Tag: The Trump Organization

Categories
Crime Donald Trump Donald Trump Jr. Eric Trump Ivanka Trump The Trump Organization

Federal Appeals Court Says Multimillion Dollar Fraud Suit Against The Trumps Will Proceed

An enormous class action lawsuit filed against former President Donald Trump and his three oldest children — Don Jr., Eric, and Ivanka — will move forward despite pleas from the Trumps that the case be allowed to go to arbitration.

According to Courthouse News, the Second Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Wednesday that the lawsuit, accuses the Trumps of running a pyramid scheme to hawk the services of American Communications Network, which allegedly ran a multilevel marketing scheme that bilked investors and never produced the financial returns it promised:

“Trump and three of his children — Donald Trump Jr., Eric Trump and Ivanka Trump — appeared from 2005 to 2015 in promotional television ads, at events and in magazines touting American Communications Network, a telecommunications company that offers business seminars and encourages enrollees to bring in new recruits.

“In a 2018 federal class action, four investors who said they lost hundreds or thousands of dollars investing with ACN sought damages from the then-first family and their corporate entity, the Trump Organization, saying they concealed that ACN paid them handsomely for their endorsements.”

Here’s how the scheme worked: ACN made investors pay $499 up front so they could register with the promise that they could then earn commissions by selling products at “motivational rallies.” At those rallies, family and friends were shown a DVD to encourage them to pony up money for their share of a massive payday promised in ACN’s promotional materials, many of which featured the Trumps encouraging people to pay money so the could reap the rewards, which never materialized.

In the lawsuit, investors reported they made back “less than 10%” of their initial investment.

Much like another illegal scheme, Trump University, the only people who made money in the ACN/Trump deal were the principals: ACN and the Trump family.

A class action judgement against the Trumps could put a massive dent in their bottom line at a time when the Trump Organization is reportedly hemorrhaging money and the former president is unable to lure investors to his struggling real estate business.

The Trump Organization is also under criminal indictment for engaging in tax fraud over the course of decades. Those indictments were handed down earlier this month.

Categories
Crime Donald Trump The Trump Organization

Trump’s ‘Money Man’ Has Met With Prosecutors And Testified Before NY Grand Jury: Report

When indictments were unsealed earlier this month against the Trump Organization and Chief Financial Officer Allen Weisselberg, another key member of the Trump Org. inner circle had already testified to a Manhattan grand jury.

Jeff McConney is the controller for the former president’s company, and it turns out he’s admitted in the past that Trump Org. has broken or skirted the law, according to The Daily Beast, which obtained a transcript of a confidential interview between McConney and the New York attorney general’s office that he gave in 2017:

“During that interview, McConney addressed a number of scandals at the now-defunct Trump Foundation. And even though he was quick to defend Donald Trump himself, McConney showed a willingness to admit errors that could help prosecutors build their case now.”

McConney admitted:

“I probably didn’t know at that time that we probably shouldn’t be using foundation funds for this type of thing… we made a mistake.”

That admission was regarding the use of funds donated to a Trump-controlled charity which were used to pay some $120,000 in fines as part of a lawsuit brought by the town of Palm Beach, Florida against Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort.

McConney also fessed up to wrongdoing by Trump when it came to $25,000 donated to the reelection campaign of former Florida attorney general Pam Bondi months after she decided not to open an investigation into the now-defunct Trump University. That matter led the Trump Org. controller to remark:

“We found out we made the contribution to … a political organization as opposed to a charitable organization … anything and everything that could go wrong, did go wrong, with this one request.”

One thing that becomes clear from the 2017 transcript is that McConney refuses to lie about the questionable behavior of his boss, which suggests he won’t commit perjury just because Donald Trump tells him to.

And that means that when he testified before the Manhattan grand jury, McConney was honest and answered every question truthfully, which is a terrifying prospect for the Donald and his family, all of whom run Trump Org.

Jeff McConney knows where the bodies are buried and all about the crimes his boss has allegedly been a part of. That alone should be keeping the failed, one-term, twice-impeached former president up at night.

Categories
Crime Donald Trump The Trump Organization

Did Trump Just Hand The Case Against Him To Prosecutors On A Silver Platter?

Recently, there were multiple reports failed, one-term former President Donald Trump had just made a move with his company, the Trump Organization, that had some legal experts shaking their heads.

What did Trump do? The Washington Post reported that Allen Weisselberg, the indicted chief financial officer of Trump Org., had been stripped of his leadership role at more than 40 subsidiary companies:

“The changes were made Thursday and Friday, a week after a grand jury in Manhattan indicted Weisselberg on 15 felony counts, including grand larceny and tax fraud. Weisselberg was accused by New York prosecutors of helping run a 15-year scheme to evade income taxes by concealing executives’ salaries — including more than $1.7 million of his own income — from tax authorities. Two Trump corporate entities were indicted alongside Weisselberg.

So what exactly is Trump’s strategy when it comes to dumping Weisselberg while prosecutors are attempting to get the CFO to roll over on the Donald and testify against him?

It could be that Trump wants to reassure regulators, lenders, and other business entities that an indicted executive of the company isn’t making major decisions. But that’s far from the truth, according to The Post’s David Fahrenthold:

“A person familiar with the company who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss its internal decisionmaking told The Washington Post: ‘Allen Weisselberg’s at the company. He’s got a job. He’s going to remain at the company.'”

Weisselberg is suspected of having evaded more than $900,000 in taxes, which means he’s facing enormous financial penalties and time in prison if he’s convicted. So is it wise for Trump to be cutting him loose right now?

