As he entered a guilty plea to the 15-count indictment in his state tax crimes case on Thursday, ALLEN WEISSELBERG, the longtime chief financial officer of THE Trump Organization, responded “yes, your honor” when the Manhattan judge asked if he “engaged in a scheme” with the Trump Organization “to defraud federal, New York state, and New York City tax authorities.”
The Trump Organization and other businesses appear to be directly implicated in illegal activities, such as tax fraud and fabricating company documents, according to Weisselberg’s startling revelation.
Around 9:30 a.m., the bespectacled executive walked into the courtroom dressed in an inky navy suit, clean white shirt, and sky blue tie. Before the hearing, one of his attorneys offered him numerous encouraging pats on the back. Weisselberg appeared to be in good spirits as he talked with his attorneys after entering the well and sitting down at a table. The start of the proceedings did not seem to dampen Weisselberg’s disposition. Weisselberg’s voice remained constant as Judge Juan Merchan asked him whether he participated in the offenses count by count.
Weisselberg and many of Trump’s firms were charged with tax offenses in this case as a result of what the Manhattan district attorney’s office described as a “sweeping and audacious illicit payment scheme,” according to the prosecution. The accusations arose from the numerous advantages Weisselberg got from serving as Donald Trump’s chief financial advisor. (The Trump Organization and several connected businesses implicated in the indictment have maintained their not guilty pleas; as a result, the former president’s name-brand company and a few connected businesses continue to be charged.)
“Today Allen Weisselberg admitted in Court that he used his position at the Trump Organization to bilk taxpayers and enrich himself,” Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg said in a statement after the plea proceeding. “Instead of paying his fair share like everyone else, Weisselberg had the Trump Organization provide him with a rent-free apartment, expensive cars, private school tuition for his grandchildren and new furniture – all without paying required taxes.”
read more: Economists criticize reduction in value-added tax on gas
“This plea agreement directly implicates the Trump Organization in a wide range of criminal activity and requires Weisselberg to provide invaluable testimony in the upcoming trial against the corporation,” Bragg also said. “Furthermore, thanks to the incredibly hard work and dedication of the team prosecuting this case, Weisselberg will spend time behind bars. We look forward to proving our case in court against the Trump Organization.”
Exclusively on Wednesday, Rolling Stone revealed that Weisselberg would confess to conspiring with a number of Trump businesses during his plea hearing. Weisselberg’s plea agreement forced him to testify at trial against Trump’s businesses, according to the first report from CNN. The news that Weisselberg intended to enter a guilty plea was first reported by the New York Times earlier this week.
Weisselberg’s potential trial testimony, according to one of the two people who spoke with Rolling Stone earlier this week about him, would be the same as what he said in court this morning. Weisselberg is agreeing to testify as part of his plea agreement, but it does not guarantee he will do so, according to this source. Prosecutors can decide whether to use him, which might have both positive and negative effects on the office.
The testimony of the prosecution in court backed with Rolling Stone’s reporting. According to the prosecution, Weisselberg’s plea agreement called for him to formally admit under oath that he conspired with Trump’s businesses to commit these tax offenses. They added that he “shall testify truthfully” during the trial if required as a condition of his plea. Weisselberg’s plea agreement requires him to pay back roughly $2 million in back taxes. Weisselberg’s punishment won’t be handed down until after the Trump Organization trial is over, according to the plea agreement, in order to “ensure compliance” with the testimony requirement.
As part of the plea agreement, Weisselberg will serve five months in jail before beginning a five-year probationary period. That sweetheart bargain might be nullified if Weisselberg breaks the terms of the agreement. Merchan advised.
One the one hand, Weisselberg’s testimony might very possibly link Trump’s companies to the allegations. The fines and penalties that could be imposed if these Trump enterprises were found guilty could be financially disastrous.
At the same time, Weisselberg would be subjected to a cross-examination by the legal representatives for the Trump Organizations, who would ask him if his boss was complicit in these crimes. Weisselberg now has the opportunity to contest Trump’s involvement in illegal activities.
One of the individuals stated that Weisselberg would not provide any additional assistance to the criminal investigation into Trump’s businesses beyond his testimony.
