CNN reports, New York attorney general adds ‘criminal capacity’ to probe of Trump Organization:
New York Attorney General Letitia James is joining the Manhattan district attorney’s office in a criminal investigation of the Trump Organization, James’ office said Tuesday.
This tells me that the team of forensic auditors hired by Manhattan D.A. Cyrus Vance, Jr. to review the mountains of Trump organization financial documents and tax records obtained by his office have found something. Vance also hired an expert in RICO cases, i.e., the prosecution of criminal enterprises.
The attorney general office’s investigation into the Trump Organization, which has been underway since 2019, will also continue as a civil probe, but the office recently informed Trump Organization officials of the criminal component.
“We have informed the Trump Organization that our investigation into the organization is no longer purely civil in nature. We are now actively investigating the Trump Organization in a criminal capacity, along with the Manhattan DA,” James’ spokesman Fabien Levy told CNN. “We have no additional comment.”
In an increasingly serious sign for former President Donald Trump, the attorney general’s office is working with the Manhattan district attorney’s office, whose wide-sweeping probe into the Trump Organization has looked into whether the company misled lenders and insurance companies about the value of properties and whether it paid the appropriate taxes. James’ notification to the organization brings a new level of potential legal risk to the former President, with the attorney general now able to seek criminal penalties as part of the probe.
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Manhattan District Attorney Cy Vance’s office is examining millions of pages of documents that include Trump’s tax returns.
A person familiar with the investigation said a couple of investigators with the New York attorney general’s office, who are steeped in knowledge about the Trump Organization, have joined the district attorney’s team. A different person familiar with the matter said the New York attorney general is still conducting a civil investigation.
Trump has previously called the New York attorney general’s investigation politically motivated.
For the past two years, James’ office looked into matters including whether or not it improperly inflated assets on financial statements to secure loans and obtain economic and tax benefits, as well as how Trump Organization employees were compensated.
Trump’s former attorney and fixer Michael Cohen testified before Congress in 2019 that Trump’s annual financial statements inflated the value of his assets to secure favorable loans and insurance coverage, but deflated the value of other assets to reduce real estate taxes.
Investigators have deposed multiple Trump Organization officials including Eric Trump, the former President’s son, and Chief Financial Officer Allen Weisselberg.
Trump’s longtime tax attorney Sheri Dillon was also deposed but the state says she declined to answer certain questions.
Several Trump Organization properties’ financial dealings are being scrutinized as part of the investigation, including Seven Springs Estate in Westchester County, New York; 40 Wall Street, a building in Lower Manhattan; Trump International Hotel and Tower Chicago; and Trump National Golf Club in Los Angeles.
Maybe “Mafia Don” Trump can arrange for a family-sized cell when they go to prison.
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Another day, another “they got him” story.
I hope so, I really do, he and his family do their criming in broad daylight, and they continue to hurt America, but after five years of these stories, it’s starting to feel like the fabled flying car, which is always just two years away and has been two years away for 30 years.
CNN updates, “NY attorney general has been looking into the taxes of Trump Organization CFO for months, sources say”, https://www.cnn.com/2021/05/19/politics/ny-attorney-general-trump-org-cfo-weisselberg/index.html
The New York attorney general’s office has opened a criminal tax investigation into top Trump Organization officer Allen Weisselberg, increasing the legal pressure on the long-time aide to former President Donald Trump, people familiar with the investigation say.
The pressure on Weisselberg is mounting from two directions with the attorney general looking into his personal taxes, while prosecutors in the district attorney’s office are digging into his role at the Trump Organization, his personal finances, and benefits given to his son Barry, a long-time employee of the Trump Organization.
Prosecutors are seeking to find leverage that could sway Weisselberg into cooperating with authorities, people familiar with the investigation said, potentially raising the legal stakes for Trump and his family. It’s a common tactic used by prosecutors to try to get individuals to “flip” to help build a case higher up the corporate ladder. Vance’s office is coordinating with James’ office on its criminal investigation into Weisselberg.
The tax investigation into Weisselberg’s personal finances by New York attorney general Letitia James was opened several months ago and is being handled by a small unit within the office that has authority to bring criminal charges, people familiar with the investigation said.
