A New York judge on Friday (January 13) fined former United States President Donald Trump’s company Trump Organization $1.6 million after it was convicted of scheming to defraud tax authorities for 15 years. The sentence was imposed by Justice Juan Merchan of the Manhattan criminal court after jurors found two affiliates of the company guilty of 17 criminal charges in December last year.
The maximum penalty that Justice Merchan can impose is $1.6 million, an amount which is equal to double the taxes that a small group of executives avoided on benefits which included rent-free apartments in Trump buildings, private school tuition and luxury cars, a report by the Associated Press said earlier in the day.
On Tuesday (January 10), Allen Weisselberg, the former chief financial officer (CFO) of the Trump Organization was sentenced to five months in jail by Justice Merchan. Last summer, Weisselberg had pleaded guilty to evading taxes on $1.7 million in compensation.
While serving as the Trump Organization’s CFO, Allen Weisselberg, 75, received a rent-free apartment in a Trump-branded building in Manhattan. Weisselberg and his wife were given Mercedes-Benz cars which were leased by the company. When his grandchildren went to an exclusive private school, Donald Trump paid their tuition fee, the Associated Press report said.
When he was called to testify against the company at trial, the 75-year-old testified he didn’t pay taxes on that compensation, and that he and a company vice president conspired to hide the perks by having the company issue falsified W-2 forms. Weisselberg also said nobody in the Trump family knew what he did. “It was my own personal greed that led to this,” he told jurors.
“Weisselberg did it for Weisselberg,” lawyers of the Trump Organization said, contending the former CFO went rogue and betrayed the company’s trust.
Meanwhile, Donald Trump, who is eyeing a comeback in 2024, said the case against the Trump Organization is part of a politically motivated “witch hunt” waged against him by Democrats. But this is not the only legal challenge for him. Trump is facing investigations related to the Capitol riots, his retention of classified documents after leaving the White House, and efforts to overturn his 2020 election loss in Georgia.
(With inputs from agencies)
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