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© Copyright 2021 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.Trump Organization, CFO indicted on tax fraud charges
By MICHAEL R. SISAK and TOM HAYS NEW YORK©2024 GPlusMedia Inc.
99 Comments
ulysses
Ironic much??
This is a guy who stole from a children’s cancer charity, no money is small for him!!!!
The Avenger
These charges are huge. Much more than expected. He will flip on Trump like a pancake on the grill.
rainyday
You are right. Likely this is just the tip of the iceberg, he probably engaged in these types of schemes on a regular basis as part of his way of doing business to make it pay.
ulysses
An organization which has $421 million in loans personally guaranteed by the former guy, an indictment means it’s done for.
Lenders are going to call in their loans and with the state team businesses are in there’s no chance they’ll be able to pay.
A business collapsing is not good news, but in case of the trump criminal organization, it’s a few decades too late!!!
Madverts
How long before Weaselberg flips?
How long before bankrupt Trump's creditors call in the debts?
The walls are closing in for the crazy orange man.
MAGA indeed. Poor little victim.
ulysses
Going after the trump organization, cutting off the money is a brilliant strategy.
Without his money donald is a just another senile old bigot.
Madverts
It's time for a gag order on Trump. His whining is obscene.
dagon
Another prominent New York City real estate figure, the late Leona Helmsley, was convicted of tax fraud in a federal case that arose from her company paying to remodel her home without her reporting that as income.
Leona Helmsley, who famously said paying taxes was only for the "little people".
Why do these individuals only face prosecution at the end of their career after doing business for decades tax free? Trump should have been prosecuted in the 80's, sparing everyone his subsequent career. Add in others like Bezos sooner rather than later .
donburi
And this is only the beginning.....
Just watch, there is more to come.
nonu6976
He's not a billionaire - its owes hundreds of millions of dollars, including over $300m to my old employer, Deutsche Bank which is due 2023/2024. The majority of his hotels are losing money, as are the majority of his golf courses. His wealth is locked up in the real estate he owns, but again, he owes money on almost all of these properties. Mar-a-lago is probably the only property he owns outright, but it would not surprise be if he's borrowed against that as well.
sf2k
This is weird. Isn't there a law that puts you in prison if you keep hiring people that keep breaking the law for you and going to prision?
ulysses
I think unindicted co-conspirator 1 is very worried!!!
Jsapc
There was an actual FBI investigation that found no wrongdoing, so how exactly could he have "gone after her" when she was cleared by the FBI and Department of Justice?
Numan
@Mr. Noidall
Political party before country, right?
Did it make you feel good to win at the expense of the American lives lost during a pandemic and ruined economy?
SuperLib
Should be an easy case against Weisselberg based on the documentation they have. Expect him to spend some time in jail, and at his age, maybe until the end.
At some point they are going to have to build a separate section of prison just for Trump partners.
ulysses
25 years ago donald was a loser businessman, the guy who lost more money than any American.
Now he is a loser ex-President trying to overthrow democracy.
The stakes are different.
Desert Tortoise
The prosecutor is squeezing the CFO hoping to get him to talk in exchange for leniency, revealing evidence that can be used against the Trump family itself. It is a tried and true tactic used to break many a criminal organization.
Desert Tortoise
I don't think this CFO is going to dig orange jump suits and jail food. We'll see how far his loyalty goes.
Numan
There is no doubt that one of the trump offspring will be ensnared. Through the process of discovery and flipping individuals, this will be huge because this will hurt trump in his weak spot his pocketbook. It will be worst than if he actually went to prison because the whole world will learn that he is a fraud.
The prosecutors will start learning about all his past business dealings. Presidential immunity will not protect his bank accounts, his properties, or his children. How many doors will this open for other parties to move forward with their lawsuits against trump? He will spend the rest of his life fighting lawsuits. His rallies will turn into a traveling carnival moving from town to town conning unsuspecting rubes and attracting other con artist like most of presidency!
This is a befitting punishment for the worst president in modern history!
GdTokyo
bass4funkToday 08:25 am JST
No, it didn’t. This is your typical deflection. Next comes the inaccurate prediction.
I predict that your boy is going down. Condolences
Jsapc
He did? Because there's at least 81 million voters who didn't seem to think the democrats were "frauds" in the last election.
Seapig
@Bass
Did you miss this part?
Simon Foston
BlacklabelToday 09:21 am JST
Is it really "witch hunting" though, if they've got tangible evidence of actual offenses?
A crime isn't significant when it potentially involves a man who was once elected to the highest political position in the world?
