Trump Organization removes indicted top finance officer Allen Weisselberg from leadership roles at dozens of subsidiaries

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The Trump Organization has removed indicted chief financial officer Allen Weisselberg from his leadership roles at more than 40 subsidiary companies, according to corporate filings in the United States and Scotland.

The changes were made Thursday and Friday, a week after a grand jury in Manhattan indicted Weisselberg on 15 felony counts, including grand larceny and tax fraud. Weisselberg was accused by New York prosecutors of helping run a 15-year scheme to evade income taxes by concealing executives’ salaries — including more than $1.7 million of his own income — from tax authorities. Two Trump corporate entities were indicted alongside Weisselberg.

On Thursday, the Trump Organization removed Weisselberg as a director of the company that runs its golf course in Aberdeen, Scotland, according to British corporate records. Continue reading.

Weisselberg out in Scotland: First indication that indictment affects Trump Organization operations

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Allen Weisselberg, the indicted Trump Organization executive, was removed today as a director of Donald Trump’s golf resort in Aberdeen, Scotland, public records show. The move is the first to indicate how the indictment is affecting operations of the Trump Organization.

His removal comes as Scottish lawmakers and Avaaz, a global do-gooder organization, are pushing for an “unexplained wealth” inquiry into how Trump got the money to buy and refurbish both of his money-losing Scottish golf courses.

2018 British law lets investigators examine company and personal financial records to determine sources of money and riches that they deem suspicious. It’s been called the McMafia law. Continue reading.

Trump biographer explains why Ivanka Trump ‘is in peril’ along with Allen Weisselberg

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President Donald Trump’s daughter Ivanka Trump is in about as much trouble as Allen Weisselberg is, according to biographer Michael D’Antonio.

Speaking to CNN’s Jim Acosta on Sunday, D’Antonio explained that the kinds of things that Weisselberg is accused of are similar to things that Ivanka Trump also did while working for the Trump Organization.

“You know, he really is acting as if he is going to go down with the ship,” said D’Antonio of Weisselberg. “I think this is astounding given Michael Cohen’s example. But there’s another thing that I notice in the president’s — or former president’s complaints. And his idea that, ‘Well, they’re going after really good people, and they would only be going after me because of political motivations.’ Well, the big problem for him is that he invited all of this. He ran for president in the first place as a publicity stunt. He wanted to amp up his visibility and increase his bottom line. He never intended to be elected president, and then when he became president, journalists started digging into the facts of his wealth, which has always been in doubt, and then people that he really hurt, that he steamrollered offer the years leaked documents to The New York Times that gave the truth about his taxes for the world to see. Faced with all of that, the prosecutions had no choice but to go after him. So, the idea this is political is crazy. He brought it on himself. These are practices that have been going on for more than a dozen years, and he’s getting what he deserves.”

The Memo: Dangers intensify for Trump as Vance brings charges

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The legal and political dangers facing former President Trump became a lot more real Thursday, when his closest lieutenant in running his businesses, Allen Weisselberg, gave himself up to prosecutors at dawn.

Weisselberg, along with the Trump Organization, was formally charged in court a few hours later. He was brought into court handcuffed. 

The 15-count indictment alleges that Weisselberg committed grand larceny and tax fraud, and that the Trump Organization was complicit in many of those offenses.  Continue reading.

How Trump paying Cohen and Weisselberg’s legal fees could lead to extortion problems: reporter

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Legendary reporter and Trump foe Kurt Eichenwald noted that one of the biggest mistakes Donald Trump made with Michael Cohen could come back to bite him.

When Cohen was first indicted, he recalls the Trump family wrapping their arms around him. He was promised that all of his legal fees would be taken care of. “You are family,” he was told. But after a while, Cohen realized it would come down to him or Trump and he abandoned the president. That’s when Trump stopped paying his legal fees. 

