Franklin, Andrews, Kramer & Edelstein

[scion]

The Trump Organizations Payment of Rent, Utility, and Garage Expenses for Weisselberg’s Apartment on Riverside Boulevard, and Weisselberg’s Evasion of New York City Income Taxes

6. Beginning on or about March 31,2005, the Trump Corporation maintained a lease for an apartment on Riverside Boulevard in New York, New York. The building, one of several buildings on the West Side of Manhattan previously known as “Trump Place,” was not owned by the Trump Organization, and the Trump Organization paid rent pursuant to the lease. From the beginning of the lease through June 30, 2021, the sole residents in the apartment have been Allen Weisselberg and his spouse, and Weisselberg maintained the apartment as his permanent place of abode.

7. Beginning in 2005, and as part of the scheme to defraud, Weissclberg signed rental checks drawn on the Trump Corporation's bank account, and the checks were sent to the managing agent for the apartment building on Riverside Boulevard. Similarly, Weisselberg and others directed the Trump Corporation to issue checks to pay for Weisselberg’s utility bills for the Riverside Boulevard apartment, including payments for electricity, telephone services, internet, and cable television service. During this period of time, the Trump Corporation also paid for Weisselberg’s monthly garage expenses. At all relevant times, the payments of Weisselberg’s rent, utility, and garage expenses constituted employee compensation and taxable income to Weisselberg. These payments were not booked in the Trump Corporation’s general ledger as employee compensation, but were instead labeled and deducted as “rent expense in the general ledger. However, for certain years, the Trump Organization maintained internal spreadsheets that tracked the amounts it paid for Weisselberg’s rent, utility, and garage expenses. Simultaneously, the Trump Organization reduced the amount of direct compensation that Weisselberg received in the form of checks or direct deposits to account for the indirect compensation that he received in the form of payments of rent, utility bills, and garage expenses. The indirect compensation was not included on Weisselberg’s W-2 forms or otherwise reported to federal, state, or local tax authorities, and no income taxes were withheld by the corporate defendants in connection with the indirect compensation. The compensation amounts reported by the defendants to the tax authorities, and upon which income taxes were withheld, included only Weisselberg’s direct compensation. Weisselberg intentionally caused the indirect ‘compensation payments to be omitted from his personal tax returns, despite knowing that those ‘payments represented taxable income and were treated as compensation by the Trump Corporation in internal records. Because the indirect compensation in the form of payments of rent, utility bills, and garage expenses was not reported by the corporate defendants 0 the tax authorities, was not subjected to income tax withholding by the corporate defendants, and was not included by Weissclberg on his personal tax returns, he did not pay taxes on approximately $100,000 of compensation per tax year. From the tax year 2005 through 2017, the corporate defendants provided Weisselberg approximately$1,174,018 in untaxed income resulting from the payment of his rent and related expenses, 8. The defendants not only concealed, failed to report, and failed to pay income taxes in connection with Weisselberg’s New York City apartment, but they also concealed his status as a New York City resident and enabled Weisselberg to avoid the payment of New York City income taxes. Beginning in May 2005, when the Trump Corporation rented the Riverside Boulevard apartment for Weisselberg’s use as a permanent place of abode, Weisselberg spent most of his days each year in New York City, working in the Trump Organization offices at Trump Tower. He was a New York City resident, and knew that he was a New York City resident, but falsely claimed to his tax preparer and to the tax authorities that he was not a New York City resident. Weisselberg and others caused the corporate defendants not to report his compensation to New York City tax authorities and not to withhold New York City income taxes from Weisselberg’s compensation. ‘Weissclberg began to pay New York City income taxes, and to direct that New York City income 6 taxes be withheld on his direct compensation, only after selling his home in Wantagh, New York in 2013. By concealing Weisselberg’s New York City residency from the tax authorities, and by failing to withhold New York City income taxes from Weisselbergs compensation, the defendants evaded the payment of approximately $210,923 in New York City resident income taxes from the tax year 2005 through 2013.
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Read: Indictment charges against Trump Organization and its CFO

By CNN
Updated 1855 GMT (0255 HKT) July 1, 2021

(CNN)Trump Organization Chief Financial Officer Allen Weisselberg is appearing in a Manhattan courtroom Thursday afternoon to respond to criminal charges against him and the company in connection with alleged tax crimes.

Read the charges: https://s3.documentcloud.org/documents/20982374/indictment-final.pdf

https://edition.cnn.com/2021/07/01/politics/trump-organization-allen-weisselberg/index.html