[T]he attorney general’s office tax investigation is focusing on Weisselberg as an individual, but it could expand to include actions he has taken in his role at the Trump Organization, the people said.
Weisselberg, who has handled the Trump Organization’s finances for 40 years, including as its chief financial officer, recently beefed up his legal team, adding Bryan Skarlatos, a prominent tax specialist and criminal defense lawyer, people familiar with the arrangement say. Skarlatos is working with Mary Mulligan, a criminal defense attorney who has represented Allen Weisselberg for several years. Skarlatos and Mulligan declined to comment.
Details of the scope of the New York attorney general’s investigation have not been previously reported. The Washington Post first reported that a lawyer assigned to James’ criminal unit was the point of contact for Weisselberg’s former daughter-in-law
Jennifer Weisselberg, who has been cooperating with investigators.
One theory prosecutors are exploring is whether there was a practice at the Trump Organization to dole out benefits to employees instead of salaried compensation to lower its payroll taxes, people familiar with the investigation said.
Recently, prosecutors have started looking into rent payments on Weisselberg’s Manhattan apartment, the people said.
Even before they teamed up the Vance and James investigations have been underway for more than two years and are looking at, among other things, whether the company improperly inflated the value of assets to its properties to obtain favorable terms for loans, insurance coverage and tax benefits, while also deflating the value of reduce real estate taxes.
Investigators are also exploring whether the Trump Organization committed tax fraud involving its Seven Springs estate in New York as well as its handling of hush money payments made to Stormy Daniels to silence her alleged affair with Trump, which he denies.
The attorney general’s criminal investigation into Weisselberg’s personal finances began, in part, because of documents shared by his former daughter-in-law Jennifer Weisselberg, one person told CNN. She told CNN in March that she has been speaking with prosecutors from James’ office since September.
[S]he has 25 years-worth of bank records, credit card records and tax records in her possession. Weisselberg has also met with the district attorney’s office multiple times and was subpoenaed for documents.
Jennifer Weisselberg was married for 14 years to Barry Weisselberg, who for two decades managed Trump Organization businesses contracted out by New York City in Central Park, including Wollman Rink and Lasker Rink. It is not clear if he is still employed by the Trump Organization.
The lavish lifestyle that Jennifer and Barry Weisselberg lived during their 14 years of marriage was largely funded by Allen Weisselberg, Barry Weisselberg testified during a 2018 divorce deposition obtained by CNN.
Documents from Jennifer and Barry Weisselberg’s divorce show thousands of dollars of payments for cars, rent, tuition, medical bills and more coming from Allen Weisselberg to his son’s family.
The spending and benefits are what has attracted scrutiny by prosecutors in both offices. The district attorney has questioned Jennifer Weisselberg about benefits she received during her marriage, including access to Trump-owned rent-free apartments, she previously told CNN. More recently, their interest has turned to questions around tuition payments for her children.
Barry Weisselberg said in the August 2018 deposition that was taken as part of the divorce proceedings, his father paid for their children’s school tuition at Manhattan private school Columbia Grammar & Preparatory school, which currently run about $54,000 annually per child, according to the school’s website.
Barry Weisselberg testified that he believed those payments from his father were “financial assistance” and not loans. A statement of net worth for Barry Weisselberg filed in 2020 as part of a continuation of the couple’s divorce proceedings said that Barry’s parents paid for the children’s tuition and that, “absent this financial assistance, (he) could not afford private school.”
Those tuition payments are an area authorities are now scrutinizing, according to people familiar with the investigation.
Columbia Grammar & Preparatory school, which Trump’s youngest son Barron attended, was also attended by Weisselberg’s grandchildren, according to people familiar with the matter. The Wall Street Journal first reported that the district attorney’s office subpoenaed the school for information about tuition payments.
[W]hile annual limits for how much one person can gift another person are currently capped at $15,000, direct payments for tuition and medical bills are exempt from this, she said.
But Cunningham said it’s a different story if the tuition or medical payments are coming from someone’s employer.
In April, Jennifer Weisselberg told CNN she believes that at least some of her two children’s tuition payments were paid for by Donald Trump saying Trump paid for one child and Allen paid for the other.
“I know for a fact Donald wrote those checks,” she told CNN in April.