Two of Donald Trump’s companies were found guilty of engaging in a scheme that allowed executives such as former chief financial officer Allen Weisselberg to evade taxes on company-paid perks including free apartments and luxury cars for more than a decade.
It is the first time a Trump business has been convicted of criminal conduct and comes as the former president is running for a second term. The momentous verdict also comes as he faces a raft of other legal perils, including criminal probes of his handling of classified documents and of efforts by Trump and his allies to overturn the 2020 election.
The jury reached its verdict Tuesday on the Trump Organization’s Trump Corp. and Trump Payroll Corp. after a monthlong trial—rattling off a straight run of convictions on all 17 counts against them, including scheme to defraud, conspiracy, criminal tax fraud and falsifying business records. Defense lawyer Michael van der Veen, for Trump Payroll Corp., shook his head gravely. Lawyers for both companies said they would appeal.
During the trial, prosecutors in the office of Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg showed that over a 13-year period, Trump executives often disguised holiday bonuses as consulting fees and that Trump even paid for the private school tuition of Weisselberg’s grandchildren.
Trump wasn’t charged, but the prosecutor in his closing statement last week told the jury Trump “knew exactly what was going on” and had “explicitly sanctioned tax fraud.”
Outside the courtroom after the verdict, Bragg commended his team and the jury and said “this was a case about lying and cheating.”
“The former president’s companies now stand convicted of crimes,” he said. “That is consequential.” He added, “They’ve now been held accountable in a court of law right here in Manhattan.”
The DA left just as reporters asked him whether he had any regrets about not prosecuting Trump himself.
Trump said in a statement that it was unfair to prosecute the companies for the acts of the disgraced former CFO.
“This case was about Allen Weisselberg committing tax fraud on his personal tax returns, etc., with he and every witness repeatedly testifying that President Trump and the Trump Family knew nothing about his actions, which he admits were done solely for his own benefit, and with no benefit to the two companies,” Trump said. He said New York “is a hard place to be ‘Trump,’ as businesses and people flee our once Great City!”
Weisselberg, the prosecution’s star witness, pleaded guilty in August and testified against the companies in hopes of a more lenient sentence than the 15 years he could have faced. The 75-year-old executive—who has worked for Trump’s family for almost half a century and remains on the firm’s payroll, now as a senior adviser—told the jury during the trial that he was still drawing his full $640,000 salary and hoped to collect his $500,000 bonus in January.
The financial penalty for the companies at sentencing, set for Jan. 13, is likely to be only about $1.6 million, but the impact on the Trump Organization may be greater. For example, it could have trouble making deals in the future.