanwhile, of the "VERY UNFAIR!" Still, his loyalties clearly remain with the same Trump Organization that is paying him. on salary that wasn't declared as salary, Susan Hoffinger, one of the two lead prosecutors, asked Weisselberg. "It was some benefit to the company," Weisselberg admitted, though he added, "but it was primarily through my greed."

☆ 5 reasons Trump's ex-CFO, testifying in the Trump Org tax-fraud trial, is the worst prosecution witness ever
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-17 | by ( Laura Italiano | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +10 min

The Trump Organization tax-fraud trial is in its fourth week; ex-CFO Allen Weisselberg is testifying. But was Allen Weisselberg, Trump's first and only chief financial officer, ever really flipped? Or Trump's company, which is still paying him $1.4 million this year in salary plus bonus? Here are five reasons Weisselberg is shaping up to be the worst prosecution witness ever. Donald Trump or Eric Trump approved those executive salaries, bonuses and perks, Hoffinger, the prosecutor, told jurors, who have seen many of the signed checks and signatures that prove this.

☆ Tale of 2 Donalds: Trump Org defense shifts blame away from Donald Trump and onto Mazars' Donald Bender
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-15 | by ( Laura Italiano | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +7 min

But another Donald — Mazars accountant Donald Bender — saw it all and said nothing, McConney said. "Did you understand that Mr. Bender was paid to make sure that the Trump Corporation books were kept correctly?" Bender, McConney told jurors, handled most of the Trump Organization's tax matters as a partner at Mazars, the Trump Organization's longtime outside accounting firm. Necheles, the defense lawyer, asked McConney, who answered, "Yes." Necheles asked McConney.

Prosecutors in Manhattan charged the company with being involved in a 15-year tax fraud scheme. Asked whether former President Donald Trump, who was running the business at the time, was aware of the scheme, McConney said Weisselberg told him that Trump knew about it. He said the payments system stopped after Trump was elected president and one of his tax advisers, Sheri Dillon, reviewed the company's business practices. On cross-examination by Trump company lawyer Susan Necheles, McConney painted Weisselberg as the lone bad actor, calling him a "micromanager" who had to sign off on all financial decisions. Weisselberg, who worked for Trump for decades and was indicted alongside the company last year, pleaded guilty to 15 felony charges in August.

☆ Trump Org begins turning prosecution witnesses to their own advantage in 'politically motivated' tax-fraud case
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-10 | by ( Laura Italiano | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +7 min

"I just felt this was politically motivated," McConney told jurors on Thursday of how prosecutors treated him before he decided to stop cooperating. Mazars severed ties with the Trump Organization in February after publicly questioning "discrepancies" in the Trump Organization's finances. Steinglass also elicited more testimony from McConney on what the prosecutor called a 2017 "clean up" of the company's books. "Nobody told me specifically," McConney said, "that this change was because Mr. Trump became President Trump. Prosecutors must prove that Trump's company was in on Weisselberg's admitted tax-fraud efforts.

The criminal trial focused on the Trump Organization was delayed until next week after a witness in the case tested positive for Covid on Tuesday. McConney, the first witness to be called in the case, had been coughing frequently since taking the stand on Monday. The judge presiding over the case, acting state Supreme Court Justice Juan Merchan, adjourned the case until Nov. 7. McConney acknowledged on the stand that Trump signed $359,000 in checks for tuition for Weisselberg's grandchildren in the years before he was elected president. Weisselberg had been expected to testify next week, but McConney's illness will likely push back Weisselberg's testimony to mid-November.

☆ First prosecution witness in Trump Org trial is still paid $450K a year — by the Trump Org
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-01 | by ( Laura Italiano | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

Steinglass asked, in one awkward confrontation, as he labored to reacquaint himself in public with his own witness. Steinglass asked. Also paid for by the Trump Organization, McConney testified. "His attorney in fact is paid by the Trump Organization," Steinglass argued to the trial judge, state Supreme Court Justice Juan Merchan, outside the jury's hearing. Two subsidiaries of the Trump Organization — the Trump Corporation, which employs its executives, and the Trump Payroll Corporation, which pays those executives — are charged in a 15-year tax-dodge scheme.

REUTERS/Go NakamuraNEW YORK, Oct 31 (Reuters) - Former President Donald Trump's real estate company cheated tax authorities over a 15-year period, a New York prosecutor told a jury on Monday in her opening statement in the Trump Organization's criminal tax fraud trial. The Trump Organization has pleaded not guilty. If convicted, the Trump Organization - which operates hotels, golf courses and other real estate around the world - could face up to $1.6 million in fines. It could also further complicate the real estate firm's ability to do business. Justice Juan Merchan, the judge overseeing the case, has rejected the argument that the Trump Organization was targeted for selective prosecution.

☆ Trump Organization unveils its defense strategy: Keep any of the blame away from Trump
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-31 | by ( Laura Italiano | Natalie Musumeci | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +1 min

Defense attorneys in the New York criminal tax-fraud trial of former President Donald Trump's international real-estate company unveiled their strategy in the case on Monday — keep all blame off the former president and anyone else with the Trump name. Trump Organization lawyer Susan Necheles told the jury during opening statements on Monday that the fraud scheme "started with" former Trump Organization CFO Allen Weisselberg "and it ended with Allen Weisselberg." "So when the prosecutor said the Trump Organization did something illegal for Allen Weisselberg, what they really mean is that Allen Weisselberg did something illegal," Necheles told the 12-person jury. Necheles continued, "The evidence will show that it's all about Allen Weisselberg. But Allen Weisselberg does not own the Trump Organization."

The charges to which Weisselberg pleaded guilty included grand larceny and tax fraud, and he admitted concealing $1.76 million in income. The Trump Organization, which operates hotels, golf courses and other real estate around the world, could face up to $1.6 million in fines for the three tax fraud counts and six other counts it faces. In his guilty plea, Weisselberg admitted to scheming with the company so that "substantial portions" of his and other employees' income was unreported or misreported. Weisselberg has worked for the Trump Organization for nearly half a century. After his guilty plea, he was placed on a paid leave of absence, according to a person familiar with the matter.

While jurors cannot be excluded for simply holding certain political views or expressing disapproval of Trump, experts said the lawyers will aim to remove jurors who cannot be fair and impartial. Similarly, Gomez said the government will look to weed out strongly pro-Trump jurors who are unable to put those views aside. However, a guilty verdict must be unanimous, which means one juror unwilling to convict the Trump Organization would upend the government's case. Neither the district attorney's office nor the Trump Organization's lawyers responded to requests for comment. Lawyers for the Trump Organization have claimed the Manhattan district attorney's case is a "selective prosecution" based on animosity toward Trump's political views, though the judge overseeing it has rejected that argument.

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