Trump Organization chief financial officer Alan Weisselberg on Tuesday asked a judge to dismiss allegations of tax fraud leveled against him by the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office, arguing that the investigation into the former president’s family business was politically motivated.
The company itself also demanded that the charges against it be dropped in the latest Southern District of New York (SDNY) criminal case against the former president. Donald Trumpthe family real estate empire.
Weisselberg’s lawyers claim it is a “concomitant damage” in the long-running prosecution of the New York Attorney’s Office against Mr. Weisselberg’s longtime boss, Donald J. Trump.
Both Weisselberg and the Trump Organization pleaded not guilty. Trump himself has repeatedly dismissed the investigation as a “witch hunt.”
The SDNY investigation, which goes hand in hand with an investigation into tax fraud in the Trump Organization by New York Attorney General Leticia James, examines whether the former president’s family business misrepresented the value of its assets and allowed certain executives to suspend taxes. compensates with unregistered benefits.
It began in 2018 under the direction of former District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr. and is being continued by new District Attorney Alvin Bragg, who has already been criticized for being soft on crime as violent incidents in the Big Apple rise for about a month in his new office.
Earlier, Trump called on James and Bragg to focus more on rising crime rates in New York than on “political” investigations.
Alan Weisselberg (left) is accused of tax evasion on $ 1.7 million in wages and benefits while the Manhattan District Attorney checks to see if Donald Trump’s real estate empire misrepresented the value of its assets and compensated executives with lavish filth. which have remained untaxed
Shortly before taking office, Bragg signaled that he would take a special interest in the investigation.
“This is obviously a follow-up case that deserves DA’s attention personally,” Bragg told CNN in late December.
DailyMail.com contacted the SDNY office for comment.
Weiselberg’s lawyers say his charges in July fall outside the statute of limitations and violate his immunity granted during the federal investigation into former Trump fixer Michael Cohen, according to a 162-page document obtained from CNN.
The longtime chief financial officer has been charged with tax evasion and $ 1.7 million in tax evasion, a charge his legal team wants dropped. They also claim that the accusation of non-payment of local taxes on a luxury apartment in New York falls outside the statute of limitations of three years or more.
Launched in 2018 under the leadership of former Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr., the investigation has since been taken over by new Attorney Alvin Bragg – who is already inflamed for being too lenient on violent crime.
His ex-daughter-in-law allegedly told New York prosecutors that Trump offered to cover his children’s private school fees instead of a raise for her husband, who was also hired by Trump Org, according to a previous Daily Beast report.
Jennifer Weisselberg claims that Trump told her ex-husband Barry that he would not receive a salary increase, but that his children would receive education at Colombia’s elite grammar and training school for $ 47,540 a year.
The former president has not been charged or charged with wrongdoing in either Bragg’s or James’ investigations.
However, he faced a huge legal setback earlier this month when a judge ruled that he and two of his older children, Donald Trump Jr. and Ivanka Trump, should participate in the Attorney General’s civil investigation.
James’ office is investigating whether the company is misleading creditors, investors and tax authorities about the value of Trump’s property.
In another blow, the top accounting firm Mazars USA, which has long processed the former president’s corporate and private tax returns, severed ties with the Trump Organization in early February.
Court documents show that the company has washed its hands of its decades-old financial statements of Trump, claiming that they can no longer be considered reliable.
Trump turned to James and Bragg on Sunday, accusing them of “scaring” Mazars to cut him off.
A federal judge has ruled that Trump (center), Donald Trump Jr. (right) and Ivanka Trump (left) must testify in James’s civil fraud case.
“My long-standing accounting firm did not leave me for any reason other than being harassed, abused and intimidated by DA and AG, which for years threatened them with accusation and ruin,” he told Save America PAC.
“They were ‘broken’ by these racist prosecutors on the radical left and could not stand it any longer.”
Mazars accountant Donald Bender, who has been in charge of processing the Trump Organization’s financial information for years, appeared before a grand jury convened by a former Manhattan prosecutor last year.
Mazars handed over Trump’s tax returns and other data to SDNY in February 2021 after a protracted court battle delayed the summons of investigators for about a year and a half.
With information provided by Trump Organization officials, Mazars will collect these statements, which reportedly begin with a full-page list of Trump’s various assets from homes to cash to contests he held up to their dollar value.
Estimates include consideration of comparable assets such as recent selling prices of similar real estate.
Trump lashes out at James and Bragg investigations after his longtime accounting firm Mazars severed ties with his company and distanced itself from 10 years of financial data
However, prosecutors are reportedly investigating whether Trump’s people rejected lower-end appraisals and sales and focused only on his most valuable assets.
A copy of its financial statements for 2012 includes a cover letter from Mazars, which concludes: “Users of this financial statement should be aware that they may come to different conclusions about the financial condition of Donald J. Trump. “
Although he did not prepare the information, Trump also said he would add his own remarks and disclaimers in addition to Mazars, including citing his estimates as “approximate.”
And while the title pages of Trump’s statements make it clear that they are his responsibility, the language introduced by Mazars’ accountants further hedges their data.
“Donald J. “Trump is responsible for preparing and presenting the financial statements fairly in accordance with the accounting principles generally accepted in the United States,” the letter said.
They also add a general disclaimer that the company has not “audited or reviewed” the data and “does not express an opinion or provide any assurance” about it.
A statement from the previous year completely misses his hotel in Chicago, along with the significant debts that Trump had at the time.