Court Fines Trump's Companies $1.6-M For Tax Fraud

Donald Trump’s business has been fined $1.6 million after a New York City jury convicted two Trump Organization subsidiaries on charges they hatched a years-long scheme to avoid paying payroll taxes by compensating top executives with lavish untaxed perks.

Photo Insert: Trump’s business conducted and benefitted from sweeping fraud for well over a decade.

The December verdict on 17 felony crimes followed an indictment filed last year against the Trump Corp., the Trump Payroll Corp. and the Trump Organization’s long-time chief financial officer, Allen Weisselberg, who was sentenced to five months in jail this week, Alex Woodward reported for The Independent.

Weisselberg pleaded guilty to 15 violations of New York tax law in August after prosecutors accused him of participating in a “systemic” fraud scheme and a “sweeping and audacious illegal payment” scheme in which Trump companies paid him generous benefits – including free rent, luxury car leases, and private school tuition for his grandchildren – that were not reported for tax purposes.

Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg said in a statement on 13 January that Trump’s business conducted and benefitted from sweeping fraud for well over a decade.

“While corporations can’t serve jail time, this consequential conviction and sentencing serves as a reminder to corporations and executives that you cannot defraud tax authorities and get away with it,” he added.

Bragg’s office is pursuing a broad criminal inquiry into the company’s financial statements, and the latest sentence “represents a significant chapter of our ongoing investigation” into the former president, he said.

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