New York – The Trump Organization and its chief financial officer, Allen Weisselberg, were indicted on Wednesday by a New York grand jury and are expected to appear this Thursday before a New York judge, according to The Washington Post.
The newspaper, which cites two sources familiar with the matter, reports that the accusation will remain secret until tomorrow, Thursday, so it is unknown for now exactly what charges are being imputed.
According to various media today, the company of former US President Donald Trump and Weisselberg is expected to be indicted for alleged tax crimes as a result of a lengthy investigation carried out by New York prosecutors.
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For now, the New York Prosecutor’s Office has not officially confirmed the accusations, which would be the first in the framework of the investigations that the Manhattan district attorney, Cyrus Vance, has maintained for about three years.
Among the defendants is not Trump, but Weisselberg, a key figure in the company and whom prosecutors have been trying to convince to cooperate with the investigation, according to several sources.
According to The Wall Street Journal, the financial director of the Trump Organization would have rejected those proposals and will be charged with charges related to tax evasion, after the Prosecutor’s Office has studied for months whether he and other company employees illegally avoided paying taxes on some compensations they received such as vehicles, apartments or tuition in private schools.
If prosecutors can show that the company and its executives systematically dodged paying taxes, they could file more serious charges, the newspaper added.
The Washington Post adds that prosecutors are relying on Weisselberg to eventually testify against Trump to lessen his own legal troubles.
Investigations into the former US president’s company have accelerated in recent months, with several executives being called to testify before a grand jury in preparation for possible indictments.
The investigations have covered possible tax fraud, insurance and other criminal offenses, allegedly committed before Trump’s arrival in the White House.
These could include inflated appraisals, unjustified allowances, and duplicate accounting, ultimately not paying or paying very little taxes for years, as has emerged.
The Manhattan prosecutor, Cyrus Vance, achieved a great triumph last February, when he gained access to years of Trump’s tax returns after a long legal battle in which the Supreme Court ended up rejecting the arguments of the former president that those documents be kept confidential.
The Prosecutor’s Office has also been investigating the secret payments of money that the Trump electoral campaign made to the porn actress Stormy Daniels to prevent her from making public an alleged sexual relationship with the then presidential candidate, since they could violate the legislation of the New York State.
In May, New York Attorney General Letitia James, who was conducting a parallel civil investigation into Trump’s company, announced that she was joining the criminal avenue opened by Vance.
Trump resigned from day-to-day management of the company while in the White House, but it is unclear what role he now plays in the scheme, which he continues to own through a trust run by his older sons and Weisselberg.
The former Republican president has at all times denied any wrongdoing and has repeatedly denounced that the investigations are the result of political persecution by Democratic prosecutors.
