Trump Organization CFO pleads not guilty to tax evasion
The Trump Tower in New York where the headquarters of the Trump Organization are located (illustrative image).
REUTERS / Andrew Kelly
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Trump Organization CFO Allen Weisselberg on Thursday, July 1, pleaded not guilty to 15 charges related to tax evasion in Manhattan court, while the ex-president's company denounced indictment purely "
political
".
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Allen Weisselberg, 73, a staunch supporter of former President Donald Trump, arrived in court around 2:15 p.m. (6:15 p.m. GMT), hands behind his back, handcuffed.
The indictment seen by AFP targets Mr. Weisselberg and the Trump Organization.
Mr. Weisselberg is notably accused, between 2005 and 2021, of having deliberately withheld from the tax authorities some $ 1.7 million in benefits in kind that he received from the Trump Organization, which would have avoided paying close to '$ 1 million in federal and local taxes. He is also accused of having wrongly claimed not to be a resident of New York City, to avoid taxes. The Trump Organization is accused of helping to cover up these benefits.
Mr. Weisselberg's lawyer, Mary Mulligan, had indicated before the hearing that he would “
fight against these charges
”. The Trump Organization has accused prosecutor Cyrus Vance, a Democrat, who has been investigating possible wrongdoing within the group for more than two years, of politically motivated prosecutions. "
Manhattan District Attorney is launching lawsuits related to employee benefits that neither the tax authorities nor any other prosecutor would consider launching,
" said a spokesperson for the family business, headquartered in the tower. Trump, on the famous 5th avenue. Allen Weisselberg "
is used as a pawn by the Manhattan prosecutor (...) to try to harm the former president
" Donald Trump, he added. "
It's not justice, it's politics.
"
Among the benefits in kind the CFO is accused of concealing is his apartment in Manhattan's upscale Upper West Side.
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See also:
United States: the Trump Organization and its financial director indicted by justice
Trump spared for now
These indictments are the first fruits of an investigation launched more than two years ago by Cyrus Vance and in which also participates the Attorney General of the State of New York, Letitia James, also elected Democrat.
Mr. Vance notably fought for months to obtain the tax returns of the former New York magnate, the first American president since the 1970s not to have published them.
The former Republican president, who maintains ambiguity over a possible new presidential candidacy in 2024 and held his first major meeting last week since leaving Washington, has not been questioned at this stage, nor no member of his family.
But "
the investigation will continue, and we will follow the facts wherever they take us
," warned prosecutor Letitia James after the hearing.
Donald Trump was, in 2016, the first billionaire to enter the White House.
When he left for Washington, he refused to sell his business and simply left the reins to Allen Weisselberg and his two eldest sons, Donald Junior and Eric Trump.
One of the attorneys for the Trump Organization admitted earlier this week, after being warned of upcoming charges this week, that Mr. Trump was "
not yet out of the woods
."
Many of the former president's opponents publicly rejoice in his company's legal setbacks and impatiently wait for him to be directly implicated.
His former personal lawyer, Michael Cohen, the first in Trump's entourage to be indicted and then sentenced to three years in prison in 2018 after pleading guilty, tweeted Wednesday "
pray for that day
."
(With
AFP
)
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