Trump Organization CFO banking records subpoenaed

Dive brief:

  • As part of the investigation into former President Donald Trump and the finances of the Trump Organization, New York State prosecutors have subpoenaed the banking records of Trump Organization CFO Allen Weisselberg, The New York Times reported wednesday.

  • The Manhattan District Attorney’s Office, headed by Cyrus Vance, Jr., is investigating gifts Trump gave Weisselberg and his family, sources told The Times.

  • The investigation could be part of investigators’ efforts to secure Weisselberg’s cooperation. Weisselberg, 73, worked for the Trump family for decades. The review of the gifts “appears to be part of an effort to paint a picture of Weisselberg’s financial life, as is common when prosecutors seek the cooperation of a potential witness,” the Times said. “It is not clear whether prosecutors suspect wrongdoing related to the gifts.”

Dive overview:

As a longtime CFO, Weisselberg stood by Trump’s side and maintained a keen knowledge of his financial dealings.

“He knows where the bodies are buried”, and is therefore “a crucial witness”, former federal prosecutor Jeffrey Cramer told the insider.

The investigation began with Vance examining the role of the Trump Organization in making discreet cash payments to two women who claimed to have had extramarital affairs with Trump.

Former personal attorney Michael Cohen arranged the payments and then pleaded guilty to campaign finance charges. Cohen testified before Congress that Weisselberg devised a strategy to hide the Trump Organization reimbursing Cohen for making a payment of $ 130,000 to one of the women, adult actress Stormy Daniels.

The prosecution did not charge Weisselberg with wrongdoing during Cohen’s indictment. Upon release from prison, Cohen is cooperating with Vance and the Manhattan DA, sources told The Times last month.

The investigation has since widened and investigators are now investigating whether the Trump Organization falsely reported property values ​​to secure loans and tax breaks, the Times said.

Vance’s office subpoenaed the files of several banks that have partnered with Trump and the Trump Organization, including Capital One and JPMorgan Chase, sources said. The banks have reportedly turned over their files to prosecutors; they received Trump’s personal tax information in February.

Prosecutors have also reportedly searched the ledgers for several of the more than two dozen Trump Organization properties that the company failed to return last year. Ledgers provide a breakdown of each property’s financial condition, including daily receipts, checks and income, according to the Times report.

“Prosecutors could compare these details with information the company has provided to its lenders and local tax authorities to assess whether it has fraudulently misled them,” the report said.

In recent weeks, the prosecution has questioned Weisselberg’s former daughter-in-law Jennifer Weisselberg, who was married to Weisselberg’s son Barry, director of Trump Wollman Rink in Central Park.

In an interview, Ms Weisselberg said prosecutors asked her about several gifts Trump and his company had given the family over the years, the Times said, including an apartment on Central Park South, cars for several family members and tuition at a private school.

Ms Weisselberg handed prosecutors seven boxes of documents given to her as part of her divorce settlement, she told the insider.

“They picked up documents several times. They ended up taking seven boxes of my documents and scanning them, going through them,” she said, adding that prosecutors also took depositions, checks, numbers. routing and bank account information.

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