Desert Tortoise
One side of me says let him talk his way into a contempt citation by a judge and a little time in a jail cell. He is just about dumb enough to say something ill considered about a judge and get hit with contempt of court, followed by a gag order.
Numan
@Concerned Citizen
Another poster working to deflect the conversation because of a lack of rebuttal from anyone who likes trump.
Numan
@bass4funk
When did NYT say this was farce, again?
Evidence, please!!! No need for further distractions because of lack of proof on your part!
ulysses
Wrong again, ROFL.
The good for nothing trump brood is very worried as they watch their inheritance disappear. Watch out, there’s a lot of interesting stuff that’s going to happen to the family.
Starting with Melania……
GdTokyo
And the key word here is "YET". Trump has not been charged YET.
lincolnman
Weisselberg is just the first of many members of the Trump Crime Cabal that will be doing the perp walk...
Don Jr, Eric, Ivanka, Jared... Bannon has already admitted it - if Don Jr gets brought in and leaned on, he'll crumple faster than a cheap Trump Collection suit...
And Donald, in turn, will no doubt say that Don Jr sighed all those tax and tuition checks in black Sharpie...
Gotti, Gambino, Trump - it's all the same - the cronies turn on their bosses to save their own necks...
Bye-Don....
GdTokyo
Accept for his tax records and the hundreds of thousands of documents now in the hands of the DA.
I think the vast majority of the readers here will objectively recognize whom to be proud of.
SuperLib
Good. I enjoy situations when conservatives are helpless. Thanks for confirming.
Numan
Like I mentioned earlier, the process of discovery and flipping people is a wonderful thing.
It is very hard to separate the trump family from the criminal acts of a company owned and ran by the conman that refused to separate himself from that same company while president to avoid conflict of interest.
Oh, my.................!
lincolnman
According to the 29 lawsuits he's facing for sexual assault and harassment, he's done more than yanked up skirts...
Like supporting insurrections and autocracy...
Hmmmm.... Hillary ain't in jail and is enjoying life in upstate NY, Pelosi is now Speaker of the House, Schumer is Senate Majority Leader, and Schiff a House Committee Head.... Keep the dunking coming...
On the other hand, Trump lost the election, lost the Senate and failed to win the House, incited an insurrection, and as the article highlights, will soon be indicted for tax fraud....and his wife didn't even attend his birthday party...
That's what Putin said...
michaelqtodd
Trump bragged about not paying taxes years ago. Not one person who voted for him care a jot whether he paid taxes or not. Everybody knows he has been hiding his tax returns for good reason. Cohen spelt out what he was doing 2 years ago and barely anyone cared. He even increased his vote.
He then his sons were running this family organization day by day since 2005 and breaking the law every day. Yet they are not prosecuted? What a remarkable country.
Presumably the prosecutors have way bigger charges than this ready to file. Trump has openly broken dozens of important laws. I suspect that Biden does not want to "poke the bear" yet. Keeping the peace basically. If Trump announces a run for 2024 then presumably they will go after him properly
SuperLib
Well, yeah. Why wouldn't it be? I knew they were going to get him for unreported fringe benefits, but lying about your address to avoid taxes and getting refunds is a big one. That was new to me.
It's odd Trump isn't furious about this, especially since the accused was stealing directly from Trump Org. If I were the boss and found out my financial guy was using my company money to pay for family tuition, cars, apartments, furniture, etc., I'd be the first one to walk him to jail.
SuperLib
Let's hope that's the case. We're running the show so there's not much you can do about it anyway.
SuperLib
Good. Then we agree that Dems are in control and can put people behind bars at will. When we don't, it's because we screwed up our own process.
Still confused about this. We are concerned that a guy who just lost an election in a landslide will run again? Help me understand the logic behind this.
Ah_so
To get to the moon boss you sometimes need to target his aides. This is all too whet our appetite for the main event when they get Donald, probably for tax evasion too.
Yrral
Trump was named a unindicted co conspirators,meaning Trump is headed for indictment in the Future,
GdTokyo
One wonders when the DOJ is going to get involved.
GdTokyo
The operative term is "yet".
SuperLib
So are Dems capable of making up charges and putting people behind bars or not? Getting mixed signals here.
Jsapc
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voter_suppression_in_the_United_States
virusrex
This may not amount to anything on the long term, but then it can be a tiny snowball that will have big consequences, it will be interesting to follow.
Kobe White Bar Owner
Weisselberg.. what an apt name!
GdTokyo
Allen, welcome to the underside of the bus. The DA should make sure both his adult children join him there to up the pressure.
