Washington:
A New York judge on Friday fined Donald Trump’s family business the maximum of $1.6 million for committing tax fraud.
The amount, negligible for the billionaire real estate developer, is symbolically important as the former president looks to retake the White House amid legal woes.
Trump Corporation and Trump Payroll Corp, entities of the Trump Organization, were found guilty last month of running a years-long scheme to defraud and evade taxes through false business records.
After a trial he was convicted on all 17 counts, the first time the companies were convicted of crimes.
Trump himself was not charged, but the verdict further damaged his reputation as he seeks the Republican nomination for president in 2024.
Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg said, “While corporations cannot serve jail time, this resulting conviction and sentence serves as a reminder to corporations and authorities that you cannot cheat the tax authorities and that can survive.”
The Trump Organization, which is currently run by Trump’s two adult sons, Donald Jr. and Eric, hid compensation paid to top executives between 2005 and 2021.
Longtime CFO Alan Weiselberg was sentenced Tuesday to five months in prison for his role in the scandal and agreed to pay $2 million in fines.
He pleaded guilty to receiving undisclosed benefits from the company such as rent-free apartments in posh neighbourhoods, luxury cars for him and his wife and his grandson’s fees at an expensive private school.
The 75-year-old admitted 15 counts of tax fraud and testified against the Trump Organization as part of a plea bargain. He did not implicate Trump during the trial.
Trump labeled the Manhattan District Attorney’s case a “witch hunt” and claimed that Wesselberg acted alone.
civil suit
Friday’s sentencing does not end the legal troubles of the former president, who has been repeatedly accused of breaking the law.
Trump was impeached twice while President from 2017-2021, in the first case for abuse of power and obstruction of justice, and in the second case for inciting insurrection, by his followers on the US Congress on January 6, After the attack of 2021.
In December, the Congressional investigation of January 6 concluded that he should be tried for insurrection and conspiracy to betray the United States.
Trump is also under investigation for illegally keeping highly classified documents at his Florida Mar-a-Lago home and obstructing the investigation of the case.
In the state of Georgia, he faced possible impeachment for interfering with voting in the state during the November 2012 election, in which Trump lost to President Joe Biden.
And in New York, state Attorney General Letitia James has filed a civil suit against Trump and his three children, accusing them of fraud by overvaluing assets to secure loans and then underpaying taxes. Underestimated them.
James is seeking $250 million in fines as well as barring Trump and his children from serving as officers in companies in New York.
(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and was auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)