Manhattan DA charges Trump's company, CFO with tax fraud

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Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance has charged former President Donald Trump's company, the Trump Organization, and his longtime CFO Allen Weisselberg with tax fraud, according to an indictment unsealed Thursday in New York.

"This was a 15-year-long tax fraud scheme," said Carey Dunn, general counsel for the Manhattan DA's office. "It was orchestrated by the most senior executives."

"During the operation of the scheme, the defendants arranged for Weisselberg to receive indirect employee compensation from the Trump Organization in the approximate amount of $1.76 million ... in ways that enabled the corporate defendants to avoid reporting it to the tax authorities," the indictment said.

The indictment said that, beginning in 2005, Weisselberg used the Trump corporation's bank account to pay the rent for his apartment, and he and others paid his utility bills using the Trump corporation's account. The indictment also accuses Weisselberg of concealing "indirect compensation" by using payments from the Trump Organization to cover nearly $360,000 in upscale private school payments for his family, and nearly $200,000 in luxury car leases.

"Weisselberg intentionally caused the indirect compensation payments to be omitted from his personal tax returns, despite knowing that those payments represented taxable income and were treated as compensation by the Trump Corporation in internal records," said the indictment.

"The case brought by the New York District Attorney's Office is unprecedented," Trump attorney Alan Futerfas said in a statement. "We are unaware of any case brought by that office concerning employee compensation, and we cannot find any such case ever brought by the IRS. Compensation cases are resolved by civil tax authorities, not criminal charges."

"The CFO himself directed that company records be deleted to conceal his participation in the scheme," Dunn said during the court proceedings. "Even now, there's been no attempt to impose discipline on the people involved, to report the crimes, to repay the proceeds, or even to amend any of the false tax returns. Instead, when confronted by our investigation, the company, at the highest levels, decided not to accept responsibility and cooperate, which is what companies do if they want to be viewed as a good corporate citizen. Instead, it forced us into litigation for a year and a half, including two trips to the Supreme Court."

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