As Eichenwald explained, if Trump does the same thing with Weisselberg, it could add an extortion charge to Trump. Continue reading.

Trump exec Weisselberg pleads not guilty to fraud, conspiracy charges

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New York City prosecutors on Thursday charged the Trump Organization and its chief financial officer, Allen Weisselberg, with various fraud and conspiracy charges.

Weisselberg, who turned himself in earlier Thursday morning, pleaded not guilty to all 15 charges, which include tax fraud, conspiracy, grand larceny and falsifying business records. He and the Trump Organization have denied wrongdoing.

In an indictment that was unsealed Thursday afternoon, prosecutors alleged that Weisselberg helped orchestrate a scheme to compensate himself and “other Trump Organization executives” with unreported income. Continue reading.

DC investigators seek Weisselberg testimony as they compile case against Trump kids for ‘self-dealing’: report

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According to a report from the Daily Beast’s Jose Pagliery, the case being made against Donald Trump’s children — Don Jr., Ivanka and Eric — for cashing in on Donald Trump’s inauguration after his 2016 presidential win is being delayed while investigators seek testimony from Trump Org executive Allen Weisselberg.

The report states that Sunday, the District of Columbia’s attorney general was notified he will have to wait “…to find out if three more people in the Trump family circle can be forced to testify, as investigators continue to look into whether Donald Trump’s 2017 inauguration committee misspent more than $1 million and enriched his own company.”

In an interview with the Beast, lead witness Stephanie Winston Wolkoff — who helped oversee the inauguration events — said the investigation is looking at “self-dealing” by the Trump family. Continue reading.

Trump Organization Could Face Criminal Charges in D.A. Inquiry

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An indictment of the Trump Organization could mark the first criminal charges to emerge from an investigation by the Manhattan district attorney into Donald J. Trump and his business dealings.

The Manhattan district attorney’s office has informed Donald J. Trump’s lawyers that it is considering criminal charges against his family business, the Trump Organization, in connection with fringe benefits the company awarded a top executive, according to several people with knowledge of the matter.

The prosecutors had been building a case for months against the executive, Allen H. Weisselberg, as part of an effort to pressure him to cooperate with a broader inquiry into Mr. Trump’s business dealings. But it was not previously known that the Trump Organization also might face charges.

If the case moves ahead, the district attorney, Cyrus R. Vance Jr., could announce charges as soon as next week, the people said. Mr. Vance’s prosecutors have been conducting the investigation along with lawyers from the office of the New York State attorney general, Letitia James. Continue reading.

Trump and his CFO Allen Weisselberg stay close as prosecutors advance their case

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Trump and his CFO Allen Weisselberg stay close as prosecutors advance their case

NEW YORK — If Donald Trump was looking for some good news on his 75th birthday last Monday, it arrived at 8:15 a.m. by way of a blue Mercedes slipping into Trump Tower’s private garage entrance on West 56th Street.

Behind the wheel was Allen Weisselberg, Trump’s longtime confidant and Trump Organization chief financial officer, whom the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office has pressed to turn on the former president as they investigate Trump’s business dealings.

Every day that Weisselberg arrives for work at Trump Tower — as he did that day, steering in from his Upper West Side apartment across town — could be seen as a public signal that he is sticking with Trump and deflecting investigators’ advances. Continue reading.

Legal intrigue swirls over ex-Trump exec Weisselberg: Five key points

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Donald Trump’s longtime chief financial officer Allen Weisselberg faces escalating legal jeopardy on multiple fronts over questionable financial activity linked to the former president and the Trump Organization.

Weisselberg is reportedly the subject of a criminal tax probe by the New York attorney general and an overlapping inquiry by the Manhattan district attorney, whose offices have begun coordinating efforts.

The investigative pace seems to have quickened in recent months. Many details still remain unknown, including the breadth of Weisselberg’s potential wrongdoing and the possible evidence he could give to prosecutors on Trump and his business dealings.  Continue reading.