Ajit Karn
Listen the Article:
A New York judge penalised Donald Trump’s real estate firm $1.6 million (£1.31 million) for tax offences.
In December, a jury had determined that the Trump Organization had committed fraud and fabricated financial records.
The former president is associated with the corporation, although neither he nor his family took part in the trial.
Allen Weisselberg, the company’s former chief financial officer, was the only individual charged in the conspiracy.
Mr. Trump is still facing legal issues, including a separate New York case alleging fraud against him and his children.
A New York jury found two Trump Organization businesses, Trump Corp and Trump Payroll Corp, guilty of rewarding its top executives for 15 years with incentives including expensive automobiles and tuition to private schools.
Prosecutors claimed that these perks offset decreased compensation, which reduced the amount of tax the company was forced to pay.
It is one of Mr. Trump’s businesses’ first-ever criminal convictions.
The biggest fine the judge could have imposed in this instance is what Justice Juan Merchan of the Manhattan criminal court decreed on Friday.
The fine is little in comparison to the Trump Organization’s revenue, which was $446 million in 2019, but the conviction may make it more difficult for the company to get financing in the future.
Alvin Bragg Jr., the district attorney for Manhattan, said in a statement that the sentencing marks “a crucial chapter” in the ongoing inquiries into Mr. Trump and his enterprises.
The conviction and punishment serve as a lesson to corporations that they “cannot defraud tax authorities and get away with it,” he continued, adding that Weisselberg and the Trump Organization “benefitted from vast deception for well over a decade.”
Weisselberg, Mr. Trump’s longtime senior financial officer, received a five-month prison term for his participation in the tax evasion scheme.
He had admitted to hiding off-the-books income totaling more than $1.7 million.
The Trump Organization insisted that it had done nothing illegal in a statement released following the sentencing, and it announced that it would challenge the conviction.
The statement added that “these politically motivated prosecutors will do whatever it takes to get President Trump and continue the never-ending witch-hunt that started the day he announced his presidency.”
Letitia James, the attorney general for the state of New York, has filed a lawsuit against Donald Trump and his children on similar but unrelated fraud charges.
The US Department of Justice is also looking into Mr. Trump’s handling of confidential documents after he left office.
Mr. Trump has denied any impropriety in both situations.
He has also filed a counterclaim against Ms. James for “intimidation”.
