A Manhattan jury has found two Trump Organization companies guilty on multiple charges of criminal tax fraud and falsifying business records.
The charges are connected to a 15-year scheme to defraud tax authorities by failing to report and pay taxes on compensation for top executives.
The Trump Corp. and Trump Payroll Corp. were found guilty on all charges they faced.
The guilty verdict comes as Trump is under scrutiny by federal and state prosecutors for his handling of classified documents, the effort to overturn the 2020 election results, and the accuracy of the Trump Organization’s business records and financial statements.
He is also facing a $250 million civil lawsuit from the New York attorney general alleging he and his adult children were involved in a decade long fraud. The attorney general is seeking to permanently bar them from serving as an officer or director of a company in New York state, among other penalties.
Prosecutor Joshua Steinglass told the jury in closing arguments that Trump “explicitly sanctioned” tax fraud and urged them to reject the defense’s argument that former Trump Organization Chief Financial Officer Allen Weisselberg was a rogue employee motivated by his own personal greed.
Steinglass said,
This whole narrative that Donald Trump is blissfully ignorant is just not true.”
Donald Trump and his family were not charged in this case.
BREAKING: Trump Organization found guilty of all charges by jury in a 15-year tax fraud scheme that prosecutors said was orchestrated by top executives at the company. https://t.co/Z1RbMKbnag
— NBC News (@NBCNews) December 6, 2022
NY jury CONVICTS Trump Organization on all counts. Two important takeaways: 1. this likely spells the end of Trump Org, and 2. this increases the odds of a NY prosecution of Trump himself, given that the prosecution argued “Evidence shows Trump
— Glenn Kirschner (@glennkirschner2) December 6, 2022
‘explicitly’ OK’d tax fraud.”
