[ad_1]
The most serious offense in a 15-count indictment against longtime right-hand man of former President Donald Trump, Allen Weisselberg, is also the most uncertain for New York prosecutors, according to white collar lawyers and defense lawyers.
The charge – a single count of second-degree robbery – emerges from the July 1 indictment, which alleges the Trump Organization and Mr. Weisselberg, its chief financial officer, cheated on taxes for over a decade. Prosecutors said the company secretly reimbursed Mr Weisselberg’s compensation, subsidizing everything from his Upper West Side residence to household furnishings and tuition at private schools. In total, according to prosecutors, Mr. Weisselberg concealed about $ 1.8 million in taxable income and evaded more than $ 900,000 in taxes.
The grand theft allegation involves a much smaller amount of money – roughly $ 95,000 in federal tax refunds that prosecutors say the 73-year-old executive illegally obtained annually over a period of 2010 to 2018.
But lawyers said the charge was important. Second-degree robbery is the most serious crime Mr. Weisselberg faces, carrying a maximum prison sentence of 15 years. That’s more than double the maximum sentence on other counts, amplifying pressure on him to cooperate with authorities in a broader fraud investigation into Mr. Trump and his business commercial.
Mr Weisselberg also faces charges of tax evasion and document forgery, as does the Trump Organization.
[ad_2]
Source link