Trump Organization faces sentencing for criminal tax fraud

Two Trump Organization companies are scheduled to be sentenced Friday after a jury last month unanimously found them guilty of 17 counts related to tax fraud.

Executives at the two companies, called the Trump Corporation and Trump Payroll Corporation, illegally reduced payroll liability through a variety of schemes, including giving executives untaxed bonuses and high-end perks worth millions. 

The maximum penalty the company faces is a $1.6 million fine.

The company’s longtime former chief financial officer, Allen Weisselberg, was sentenced Tuesday to five months in New York City’s Rikers Island jail. Weisselberg entered a guilty plea in August and testified against the company as part of a deal with prosecutors. 

Former President Donald Trump was not charged in the case, but Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg has said Trump remains under investigation. 

Weisselberg’s three days of testimony included detailed descriptions of several methods used by the company and its executives to skate on taxes. He also said that Trump and two of his children played a role by signing checks in some of the schemes, though he denied that they authorized or conspired in the fraud. Manhattan Assistant District Attorney Joshua Steinglass said during the trial that the evidence and Weisselberg’s testimony showed Trump “explicitly sanctioning tax fraud.”

Defense attorneys said Trump was unaware of the schemes playing out beneath him, while prosecutors said he signed off on them. 

The Trump Organization’s lawyers said Trump and his company were “betrayed” by Weisselberg, saying repeatedly, “Weisselberg did it for Weisselberg.”