Trump’s organization imposes maximum fines for tax evasion
MANDEL NGAN/AFP
On January 13, 2023, a New York judge fined the Donald Trump family business a maximum penalty of $1.6 million for tax evasion. (File photo taken October 26, 2016, Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump, with his children (from left) Donald Trump Jr., Ivanka Trump and Eric Trump, at the opening of the Trump International Hotel in Washington)
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA – The Trump family business is in shambles. The Trump Organization was sentenced this Friday, January 13 in New York to a maximum fine of $1.6 million for financial and tax fraud, a first in criminal law for the group, which awaits a larger civil trial in 2023.
A group of American billionaires, the Republican nominees for the 2024 presidential election, are being tried for tax evasion and falsification of accounting declarations, specifically with the aim of concealing financial compensation from several senior leaders of the tax service. .
“Former President Trump’s businesses were fined the maximum fine allowed by law today after historic convictions for a total of 17 misdemeanors”welcomed by prosecutor Alvin Bragg in a press release.
The hidden benefits of top executives
In concrete terms, the Trump Organization, which brings together golf clubs, luxury hotels and real estate properties, is accused of providing financial or in-kind benefits to senior leaders, hiding them from tax authorities to avoid paying taxes. , from 2005 to 2018.
Among them, the company’s historic former chief financial officer, Allen Weisselberg, who is very close to Donald Trump, who pleaded guilty to 15 counts and was sentenced in the same case to five months in prison and fined more than two million dollars.
Upon the announcement of his sentence, Allen Weisselberg, 75, who had started working in 1973 as an accountant for Donald Trump’s father, was handcuffed to the Rikers Island jail to serve out his sentence.
Luxury apartments and Mercedes
He is accused of profiting from free rents of luxury apartments in Manhattan, supplying Mercedes cars or paying private tuition for his grandchildren, an estimated $76 million in years of unreported income.
Trump’s organization had announced on December 6, when its guilt was announced, through one of its attorneys, Susan Necheles, that it would appeal, while seeking to blame Allen Weisselberg, confirming that he himself was guilty. “was declared under oath (to have) betrayed the trust (of) the company”.
Donald Trump, who has repeatedly criticized a “witch hunt”is not personally targeted in this lawsuit and he is not being prosecuted in any legal case at this stage, but he is seeing cases piling up in court as he talks about the 2024 Republican nomination.
Better loans and reduced taxes
In the two most resonant cases, the assault by his supporters on Congressional headquarters on January 6, 2021, and the attempt to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election, special prosecutor Jack Smith in particular must investigate possible lawsuits for the cases. the role of former US president (2017-2021).
However, if he is not criminally prosecuted, the billionaire will have to appear in civil court in New York, with his three children, Donald Jr, Eric and Ivanka, accused of tax fraud practices within the Trump Organization.
In this case, New York State Attorney General Letitia James accused the Trump family of owning it “Purposely” manipulate the valuation of group assets to obtain more profitable loans from banks or to reduce its taxes. He is seeking $250 million in damages on behalf of the state, as well as a ban on running companies for the former president and those close to him.
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