NEW YORK — The Trump Organization’s top financial executive was led into a Manhattan courtroom in handcuffs Thursday and charged with a laundry list of tax- and fraud-related crimes that also implicate the former president’s family business, marking the first indictment to arise out of a long-running investigation into the embattled company.
Allen Weisselberg, the longtime chief financial officer of former President Donald Trump’s namesake business, maintained his innocence in a packed downtown Manhattan courtroom after a judge asked for his plea on the 15-count indictment.
“Not guilty, your honor,” the 73-year-old Weisselberg told Manhattan Supreme Court Judge Juan Merchan.
Manhattan District Attorney Cy Vance Jr. and New York Attorney General Letitia James — who have been investigating the Trump Organization for years and recently coordinated their inquiries — were seated behind Weisselberg as the judge read the charges.
The 24-page indictment charges Weisselberg and the Trump Organization with grand larceny, criminal tax fraud, falsification of business records and a range of other crimes that prosecutors said stem from an “off the books” scheme, in which top company executives pocketed luxury fringe benefits without paying taxes on them.
“This was a 15-year long tax fraud scheme involving off the books payments ... This is not a quote ‘standard practice in the business community,’” assistant Manhattan District Attorney Carey Dunne said, quoting a defense offered by Trump earlier this week.
Dunne continued, “This was a sweeping and audacious illegal payment scheme.”
There’s currently no indication that Trump or members of his family will be charged in the investigation.
However, Vance’s office noted that the DA would not hold a press conference after Weisselberg’s arraignment because his case relates to “an active, ongoing investigation,” suggesting more charges could be forthcoming.
After Weisselberg turned himself at the Manhattan DA’s office shortly after dawn Thursday, the Trump Organization released a statement defending its seasoned CFO, describing him as a family man who has worked at the company for 48 years.
The statement decried the incoming charges and claimed that New York prosecutors are attempting to use Weisselberg “as a pawn in a scorched earth attempt to harm the former president.”
The tight-lipped custodian of the Trump Organization’s finances, described by Trump in 2004 as a guy who “knows how to get things done,” Weisselberg has been a key subject in Vance’s investigation for months.
Investigators with the DA and AG offices put immense pressure on Weisselberg in an apparent attempt to get him to cooperate against Trump, even exploring whether his adults sons allegedly committed similar tax crimes as him.
But Weisselberg — who has worked for Trump since the 1980s and was first hired by his late father, Fred Trump — apparently refused to cave to demands for a deal with the prosecutors.
The charges add even more pressure on Weisselberg as prosecutors seek to use threats of hefty fines and potentially even jail time to get him to flip on Trump.
Jennifer Weisselberg, the Trump executive’s estranged daughter-in-law, has been cooperating with prosecutors and indicated a willingness to testify against her former father-in-law.
In addition to alleged fringe company perks, James and Vance continue to investigate whether Trump and his company illegally manipulated asset values over a decadeslong period to lower its taxable income or obtain other favorable financial benefits — practices that could amount to a variety of fraud.
The charges against Weisselberg and the Trump Organization are likely to mark the beginning of an acrimonious court battle.
No other sitting or former American president has ever had his company face a criminal indictment, and Trump vehemently denies any wrongdoing.
He has lashed out against Vance and James at an increasing rate in recent months as the New York prosecutors turned up the heat on Weisselberg and subpoenaed other Trump Organization executives, including controller Jeff McConney, to testify before the grand jury.
Earlier this week, amid word that charges were imminent, Trump claimed his company’s alleged fringe benefits scheme is “standard practice throughout the U.S. business community, and in no way a crime.”
On Wednesday, he said in an interview on Fox News that the coming indictments were “all nonsense.”
“New York radical-left prosecutors come after me — you gotta fight,” he said.
