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Weisselberg, the Trump Organization's former chief financial officer, spoke about the savings during testimony as the prosecution's star witness. Weisselberg pleaded guilty in August to avoiding taxes on $1.76 million in income and helping engineer tax fraud. He said if the Trump Organization gave him a raise to cover those expenses, it would have cost the company twice as much to account for his resulting taxes. They have also sought to blame Mazars, which for many years prepared Trump Organization tax returns. The trial's first witness, Trump Organization controller Jeffrey McConney, testified that he did not know whether executives' rent payments were taxable income.

☆ 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.

☆ Trump Org lawyers debut a new defense at the company's New York tax-fraud trial: Trump is just a generous boss
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-15 | by ( Laura Italiano | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

The Trump Organization criminal tax-fraud trial is in its fourth week in lower Manhattan. On Tuesday, lawyers for Trump's company debuted a new defense: Trump is just a generous boss. An employee brushed off the DA's best evidence — checks signed by Trump — as mere "gifts." defense lawyer Michael van der Veen asked the witness, referring to Allen Weisselberg, the company's ex-CFO. Trump's company, though not Trump himself, is on trial in New York Supreme Court fighting charges it was in on the scheme.

☆ Trump Org is battling prosecutors over 3 little words that could swing the New York tax-fraud trial
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-13 | by ( Laura Italiano | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +10 min

It's not enough, they'll be told, for Trump Org executives to get caught selfishly stuffing their pockets. Prosecutors, meanwhile, find the three words so worrisome, they asked the judge — unsuccessfully — to strike them from the case entirely. In defense of their love or hate of the three words, the sides have cited a gamut of arcane case law and other source material. Holtzman — who, as a US Congresswoman, voted to impeach Richard Nixon — is the author of "The Case For Impeaching Trump." Much of the case law being cited, the judge said, was not quite on point, including the bilge and thermometer decisions.

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.

Companies Trump Organization Inc FollowNov 10 (Reuters) - Former President Donald Trump was aware of allegedly illegal tax practices at his namesake real estate company, a senior executive indicated in testimony on Thursday during the Trump Organization's criminal trial on charges of tax fraud. McConney was given immunity from prosecution in exchange for testifying, and remains employed by the Trump Organization. Asked whether he helped people evade tax, McConney said, "Evade is a very strong word. McConney said a former general counsel, Jason Greenblatt, received bonuses as non-employee compensation until 2011 when the company's accountant told McConney to stop. McConney also identified Trump's initials on a memo concerning the reduction of Trump Organization executive Matthew Calamari's salary by $72,000, reflecting rent for his apartment.

☆ 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.

☆ Trump Org jury sees 1st evidence linking Donald Trump's Sharpie to alleged tax-dodge scheme
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-02 | by ( Laura Italiano | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +7 min

The documents were introduced through the trial's first witness, Jeffrey McConney, who as Trump Organization's controller is responsible for its payroll and tax reporting. "President Trump," McConney said of the signature, identifying the now widely-recognized, mini mountain range of Sharpie ink at the bottom of the letter. "In other words, Donald J. Trump authorized Donald J. Trump to sign the lease" for the apartment, Steinglass asked of the letter's content. "Weisselberg did it for Weisselberg," as Trump Organization lawyer Michael van der Veen told jurors repeatedly in openings. "Who decided that Donald Trump would pay Allen Weisselberg's tuition," the prosecutor then asked.

☆ Trump Organization Trial Delayed Due to Covid-19
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-01 | by ( Corinne Ramey | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

A recent courtroom sketch showing Justice Juan Merchan, defense lawyers and prosecutors at the Trump Organization’s trial in New York. The Trump Organization’s criminal tax-fraud trial was delayed Tuesday after the prosecution’s first witness tested positive for Covid-19. Trump Organization controller Jeffrey McConney, who testified on Monday afternoon and Tuesday morning, took a Covid-19 test after coughing through his morning testimony. He didn’t wear a mask in court.

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.

