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Prosecutors say Weisselberg did not pay taxes on the Trump organization’s compensation
The indictment alleges Weisselberg and the Trump Organization defrauded tax authorities by compensating senior executives with “off-the-books” benefits.
“The program was intended to allow certain employees to significantly understate their Trump Organization compensation, so that they could and did pay federal, state and local taxes in amounts significantly less than the amounts that should have been paid.” , said the prosecutor. written in the indictment, which noted Weisselberg was one of the biggest beneficiaries.
In Weisselberg’s case, prosecutors allege he received $ 1.7 million in undeclared compensation over 15 years. Compensation included a Manhattan apartment whose rent was paid by the company – including utility and parking bills, tuition at a private Manhattan school for family members, payments on two cars. Mercedes Benz leased, money for tips while on vacation, and furniture for her homes in New York and Florida. The furniture included beds, flat screen TVs, new carpet and other furniture.
Some of the checks for these expenses were signed by Donald Trump, although he was not charged in the case.
A member of the Weisselberg family also received a housing benefit: an apartment in Manhattan near Central Park, according to the indictment, for which he paid only $ 1,000 a month.
Indictment includes allegations that undeclared compensation was tracked on an internal spreadsheet
Prosecutors allege that the Trump Organization kept spreadsheets that tracked payments to Weisselberg for some time, which indicated they were part of his compensation. However, according to prosecutors, this compensation was never reported to the tax authorities and did not appear on Weisselberg’s W-2 forms.
“Weisselberg intentionally caused cash payments to be omitted from his personal tax returns, although he knew those payments were taxable income and were treated as compensation by the Trump Corporation,” prosecutors wrote.
Indictment alleges Trump Organization accounting department forged documents
Prosecutors allege in the indictment that Weisselberg ordered the Trump Organization to exclude payments for his apartment, car, tuition and furnishings from his reported gross income, even though the company has processed these payments as employee compensation. They further allege that the employees falsified other compensation records to ensure that the payments did not appear in Weisselberg’s gross income.
“As a result, the W-2 forms and other compensation records reported to federal, state and local tax authorities fraudulently underestimated the revenues that the ‘Trump organization paid Weisselberg,’ prosecutors wrote.
Christina Prignano can be reached at [email protected]. Follow her on Twitter @cprignano.
