Eva Deschamps / December 7, 2022
Donald Trump's family business, the Trump Organization, was convicted Tuesday of financial and tax fraud after a trial in New York where the former president was not on trial, Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg announced.
The jury, which retired Monday to deliberate after more than a month of hearings, "found the Trump Corporation and the Trump Payroll Corporation guilty on all counts," Bragg said on his Twitter account.
Both companies were on trial for tax fraud and falsifying accounting statements, including in an effort to hide financial compensation from certain senior executives from the IRS.
"This is a case of greed and cheating. In Manhattan, no company is above the law," U.S. Attorney Bragg said in a statement, noting that this was the first time a Donald Trump company had been criminally convicted. The billionaire is now officially in the running to be the Republican presidential candidate in 2024.
For 13 years, the Trump Corporation and the Trump Payroll Corporation evaded the law by providing high-level executives with lavish benefits and compensation, while intentionally concealing those benefits from tax authorities to avoid paying taxes," he added.
Sentencing is expected to take place on January 13, 2023, the prosecutor said.
In this case, the former CFO of the family group, Allen Weisselberg, reached a plea agreement in August and pleaded guilty to 15 counts of tax fraud and evasion involving $1.76 million in undeclared income between 2005 and 2021. The Trump family insider testified during the trial of the company, a group that manages hotels, golf courses and real estate investments, among other things.
At the opening of the trial, Donald Trump had denounced a "witch hunt" of the Democrats against him.