Posts tagged with "New York Attorney General Letitia James"

Above, former President Donald Trump, whose company has been convicted of tax fraud. (Image source Pee Linforth/Pixabay)

Trump Organization receives maximum fine for New York tax fraud scheme

January 16, 2023

On Friday, January 13, the Trump Organization received the maximum fine under New York law after it was convicted last month of running a 15-year tax fraud scheme, reports Axios.

A New York judge ruled that a pair of the former president’s business entities must pay a $1.6 million penalty, the AP first divulged. The Trump Organization said it plans to appeal the ruling, per Reuters.

Last month, Trump Organization subsidiaries Trump Corp. and Trump Payroll Corp. were convicted of 17 felonies, which included criminal tax fraud, falsifying business records, and conspiracy.

  • Under New York law, the company faced up to a $1.6 million fine from the verdict.
  • Trump and his family were not charged in the case.
  • Earlier this week, former Trump Organization CFO Allen Weisselberg was sentenced to five months in jail for his role in the scheme. He was taken into custody and is expected to serve his sentence at Rikers Island in New York.
  • Weisselberg pleaded guilty in August to assisting in the scheme and admitted to 15 felonies.

Friday’s ruling could lead to additional consequences if companies that are not allowed to conduct business with felons choose to cancel their contracts with the organization, ABC News reports.

In addition, New York Attorney General Letitia James has filed a civil lawsuit accusing the former president and members of his family of financial fraud and referring them to federal prosecutors and the IRS for criminal investigation.

Research contact: @axios

Above, Trump family members cut the ribbon at the opening of their D.C. hotel in October 2016. (Photo source: Johanna Jainchille)

House committee seeks to revoke Trump D.C. hotel lease before former president can sell it for $370M

February 18, 2022

The House Oversight Committee is asking he General Services Administration to consider terminating the lease for the Trump International Hotel in Washington, D.C., before the former president’s business can sell it, in light of allegations that the Trump Organization submitted false financial statements to the federal government, reports CNN.

The Democratic-led committee said false statements or certifications may constitute a breach of the lease of the Old Post Office, the historic, government-owned building that the Trump Hotel occupies.

The committee request comes as the Trump Organization stands to make a profit of $100 million from the sale of the hotel lease to a Miami-based investment group for $370 million, according to a letter from the panel to the GSA. The agency is reviewing that pending deal.

“No one should be rewarded for providing false or misleading information to the federal government or for seeking to profit off the presidency,” the committee wrote.

Former President Donald Trump obtained the lease for the hotel years before he came into office.

The committee’s letter comes days after Trump’s longtime accounting firm Mazars advised that nearly a decade’s worth of the Trump Organization’s financial statements should no longer be relied on and after New York Attorney General Letitia James filed allegations that the business inflated values of certain assets on various financial statements.

Trump has denied any wrongdoing and says the investigation is politically motivated.

The committee’s letter makes clear that Trump’s submission of information to the GSA was in 2010, a year earlier than the ten-year set of financial statements Mazars has lost confidence in. But the committee says it has similar concerns to state investigators in New York, who revealed the split between Mazars and the Trump Organization this week. Mazars served as the auditor for the Trump hotel, according to the letter.

“In light of these new revelations, including further evidence that the former President submitted at least one financial statement with possible material misrepresentations to GSA, we request that you consider terminating the Old Post Office Building lease to former President Trump … and end, once-and-for-all, the grave damage this inappropriate lease has done to presidential ethics and integrity in government contracting,” the committee’s letter said.

The GSA did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Research contact: @CNN