The Manhattan district attorney’s office may be in the final stages of a criminal tax investigation into the Trump Organization’s longtime chief financial officer, Allen Weisselberg, and there’s a chance he could face charges this summer, according to the New York Times.
People familiar with the matter told the Times that prosecutors have obtained Weisselberg’s personal tax returns amid ongoing efforts from prosecutors to secure the chief financial executive’s cooperation for a broader criminal investigation into former President Donald Trump and his company which has focused on potential financial crimes including bank and tax fraud.
According to the Times, in addition to Weisselberg’s tax returns, prosecutors from Manhattan district attorney Cy Vance’s office earlier this year also obtained his personal bank records.
Prosecutors at the district attorney’s office, according to the Times, have been looking into whether Weisselberg paid taxes on benefits Trump provided, including potential tuition payments for an upscale Manhattan private school for at least one of Weisselberg’s grandchildren.
A person with knowledge of the matter told the Times that prosecutors have also sought records for Mercedes-Benz cars leased for Weisselberg, his wife and other Trump Organization employees over the course of more than a decade. Prosecutors have also examined whether Trump provided Weisselberg with a Manhattan apartment, the Times said.
Weisselberg’s former daughter-in-law, Jennifer Weisselberg, provided financial records to prosecutors in April, and previously said that the Central Park apartment where she and Allen Weisselberg’s son Barry once lived as a couple had been provided by the Trump Organization rent-free. Her ex-husband, Barry, is also a Trump Organization employee. Vance’s prosecutors, according to the Times, have asked the Trump Organization to turn over documents related to any benefits Trump or the company may have provided to its employees.
Earlier this month, the district attorney’s office reportedly questioned Trump Organization controller, Jeffrey McConney, potentially adding pressure to Weisselberg, with the grand jury hearing evidence about him and others.
It remains unclear whether the prosecutors will seek an indictment of Weisselberg and it’s also unclear whether prosecutors are considering other charges against him aside from the potential tax issues on benefits described by the Times.