This makes sense in light of Weisselberg’s loyalty to the Trumps and the benefits that came as a result. Beginning in 2005, Weisselberg, who spent about 50 years working for the Trumps, resided in a West Side Manhattan apartment for free. According to the accusation, the Trump Corporation, which was renting the property, covered his pad rent as well as utilities charges and parking garage fees.
Additionally, it is claimed that from 2005 until 2017, Weisselberg and his wife’s two Mercedes Benz lease payments were covered by Trump’s business. Around Christmas, Weisselberg also received money from Trump’s company, according to the prosecution, so he could pay out “personal holiday gratuities.”
The indictment stated that Weisselberg’s personal expenses, including “for his houses and for an apartment kept by one of his children,” were paid for by Trump’s corporation. “New mattresses, flat-screen televisions, carpet installation, and furniture for Weisselberg’s home in Florida” were a few of these requests. According to the prosecution, the Trump Corporation also covered the cost of Weisselberg’s grandchildren’s private school tuition.
Of course, receiving lavish rewards as a company leader is permissible. However, according to the prosecution, Weisselberg failed to report them on his taxes, which allowed him to keep the $1.7 million in illegitimate payments.
Rebecca Roiphe, New York Law School professor, told Rolling Stone that Weisselberg’s plea does not mean that Trump will wind up in cuffs. If the trial shakes out in the prosecutors’ favor, however, it’s possible Trump’s companies could collapse.
“Criminal liability is usually a pretty big deal for a corporation— it’s often a death sentence,” Roiphe said earlier this week. “The penalties could be so significant that the organization cannot survive past it. The penalties can be so high the company just doesn’t exist, and it could ultimately end in the dissolution of the company.”
The trial in this case, which will now just be against Trump’s companies, is scheduled for October. Though the chances of Trump himself being charged in New York seem increasingly slim, he faces possible criminal exposure elsewhere in the U.S. Federal agents executed a search warrant of Mar-a-Lago less than two weeks ago, in relation to his allegedly keeping classified documents at his sprawling South Florida estate. Meanwhile, a Fulton County, Georgia, grand jury is probing Trump’s alleged attempted election meddling in the 2020 election.
As he left the Downtown Manhattan courthouse on Thursday, Weisselberg did not say anything. He walked arm-and-arm with one of his attorneys, Mary E. Mulligan.
“In one of the most difficult decisions of his life, Mr. Weisselberg decided to enter a plea of guilty today to put an end to this case and the years-long legal and personal nightmares it has caused for him and his family,” one of Weisselberg’s attorneys, Nicholas Gravante, Jr., said in a written statement after the plea. “Rather than risk the possibility of 15 years in prison, he has agreed to serve 100 days. We are glad to have this behind him.”
A spokesperson for the Trump Organization issued a statement that praised Weisselberg and framed the proceedings as a politically motivated with hunt against the ex-president.
“Allen Weisselberg, a long time, trusted employee of The Trump Organization, is a fine and honorable man who, for the past 4 years, has been harassed, persecuted and threatened by law enforcement, particularly the Manhattan District Attorney, in their never ending, politically motivated quest to get President Trump. In the history of our country, no prosecutor has ever brought a criminal case against a person for failing to report a company car, a company apartment or so-called ‘fringe benefits’,” the statement began. “Yet, the Manhattan D.A. not only seized upon this opportunity, but went so far as to threaten Mr. Weisselberg’s children (who have done nothing wrong) in an attempt to pressure Mr. Weisselberg to say bad things or make up lies about President Trump. Mr. Weisselberg, who just turned 75, in an effort to put this matter behind him and get on with his life, decided that the best course of action—for himself and his family—was to plead guilty.”
The representative argued that the businesses were blameless. But the two Trump businesses that the Manhattan District Attorney has been pursuing will not enter a plea for the straightforward reason that they have committed no crimes. We now eagerly anticipate getting our day in court, which, very amusingly, has been set for October 24 – just a few days before the mid-term elections.
The source used in the creation of a news story: https://www.rollingstone.com