☆ The Trump Org trial is suddenly derailed after DA's coughing witness tests positive for COVID-19
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-01 | by ( Laura Italiano | Natalie Musumeci | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Prosecutors' 1st witness in the Trump Organization tax fraud trial has tested positive for COVID-19. The trial was adjourned to Monday after Jeffrey McConney, the company's controller, fell ill.McConney had coughed throughout his testimony Monday afternoon and Tuesday morning. "It comes and goes," McConney, the trial's very first witness, apologized repeatedly as he sat unmasked in the witness stand and coughed throughout two days of testimony. The jury in the high-profile trial was brought into the courtroom and told by the judge that "someone in the well" had tested positive. Prosecutors allege that the Trump Organization ran a 15-year scheme to trick tax authorites by giving top executives significant compensation in the form of untaxed "perks" like luxury cars and rent-free Trump-branded apartments.

☆ Trump Organization tax fraud trial delayed after witness tests positive for COVID
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-01 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

NEW YORK, Nov 1 (Reuters) - The criminal tax fraud trial of the Trump Organization was put on hold on Tuesday after the company's controller, Jeffrey McConney, who had been testifying as a prosecution witness, tested positive for COVID-19. The Trump Organization operates hotels, golf courses and other real estate around the world. The two Trump Organization units charged have pleaded not guilty. The judge later announced that McConney tested positive. If convicted, the Trump Organization could face $1.6 million in fines.

☆ 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.

☆ T.S. Eliot’s Descent Into ‘The Waste Land’
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-29 | by ( Jeffrey Meyers | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

This copy is for your personal, non-commercial use only. Distribution and use of this material are governed by our Subscriber Agreement and by copyright law. For non-personal use or to order multiple copies, please contact Dow Jones Reprints at 1-800-843-0008 or visit www.djreprints.com. https://www.wsj.com/articles/t-s-eliot-descent-into-the-waste-land-11666994740

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.

☆ Trump company set for criminal trial in an off-books pay scheme
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-23 | by ( ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +6 min

If convicted, the Trump Organization could be fined more than $1 million — but that's not the only potential fallout. The Trump Organization has said it did nothing wrong and that it looks forward "to having our day in court." The former Trump Organization chief financial officer must also pay nearly $2 million in taxes, penalties and interest and complete five years of probation. When the Trump Organization and Weisselberg were indicted in 2021, prosecutors called the tax scheme "sweeping and audacious" and said it was "orchestrated by the most senior executives." "The purpose of the scheme was to compensate Weisselberg and other Trump Organization executives in a manner that was 'off the books,'" the indictment said.

Now, amid the recent controversies surrounding the rapper, this college professor sees value in launching another course on Ye. He taught his first two Ye-inspired courses, titled The Politics of Kanye West: Black Genius and Sonic Aesthetics, at Washington University in St. Louis starting in 2017. But unlike his previous ones, this class will be divided into three parts, “the old Kanye, the new Kanye, and the who Kanye,” and examine Ye’s recent behavior. “The course has never, ever been about Kanye,” McCune said. If the University of Rochester’s college curriculum committee approves the new Ye course, he plans to teach it during the spring or fall semester of 2023.

☆ Fact Check-European mortality data do not support link between higher COVID-19 vaccination rates and excess deaths
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-07 | by ( Reuters Fact Check | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +7 min

Social media users are sharing a 45-second clip from a British news channel’s report which juxtaposes European COVID-19 vaccination rates and a single month of mortality rates to imply that countries with higher COVID-19 vaccination will have greater “excess mortality”. However, no “study” has reached the conclusion that European national vaccination rates correlate with mortality, as suggested in some social media posts. The map depicts so-called excess mortality rates across Europe in June 2022, which is the excess of deaths that month as compared to the average rate in the same month during the baseline period 2016-2019. “You really can’t draw valid conclusions on a single factor, like vaccination rates from country-level aggregated data, since countries differ in many ways other than vaccination. The clip selectively compares unrelated European datasets to suggest that high national rates of COVID-19 vaccination led to high excess mortality.

☆ There's overwhelming support for an age limit on the president and Congress. Here's why that won't happen anytime soon.
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-26 | by ( Bryan Metzger | Brent D. Griffiths | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +21 min

Some have proposed age limits for elected officials amid concerns about America's gerontocracy. The history of the contemporary movement for term limits largely dates back to the early 1990s, when dozens of states enacted term limits not just for their own legislatures but for their federal representatives in Washington. "Put it this way: I'm a little more interested in term limits than age limits," Democratic Rep. Jamie Raskin of Maryland told Insider. "There's a logic to term limits, because the principle of democracy is taking turns," Raskin, 59, said. "If there were to be term limits, the legislature certainly should have more terms than the executive," he offered.

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