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Tag: allen weisselberg
New York Attorney General Sues Trump, Adult Children For Massive Fraud

New York Attorney General Sues Trump, Adult Children For Massive Fraud

By Karen Freifeld, Jonathan Stempel and Luc Cohen

NEW YORK (Reuters) -- Donald Trump and his adult children were sued for "numerous acts of fraud and misrepresentation" on Wednesday by New York state's attorney general in a civil investigation into the former U.S. president's business practices, court records showed.

The lawsuit, filed in a New York state court in Manhattan, accused the Trump Organization of wrongdoing in preparing Trump's annual statements of financial condition from 2011 to 2021. It also named the Trump Organization, the former president's son Donald Trump Jr,. and his daughter Ivanka Trump as defendants.

Attorney General Letitia James said Trump and the Trump Organization misstated the values of its real estate properties to obtain favorable loans and tax benefits. She said she was referring allegations of criminal wrongdoing to federal prosecutors in Manhattan and the Internal Revenue Service.

"With the help of his children and senior executives at the Trump Organization, Donald Trump falsely inflated his net worth by billions of dollars to unjustly enrich himself and cheat the system," James said in a statement.

The lawsuit marks one of the biggest legal blows for Trump since he left office in January 2021. Trump is considering running again for president in 2024.

James told reporters she is seeking to have the defendants give up all the benefits he obtained from fraud, estimated at $250 million. The lawsuit also seeks to bar Trump and his children from running companies in New York, and to bar the Trump Organization from engaging in real estate transactions. James has been conducting a civil investigation into Trump's business practices for more than three years.

The Republican former president has denied any wrongdoing and described James' probe as a politically motivated witch hunt. James is a Democrat. The Trump Organization has called James' allegations "baseless."

Wednesday's lawsuit followed a contentious investigation in which James accused Trump, his company, and some family members of using delay tactics to ignore subpoenas and avoid testifying.

Trump on August 10 declined to answer questions in a lengthy, closed-door deposition at the office of the attorney general, invoking his constitutional right against self-incrimination more than 400 times.

Donald Trump Jr. and Ivanka Trump agreed to sit for depositions only after court decisions required it.

Another of Trump's children, Eric Trump, invoked the right against self-incrimination more than 500 times in a 2020 deposition.

Trump has been beset with legal troubles since leaving the White House.

The FBI conducted a search of his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida on Aug. 8 as part of a criminal investigation into his handling of presidential records including classified material.

Trump also faces a criminal investigation in Georgia over his efforts to overturn the 2020 election results.

He has denied wrongdoing in the various probes.

James' civil probe is separate from a criminal tax fraud probe against the Trump Organization by Manhattan's district attorney, Alvin Bragg.

The company is scheduled to stand trial in October, accused of paying off-the-books benefits to employees. Its former longtime chief financial officer, Allen Weisselberg, has pleaded guilty and will testify against the company.

James is assisting Bragg in his criminal probe.

(Reporting by Jonathan Stempel, Karen Freifeld and Luc Cohen in New York; editing by Will Dunham and Alistair Bell)

Weisselberg Will Testify Against Trump Companies in Reported Plea Deal

Weisselberg Will Testify Against Trump Companies in Reported Plea Deal

Allen Weisselberg, the ex-Trump Organization CFO who has worked for the former president’s family since 1970, is expected to plead guilty to 15 felonies and “criminally implicate” the real estate empire.

“The Trump Organization’s longtime chief financial officer will admit to conspiring with the Trump Organization and Trump Payroll Corporation in a 15-year tax fraud scheme while head of the company’s finances at a Manhattan Supreme Court hearing on Thursday,” the Daily News reports. “Allen Weisselberg is expected to criminally implicate Trump’s family real estate business when he pleads guilty to criminal tax fraud charges, a source familiar with the matter told The News on Wednesday.”


Weisselberg is also expected to agree to testify against the Trump companies, and agree to a five-month sentence at Rikers Island, the horrific New York City jail that is slated to be shut down by 2026.

Rolling Stone adds that Weiselberg “will say in Manhattan court Thursday that he conspired with several of the ex-president’s companies when he pleads guilty to state tax crimes.”

The New York Times calls the impending plea deal “a serious blow to the company that could imperil its chances in an upcoming trial.”

Reprinted with permission from Alternet.

New York Attorney General Aims To Depose Trump On January 7 In Civil Probe

New York Attorney General Aims To Depose Trump On January 7 In Civil Probe

Reprinted with permission from DailyKos

New York Attorney General Letitia James is reportedly angling to depose Donald Trump on Jan. 7 in relation to her office's ongoing civil probe of whether the Trump Organization committed financial fraud, according to TheWashington Post.

No one close to the matter was willing to go on record about it—not Trump’s spokespeople, not Trump's attorney, and not James' office—which makes her intentions seem all the more real.

James, who on Thursday unexpectedly dropped out of New York's gubernatorial race, had pledged to target Trump in her bid last year to become the state's top law enforcement officer. Both she and the Manhattan district attorney have been investigating whether Trump's family business illegally manipulated property values to both garner lower taxes and secure favorable financial loans.

Though the attorney general's probe has been civil in nature, her office has also contributed information to the district attorney’s criminal investigation. The New York Times reports that, because the attorney general’s civil investigation is running parallel to the Manhattan district attorney’s criminal probe, Trump could reject a subpoena to sit for the civil deposition on the grounds that it might incriminate him in the criminal case.

“Even if a judge sided with Ms. James, Mr. Trump could invoke his Fifth Amendment right and decline to respond to questions,” writes the Times.

James is weighing whether to sue the Trump Organization and her request for a deposition with Trump suggests she has reached a critical point in the investigation. Last fall, her office successfully forced Trump's son Eric to sit for a deposition after he initially refused to comply. Trump himself also recently sat for a four-and-a-half hour deposition in a totally different matter related to a group of protesters who sued him for alleged assault by his security guards in 2015. As the Post notes, Trump was also deposed numerous times before taking office in relation to civil suits filed against him and/or his company.

New York prosecutors are particularly interested in the Trump Organization's wildly inconsistent valuations of two properties: 1) a California golf club that the business variously valued at $900,000 and $25 million; 2) and a suburban New York property that Trump alternately said was worth $56 million and $291 million, according to the Post.

The Trump Organization and its CEO, Allen Weisselberg, have already been charged with tax fraud in the joint probe by Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance and James. That trial could take place next year in the several months preceding the 2022 midterms.

In James' surprise announcement stepping back from the gubernatorial race, she indicated she would run for reelection as attorney general.

“I have come to the conclusion that I must continue my work as attorney general,” James tweeted. "There are a number of important investigations and cases that are underway, and I intend to finish the job.”