November 3, 2022 0
A box bearing the words “The Trump Corp,” “The Trump Payroll Corp” and “Allen Weisselberg” is brought to a courtroom as lawyers arrive in criminal court Monday in New York. (AP photo/John Minchillo)
NEW YORK (AP) – For years, as Donald Trump was soaring from reality TV star to the White House, his real estate empire was bankrolling big perks for some of his top executives, including apartments and luxury cars.
Now Trump’s company, the Trump Organization, is on trial for criminal tax fraud – on the hook for what prosecutors say was a 15-year scheme by his most trusted lieutenant to avoid paying taxes on those fringe benefits.
In opening statements Monday, prosecutors and defense lawyers sparred over the company’s culpability for the actions of Allen Weisselberg, who has pleaded guilty and agreed to testify as a star prosecution witness in exchange for a five-month jail sentence.
Later, another Trump Organization executive, senior vice president and controller Jeffrey McConney, walked a prosecutor through financial records, including Weisselberg’s payroll forms and ledger entries. McConney, whom prosecutors say helped Weisselberg by misreporting his income to tax authorities, was granted immunity to testify last year before a grand jury and to testify again at the criminal trial. He said he appeared before the grand jury eight times on a variety of Trump-related matters.
The tax fraud case is the only criminal trial to arise from the Manhattan district attorney’s three-year investigation of the former president and is one of three active cases involving Trump or the company in New York courts.
Prosecutor Susan Hoffinger argued in her opening statement that the Trump Organization – through its subsidiaries Trump Corp. and Trump Payroll Corp. – cheated the system. Among other things, she said, the company saved money when giving out Christmas bonuses by paying top executives as independent contractors through subsidiary companies, such as its golf courses and the ice rink it managed in Central Park.
“This case is about greed and cheating – cheating on taxes,” Hoffinger told jurors. “(The Trump Organization) paid their already highly paid executives even more by helping them cheat on taxes.”
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