Trump Organisation convicted of tax fraud

DONALD TRUMP’S company was convicted of tax fraud on Tuesday in a case brought by the Manhattan district attorney.

The judgement is a significant repudiation of financial practices at the Trump Organisation and adds to the legal woes of the former US president.

The guilty verdict came on the second day of deliberations following a trial in which the company was accused of complicity in a scheme by top executives to avoid paying personal income taxes on job perks such as rent-free flats and luxury cars.

New York prosecutors have spent three years investigating the former president and his businesses, though the penalties aren’t expected to be severe enough to jeopardise the company’s survival.

The Trump Organisation could be fined up to $1.6 million (£1.3m), a relatively small amount for a company of its size, though the conviction might make some of its future deals more complicated.

Mr Trump, who recently announced a fresh presidential bid, has claimed that the case against his company forms part of a politically motivated “witch hunt” by vindictive Democrats.

The former president himself was not on trial, but prosecutors alleged that he “knew exactly what was going on” in the scheme, though he and the company’s lawyers denied that.

The case was built largely on testimony from former Trump Organisation finance chief Allen Weisselberg, who had previously pleaded guilty to charges of manipulating the company’s books and his own compensation package to illegally reduce his taxes.

Mr Weisselberg testified in exchange for a promise that he would only receive a five-month jail sentence.

Throughout the month-long trial, Trump Organisation lawyers claimed that “Weisselberg did it for Weisselberg,” so no-one in the Trump family or the company was to blame.

Mr Weisselberg, who pleaded guilty to dodging taxes on $1.7m (£1.4m) in fringe benefits, testified that he and current company controller Jeffrey McConney had conspired to hide that extra compensation from his income.

But prosecutor Joshua Steinglass said insisted that Mr Trump knew all about the fraud.

He showed jurors a lease that the former president had signed for Mr Weisselberg’s company-paid flat and a memo that Mr Trump had signed authorising a pay cut for another executive who received perks.

The far-right billionaire blasted the verdict as part of a Democrat-led “Manhattan witch-hunt.”

He said: “New York City is a hard place to be Trump.”