Who is replacing Weisselberg as head of those subsidiary companies? Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump, who serve as vice presidents of the family-held corporation which carries their father’s name. That increases the legal exposure for them, which could mean that their dad is planning to toss them under the bus in the future in a last-ditch effort to save himself.

No matter what the former president does from this point forward, he has already strengthened the case against him by pushing Weisselberg overboard. He’s also made it more likely that Weisselberg will agree to cooperate with prosecutors as they build their case against the Trump family.

Donald Trump has handed the case against him to prosecutors on a silver platter. All they have to do now is follow the scorched earth approach he’s taking and present his moves to the grand jury.

As he’s always been, Donald Trump is his own worst enemy, and he’s not even smart enough to realize it.

 

Categories
Crime Donald Trump The Trump Organization

At The Heart Of The Trump Organization Indictments Are Dark Family Secrets: Report

When Allen Weisselberg was indicted by prosecutors in Manhattan earlier this month, the information that led to his being charged was provided by a member of his family who is proving to be an invaluable source of information and is also exposing many dark secrets at the heart of both Weisselberg and former President Donald Trump’s families.

The Daily Beast reports that a great deal of the evidence used to indict Weisselberg came from his former daughter-in-law:

“What investigators didn’t know was that the proof was in the hands of Jennifer Weisselberg, the woman once married to Barry Weisselberg, the son of Allen Weisselberg. And it wasn’t until November 2020 that city and state investigators connected with her to acquire the evidence.

“The Daily Beast has obtained some of the records that, according to Ms. Weisselberg and her lawyer, have proved pivotal to last week’s indictment of the Trump Organization CFO.”

Barry Weisselberg was also instrumental in helping get his father indicted, though he didn’t know it when he sat for a deposition during divorce proceedings:

Allen Weisselberg paid more than $50,000 each year for his grandchildren to attend a prestigious private school, and he did so for at least six years. And that’s where the Donald Trump connection comes into play:

“New York investigators would later ask Jennifer Weisselberg about that financial arrangement, according to two people in the room. They said prosecutors’ eyes widened when she explained that Trump himself would sign a check that she would hand deliver to the school.”

Those facts were mentioned in the indictments unsealed in court last week:

“That detail made its way into page seven of last week’s indictment: ‘as part of the scheme to defraud, Trump Corporation personnel, including Weisselberg, arranged for tuition expenses for Weisselberg’s family members to be paid by personal checks drawn on the account of and signed by Donald J. Trump.'”

The checks written by Trump were employee compensation and should have been taxed. They weren’t.

Additionally, the indictments against the Trump Organization and Weisselberg lay out how Trump also paid for luxury apartments provided to members of the Weisselberg family. And those also wound up in the filing:

There are more fireworks (and indictments) on the way. Some will come from the Manhattan DA and others from New York Attorney General Letitia James:

“The Manhattan District Attorney and New York Attorney General, which have struck a rare partnership to prosecute this together, have hinted that there’s more to come. Questions asked of witnesses, who spoke to The Daily Beast on condition of anonymity, show that investigators are interested in other executives as well.

“And as the current case centers on questions about untaxed ‘fringe benefits,’ the DA and AG will have to prove who tweaked salaries—and whether they knew about tax rules.”

Remember when Trump debated Hillary Clinton back in 2016 and she accused him of not paying taxes? He proudly declared:

“That makes me smart.”

It also makes him a co-conspirator in a financial crime that could send him to prison for the remainder of his life.

How smart are you now, Donald?

Categories
Crime Donald Trump The Trump Organization

Trump Dumps Weisselberg From One Of His Companies As Prosecutors Prepare More Indictments

As prosecutors in New York continue to present evidence to a special grand jury empaneled to issue indictments in the case against former President Donald Trump and his company, the Trump Organization, we get news that Allen Weisselberg, the chief financial officer of the ex-president’s corporation, has been removed as director of a business subsidiary located in Scotland.

Business Insider reports:

“Allen Weisselberg, the Trump Organization’s chief financial officer, was terminated as the director and controller of one of former President Donald Trump’s golf courses in Scotland a week after the executive and the company were charged with tax crimes.

“A notice filed on Thursday with Companies House, the UK registry of private companies, showed that Weisselberg had been terminated as a director of Trump International Golf Club Scotland, a holding company that owns Trump’s Aberdeenshire golf resort, Trump International Golf Links.

“He was also terminated as a ‘person with significant control,’ a designation for an individual with influence over how a company is run, another notice said.”

The remaining directors of the golf club in Scotland are Eric and Donald Trump Jr., the former president’s two sons. And Don Jr. is now the “sole person with significant control.”

Why would Trump suddenly give Weisselberg the boot from the company that controls his Scottish golf club? It would seem the reason is to distance himself from Weisselberg now that he’s been indicted and is being pressed by investigators to cooperate and tell what he knows about possible crimes committed by members of the Trump family.

More indictments are certain, according to former federal prosecutor Glenn Kirschner, who wrote in an op-ed for MSNBC:

“There are also several indicators that more criminal charges will follow. In May, District Attorney Cy Vance convened a special, six-month grand jury to hear evidence in the Trump investigation. Ordinarily, New York grand juries sit for only four weeks. Vance’s special grand jury will continue to serve until November and it’s hard to believe that this indictment, issued at the beginning of their special six-month term, will be their only indictment. Moreover, New York State Attorney General Letitia James, who has partnered with Vance in the Trump investigation, pointedly stated after the issuance of the indictment that their investigation continues.”

Clearly, Trump is running scared, and his attempt to put Weisselberg as far away from him as possible is a sure sign that he knows there’s more bad news coming soon.