I hope he flips. Even if he doesn’t, the DA should roll the dice and put Don and his idiot grifter kids on trial because the evidence of every kind of fraud is overwhelming.
At min, this is the end of Trump’s “empire”, and by “empire” I mean a relatively small family-run business that no longer has any presence in real estate development in Manhattan because nobody wants to do business with them. They are just not trustworthy.
lincolnman
Weisselberg has just announced that former Trump attorney Sidney Powell will be representing him....and she just made a statement;
"First, I'd like to say that my defense in the ongoing defamation civil suit where I say that "no rational person should believe anything I say"...is not pertinent to this case...
Second, we have two eye-witnesses that will prove these charges false - Hugo Chavez and The Kraken...
Third, tomorrows press conference will be held at the Four Seasons Lumber Yard across from the adult bookstore"...
ArtistAtLarge
Good. It's a start.
Desert Tortoise
Not yet but its coming. The prosecutors in all likelihood have considerable evidence of crimes committed by Mr. Trump and his family. But personal testimony by someone involved would lend much credibility to the physical evidence, mainly financial documents, the DA already possesses. The testimony of Mr. Weisselberg can confirm intent on the part of the Trumps to commit crimes. That is something the DA very much wants. The DA has a statute of limitations to worry about so he isn't going to waste time filing charges. He only has so long to do so.
GdTokyo
Anyone who thinks that Trump personally is not in serious legal jeopardy is not living in reality. Ditto his grifter kids.
lincolnman
Weisselberg's first interview with the Prosecutors after his arrest....
"Mr Weisselberg, would you like to make any statement regarding individuals who either directed or assisted you in this fraud?
No....
Very well, you are charged with a variety of crimes, the most serious is grand larceny, which carries five to 15 years in prison. The tax fraud charges against the company are punishable by a fine of double the amount of unpaid taxes, or $250,000, whichever is larger, and the tax you owe is $1.9 million...and here are all the documents proving your guilt....now do you have anything else to day?
IT WAS TRUMP, TRUMP, TRUMP....HE TOLD ME TO DO THE WHOLE THING!....
u_s__reamer
Among all the many foolish predictions announced by Trump the prediction that "you'll get tired of winning" is coming back to bite him, especially now that he's a one-term loser Potus and the real-estate empire he inherited and ran into the ground is starting to circle the drain. How many of the millions who were conned by the Don will now fess up to the truth that they were taken for a ride by an unpatriotic scam artist who should have been locked up in the 80s for malfeasance and corruption, an egregious oversight of the IRS that from the Covid-19 statistics alone is cause for much regret?
u_s__reamer
The fealty sworn by CFO and consigliere, Weaselberg, the brain running Trump Crime Inc., to his munificent master will now be put to the test by this initial Grand Jury indictment. His decades of bought loyalty will soon be running on empty as faces the stark choice of throwing himself, or being thrown under the bus. With the threat of more serious indictments to follow, the moment of truth must inevitably be coming for the canny CFO who amazingly never seemed to have considered the hair-raising legal exposure of their scofflaw business practices should his crooked boss ever get into the Oval Office. To millions of citizens, if not all, this no brainer is a head-scratcher and a testimony to Trump's intelligence, not!
serendipitous1
Just the beginning....and Trump knows it. The wheels of justice are slow sometimes but worth waiting for.
stormcrow
Just the tip of the iceberg, but it'll be interesting to hear what Weisselberg has to say when he tries to avoid prison time. There's obviously lots of smoke here, so there's a big old fire burning somewhere.
Desert Tortoise
Mr. Cohen's testimony has led investigators to the current indictments. The subject of these indictments is in all likelihood expected to confirm what investigators already have evidence of wtr greater offences on the part of the Trump family. Mr. Weisselberg's confirmatory testimony, in exchange for a lighter sentence, makes prosecuting the Trump family members and the orange blob more certain.
Chico3
Okay. So they got Weisselberg. So if he flips, the authorities don't need Matt Calamari, since they have the documents and other evidence. Just a matter of either Weisselberg or Calamari to flip to save themselves.
Kumagaijin
Its just the tip of the iceberg. However, I won't be surprised if Teflon Donald will avoid any wrong doing and will run again in 2024. If either Biden or Harris is on the ticket, he'll win easy.
bass4funk
Pretty much
Kaerimashita
All great points above. I still think that if they haven’t charged Orange after 5 years of investigating then seems a bit thin that this poor sap has anything to give them…. All the hope that he will “flip” reminds me of when we were told that Cohen would flip and send Orange to jail. How did that turn out?
bass4funk
Then you really can’t say anything, just look at the recent rulings on many of these cases. Luck is not on the Dems side, has nothing to do with misinformation, it’s all relevant.
