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Trump Organization found guilty of tax fraud on all accounts.


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WWW.CBSNEWS.COM

Two Trump Organization companies faced a total of 17 criminal counts, including conspiracy and tax fraud.

 

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The two Trump Organization companies, called the Trump Corporation and Trump Payroll Corporation, were indicted in July 2021, along with the company's longtime chief financial officer, Allen Weisselberg, and accused of using a variety of methods to reduce payroll liability from executive salaries through untaxed bonuses and luxury perks worth millions. 

 

Weisselberg pleaded guilty in August and agreed to testify against the company as part of a deal with prosecutors. He is expected to face a five-month jail sentence.

Former president Donald Trump was not charged in the case, but Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg has said Trump remains under investigation. The office's probe began in 2018 under Bragg's predecessor, Cyrus Vance Jr. The investigation initially targeted hush-money payments made by former Trump lawyer and fixer Michael Cohen during the 2016 presidential campaign to adult film star Stormy Daniels, but later widened to include the corporate tax fraud charges.

 

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Defense attorneys said Trump was unaware of the schemes playing out beneath him, while prosecutors said he signed off on them. 

 

The Trump Organization faces up to $1.6 million in fines if convicted in the case. 

 

New York Attorney General Letitia James has indicated the jury's findings could have bearing on a civil case being pursued by her office. Her office conducted a parallel civil investigation and assigned two prosecutors to work on the Manhattan District Attorney's probe. While the criminal case is tightly focused on executive compensation, the civil case — filed in September — accuses the company, Trump and three of his children of a widespread, yearslong effort to commit fraud and manipulate property valuations.

 

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When punishment for crimes is a fine, you're just making it illegal for people who can't afford it. For everyone else, it's the cost of doing business.

 

If a billionaire parks in a handicap spot every day and all he ever gets is a $100 ticket, that means nothing to them, they're just going to keep doing it. To them, it's like upgrading to first class.

  • True 2
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Agreed re: a fine being not enough; I'd totally be fine with throwing some scum in jail.

 

I don't think I'm just being naive, but I also think it's probably an overly-cynical mistake to call this "nothing". It's a painfully slow process, but he's not invincible; he keeps losing. Every bit helps.

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32 minutes ago, Fizzzzle said:

When punishment for crimes is a fine, you're just making it illegal for people who can't afford it. For everyone else, it's the cost of doing business.

 

If a billionaire parks in a handicap spot every day and all he ever gets is a $100 ticket, that means nothing to them, they're just going to keep doing it. To them, it's like upgrading to first class.


This is why I said fighting unions is generally a good business decision. Depressing labor costs in perpetuity is generally more profitable even when accounting for fines and legal expenses.

 

There are many white collar crimes for which the penalty is completely worth the financial upside.

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There is a greater relevance to this verdict beyond the paltry monetary penalty. 

 

Per Renato Mariotti, a former federal prosecutor:

 

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This is a significant verdict—the Trump Organization is found guilty of serious felony fraud charges.

 

This will give even more leverage to New York Attorney General Tish James in her civil suit, which seeks extraordinary remedies that would cripple the company.

 

 

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I can hardly believe that the maximum potential fine here is so low. I couldn't quickly find any kind of numbers for how much in taxes they dodged, except the DA's press release saying that Weisselberg personally recieved $1.76M in unreported compensation. The DA describes this as a scheme that has been going on for at least 13 years, that multiple executives were part of and that the company itself was found guilty of. Maybe the actual number ended up being pretty low, but it seems like if one guy hid $1.76M, then the total has to be a good deal more than that.

 

I'm also curious if there is a case related to the tax schemes that the Times found Trump was pulling for years. There are so many cases against Trump, it's hard to keep them straight.

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