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Jurors deliberated for just over a day before finding the Trump Organization guilty on 17 counts, including criminal tax fraud, conspiracy, and falsifying business records, in State Supreme Court in Manhattan Tuesday, Dec. 6.
Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg said the scheme was orchestrated by “high managerial agents”, including chief financial officer Allen Weisselberg and controller Jeffrey McConney.
Both the Trump Corporation and the Trump Payroll Corporation defrauded federal, state, and local tax authorities by paying a number of their executives and managers, including Weisselberg, “substantial” amounts of their compensation in “off the books” personal expenses, Bragg said.
The companies purposefully did not report the compensation in their tax reporting forms in order to help the executives evade taxes, according to Bragg.
Weisselberg received more than $1.76 million in unreported compensation, which prosecutors said included rent payments on a luxury Manhattan apartment and Mercedes Benz cars for himself and his wife.
He also received compensation in the form of utilities, parking garage expenses, home furnishings, and payments of his grandchildren’s private school tuition, Bragg said.
Investigators said the companies did not report that income to tax authorities and failed to withhold taxes or pay Medicare taxes on the income.
“This was a case about greed and cheating. In Manhattan, no corporation is above the law,” Bragg said in a statement.
“For 13 years the Trump Corporation and the Trump Payroll Corporation got away with a scheme that awarded high-level executives with lavish perks and compensation while intentionally concealing the benefits from the taxing authorities to avoid paying taxes,” he continued.
“Today’s verdict holds these Trump companies accountable for their long-running criminal scheme, in addition to Chief Financial Officer Allen Weisselberg, who has pled guilty, testified at trial and will now be sentenced to serve time in jail.”
New York Attorney General Letitia James praised the verdict in a statement, saying “we can have no tolerance for individuals or organizations that violate our laws to line their pockets.”
“This verdict sends a clear message that no one, and no organization, is above our laws,” James said.
Hours before Tuesday’s verdict, former President Trump spoke out against the trial on his social media platform Truth Social, claiming that Bragg’s office was “fighting a political witch hunt.”
Tuesday’s verdict marked the first-ever criminal convictions of Trump’s companies. Trump himself was not on trial.
The company faces approximately $1.6 million in fines when it’s sentenced in January 2023, NBC News reports.
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