Kaerimashita
Again, all of the above may or not be true But still Orange hasn’t been charged
‘Will be sad if all of the breathless anticipation turns out to be another pipe dream
Raw Beer
Wow, they really are getting desperate to find any dirt on Trump!
Attilathehungry
Key phrase in the report; Trump himself was not charged.
So quit yer drooling people.
Blacklabel
it doesnt "involve" Trump the person. you know, that orange guy, as he is not charged.
And these are just "allegations", no tangible evidence of offenses have been shown.
The Trump Organization part is next to nothing
So when is the trial, July 2024 just in time for the election? or moved up to July 2022 to cover the midterms?
bass4funk
To what??? Lol
Wolfpack
Politics, politics, politics.
bass4funk
Again, Nadler has been After Trump for almost 30 years, you know how many I heard they have something for him, the walls are closing in, it’s curtains and nothing every happened, you cannot incarcerate anyone if there was no actual crime, in the sense that Trump will be shackled, especially when it comes to taxes. It just won’t happen.
Nothing to thank, but I feel if the Dems want to try……..again, go for it, please. Investigations are to be made without public knowledge. If no charge brought, they are to remain out of the public. That's the only way it works. Yet the NY prosecutor has the NY Times on the Trump case apparently. Tells you all you need to know.
Wolfpack
After proposing open borders for years in order to import socialist voters - your side doesn’t have much of a leg to stand on with respect to the rule of law. Besides, Obama/Biden were in power at the start of the Russia farce - and actually gave aid and comfort to Hillary and her dirty dossier. Anything is open season from “Progressives” when political power is at stake. Rule of law indeed.
Blacklabel
Minor charges considering the five years they have been witch hunting.
this is worth more as proof of partisan political persecution than it hurts as any crime of significance.
bass4funk
You have been trying to breakdown and interpret these so called alleged crimes for years and absolutely nothing came on Trump because there was nothing, but this time right? Give me a break.
Blacklabel
“Finally, Trump does appear to have at least one legitimate argument on his side.
Experts in corporate law tend to agree with his view that it is rare for such a big case as this to be mounted purely regarding an alleged failure to have fringe benefits be properly taxed.”
bass4funk
No and neither can these political hacks, now that doesn’t mean that they’ll try and corrupt the law
bass4funk
If he can pay the penalty, he’ll avoid prison even if it were to come to that.
Yeah, for 4 years we have been hearing this.
bass4funk
No reason to. At this point, if anything, a fine, probably huge fine will need to be paid and that’ll be it, now if the libs in NY want to break the law and push and abuse their authority, they will try and lock this guy up, which seems highly unlikely and it still won’t stop Trump from possibly running, so these lawyers need to think fast. Garland just called for an end to federal executions, thought so.
bass4funk
Like there’s no voter suppression Zilch, zip, nada, none, nil.
Problem is, they need to prove “intent” if they can’t establish that, it’s pretty much nothing they can .
Yeah, liberals always, always say that, it’s funny.
Kaerimashita
Meh. So much noise and fanfare for what are pretty mundane charges. And anyone who doesn’t see some politics in this is delusional.
‘For years we have heard that Orange will be indicted and this is the best they can do?
This type of “crime” is almost never prosecuted nor are suspects perp walked. But this one is different.
Blacklabel
Thanks for confirming the politicization of all this for us.
bass4funk
Why, I’ve always been clear on that as far as their history is concerned.
Espresso helps
bass4funk
Doubt it, even the Trump hating NYT called this spectacle a joke
NOMINATION
It doesn't matter. Whatever it takes to keep Trump's name in the daily news is what is important and keeps peoples' mind off of Biden/Harris' failures.
bass4funk
Ok, so the guy will be charged for not filing taxes on his Benz? Wonder if he’ll get life for this.
Concerned Citizen
Trump declined to go after Hillary Clinton, though he could have easily done so over her emails.
Vindictive Dem hit job.
bass4funk
We hear this in the Mueller Russian collusion delusion witch hunt. We heard in both impeachment trials, but I guess NOW is different....yeah, ok...
Yeah, they did, nothing to deflect, it’s quite astonishing that even the liberal NYT is calling BS on this farce.
Hiro
Oh please. This kind of amount is considering small change for a billionaire like Trump. As if a guy like him need to commit such petty crimes for such a small amount of cash.