Tag: Trump organization

Trump Org controller has already testified before Manhattan DA’s special grand jury: report

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The controller, a senior vice president of the Trump Organization has testified before the special grand jury empaneled to weigh evidence in the Manhattan District Attorney’s investigation into Donald Trump, his company, and its employees.

Jeff McConney, whose LinkedIn profile says he has worked at the Trump Organization for 34 years, and is considered to be one of its senior-most executives. As controller, he would have very specific knowledge of the company’s finances.

ABC News, citing sources, reports McConey is the first Trump Organization to testify before the grand jury, and says, “his testimony is a sign that prosecutors have burrowed deep into the company’s finances.” Continue reading.

Trump’s company puts D.C. hotel lease up for sale, again

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The former president’s company previously considered selling the lease to its luxury Washington hotel before covid struck

Former president Donald Trump’s company has again hired a broker to sell the lease to its D.C. hotel, according to two people familiar with the discussions, a second attempt to unload the property after the pandemic thwarted a previous effort.

The Trump Organization previously listed the Pennsylvania Avenue hotel, in the federally owned Old Post Office Pavilion, in the fall of 2019. When covid-19 struck, many hotels closed either completely or partially due to government shutdowns, and the company pulled the property off the market.

Now, with Trump under investigation by prosecutors in New York and the economy beginning to take off, his company is trying again, hiring the brokerage firm Newmark Group to market the lease, according to the people, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to share private business discussions. Continue reading.

Key Trump property at center of fraud investigation, newly published subpoenas show: report

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The Daily Beast on Friday evening published three subpoenas that have not yet been previously seen by the general public.

“As two separate investigations into the Trump Organization heat up, a series of subpoenas issued by the New York attorney general and the Manhattan district attorney shows how prosecutors are probing one particular land deal,” The Beast reported.

The subpoenas were issued to the towns of Bedford, New Castle, and North Castle. Continue reading.

Prosecutor in Trump criminal probe convenes grand jury to hear evidence, weigh potential charges

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NEW YORK — Manhattan’s district attorney has convened the grand jury that is expected to decide whether to indict former president Donald Trump, other executives at his company or the business itself, should prosecutors present the panel with criminal charges, according to two people familiar with the development.

The panel was convened recently and will sit three days a week for six months. It is likely to hear several matters — not just the Trump case ­— during its term, which is longer than a traditional New York state grand-jury assignment, these people said. Like others, they spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss an ongoing investigation. Generally, special grand juries such as this are convened to participate in long-term matters rather than to hear evidence of crimes charged routinely.

The move indicates that District Attorney Cyrus R. Vance Jr.’s investigation of the former president and his business has reached an advanced stage after more than two years. It suggests, too, that Vance thinks he has found evidence of a crime — if not by Trump, by someone potentially close to him or by his company. 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.

What’s Behind the New York Attorney General’s Criminal Probe of the Trump Organization

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There’s a strong likelihood that evidence has been established of intent to commit fraud.

The announcement by New York Attorney General Letitia James that her office is “actively investigating the Trump Organization in a criminal capacity” was greeted with a wave of nearly unanimous snap analysis that this spelled big trouble for former President Donald Trump and his company. But behind the scenes, many lawyers, including experienced prosecutors in New York, expressed confusion about what the move actually signifies.

It turns out that James’ unusual public statement portends bad news for Trump and his family-run operation but not for the reason you likely suspect.

The attorney general’s spokesperson noted that the AG was investigating “along with the Manhattan D.A.,” whose office has been conducting for some time a criminal investigation into whether Trump’s company inflated the value of its properties to obtain loans and lowered the values to limit its tax burden. Rather than a new, independent investigation into similar matters, the announcement was more of a combining of resources. Members of the AG’s staff have been named as “special assistant district attorneys” and will be working as part of District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr.’s team. For that reason, it might have been more accurate to say that her team is assisting the DA’s already underway investigation. Continue reading.

Trump legal risks mount with New York moves

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Former President Trump‘s legal woes are mounting with the news that state and local prosecutors in New York are conducting a joint criminal investigation into his company.

It’s unclear exactly what charges the New York attorney general and the Manhattan district attorney are exploring, but the announcement signals an escalation in the offices’ investigations that have at times spilled into public view in recent years. The rare move to publicly announce a criminal probe is also fueling Republican efforts to discredit it.

The news comes three months after Manhattan District Attorney Cy Vance Jr. (D) obtained Trump’s tax returns, ending a protracted legal battle that twice reached the Supreme Court over a grand jury subpoena. Continue reading.

Investigation of Trump Organization now exploring possible criminal conduct, N.Y. attorney general’s office says

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NEW YORK — New York Attorney General Letitia James’s investigation into the Trump Organization is now considered a criminal matter, James’s office said Tuesday night, noting that officials with the former president’s company were recently apprised of the development.

“We have informed the Trump Organization that our investigation into the company is no longer purely civil in nature,” said Fabien Levy, a spokesperson for the attorney general’s office. “We are now actively investigating the Trump Organization in a criminal capacity, along with the Manhattan DA. We have no additional comment at this time.”

The attorney general’s notification to the Trump Organization suggested a cooperative relationship has developed between investigators working for James and Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus R. Vance Jr., whose office has been heading a criminal probe into the company and its officers since 2018. Both officials are Democrats. A person familiar with the matter, who like others spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss an ongoing investigation, said the district attorney was not specifically mentioned in James’s letter to Trump’s company. Continue reading.

Trump Organization Accused Of Abusing U.K.’s COVID-19 Furlough Program

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The Trump Organization has received up to £575,000 through the U.K. job retention program, with at least £110,000 claimed while the former president was still in office. Critics see this as an abuse of the U.K.’s coronavirus furlough program.

Union officials are calling for an investigation of the scandal by Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs (HMRC), and have lodged complaints about Trump Turnberry’s “all-out assault on jobs and conditions.”

The former director of the Office of Government Ethics under the Obama and Trump administrations called the Trump Organization “disgraceful” for making U.K. taxpayers “prop up” Trump’s business interests. Continue reading.

Now Focus Of Criminal Probes, Trump’s Money Man Said He Leaves ‘Legal Side’ To Others

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NEW YORK — Allen Weisselberg, the financial sentry at the Trump Organization now in the crosshairs of prosecutors diving into Donald Trump’s business dealings, frankly claims he steers clear of the “legal side” of the money flow.

In previously unreported deposition documents obtained by the New York Daily News, Weisselberg, who has micromanaged the organization’s finances for decades, shrugged off interest in or knowledge of the legalities of Trump’s till. “That’s not my thing,” he declared.

It’s very much the thing of Manhattan District Attorney Cy Vance Jr., who recently used a grand jury subpoena to seize boxes of documents from Weisselberg’s estranged ex-daughter-in-law, and of New York Attorney General Letitia James, who’s doing a civil investigation into Trump’s alleged asset inflation and deflation. Continue reading.