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Supreme Court Won't Halt Turnover Of Trump's Tax Records


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Reuters

Accountant faces pressure to turn on Trump in criminal probe

Joseph Tanfani and Jason Szep
Sun, March 7, 2021, 11:54 AM
 
 

By Joseph Tanfani and Jason Szep

(Reuters) - When lawyers asked Donald Trump more than a decade ago to identify who estimated values on some of his signature properties, he shrugged and pointed to his longtime accountant, Allen Weisselberg.

“I think ultimately probably Mr. Weisselberg,” he said, testifying in 2007 in a defamation lawsuit he brought against a journalist, a case that hinged on whether Trump had inflated the value of his business empire. “I never got too much involved, other than I would give my opinion.”

A judge dismissed that suit, but Trump’s comments illustrate the challenges now facing Weisselberg, 73, as he comes under scrutiny in Manhattan District Attorney Cy Vance’s investigation into whether the former U.S. president and his Trump Organization committed financial crimes.

Few people have been as deeply involved in Trump’s finances as Weisselberg, a trusted figure in Trump’s family business who began working for Trump’s father, Fred, in 1973 at the company’s Brooklyn office, paying bills and tracking the rental payments from apartment towers.

Legal experts and a source familiar with the criminal investigation say prosecutors’ apparent goal is to convince Weisselberg to cooperate with the probe into Trump’s dealings.

“They want him to turn,” said the person familiar with the investigation.

A spokesman for Vance declined to comment. Lawyers for Weisselberg and Trump did not respond to requests for comment.

The Manhattan district attorney said in an August filing that the office is investigating “possibly extensive and protracted criminal conduct” at the Trump Organization, though he has not fully disclosed the scope of the probe. In a September filing, he said “mountainous” misconduct allegations could justify a grand jury probe into possible tax fraud, insurance fraud and falsifying business records.

Vance’s office and a separate civil probe by New York Attorney General Letitia James are both examining whether Trump misrepresented the value of his assets for tax benefits, among other potential violations.

Weisselberg’s unique position in the Trump Organization puts him among a small number of people who could provide prosecutors with crucial evidence of intent to commit fraud. Legal experts say Trump may try to put distance between himself and any controversial valuations of his properties and businesses by citing Weisselberg’s role as financial gatekeeper, as he did in the 2007 defamation case.

“It may very well be that Weisselberg will be Trump’s defense in a criminal case,” said Michael Bachner, a defense attorney who once worked as a prosecutor with Vance in the Manhattan office.

If Trump argues that he merely relied on the advice of his accountants and lawyers, Weisselberg could be in the position of having to take the heat himself for any potentially fraudulent dealings, Bachner said - unless the accountant makes a deal with prosecutors and implicates Trump.

“If I’m Trump, I’ve got to be nervous about this,” he said.

The source familiar with the investigation said that, in addition to scrutinizing Weisselberg, prosecutors also asked questions about his sons, who also had connections with Trump: Jack Weisselberg, a director at Ladder Capital - a real estate investment firm that’s been a creditor for four Trump properties - and Barry Weisselberg, who managed skating rinks under Trump contracts with New York City.

Ladder Capital did not respond to requests for comment. Other Ladder executives, but not Jack Weisselberg, appear on loan documents involving Trump.

Jack and Barry Weisselberg did not respond to requests for comment.

UNIQUE POSITION OF TRUST

On March 1, after the U.S. Supreme Court denied Trump's last-ditch effort to keep his tax records private, Vance’s office obtained millions of pages of records on Trump’s taxes and finances. His office has also added a prosecutor experienced in organized crime and corruption, Mark Pomerantz, to the Trump investigation team, and interviewed staff at Ladder Capital.

As the Trump Organization’s chief financial officer and executive vice president, Weisselberg developed a unique position of trust with Trump, according to interviews with four former Trump Organization officials. The accountant handled Trump’s personal finances as well as the company’s most sensitive financial information, the officials said.

Barbara Res, Trump’s former construction manager, said Weisselberg was part of the Trump family’s inner circle, but he kept an unassuming profile. “He was the only one of the executives who would refer to Donald as Mr. Trump,” she said. “He was that kind of guy.”

Res said Trump trusted Weisselberg as a pair of eyes to make sure Trump’s other accountants and lawyers were doing their jobs. “Allen wouldn’t go outside the company,” she said. “Allen wouldn’t talk; Allen could be trusted to keep things quiet.”

When Trump’s former lawyer and fixer, Michael Cohen, arranged for a hush-money payment to porn actress Stormy Daniels, Weisselberg was involved in cutting the checks, Cohen testified in a February 2019 hearing held by a committee of the U.S. House of Representatives. Weisselberg obtained limited immunity from federal prosecutors to provide information in the investigation that targeted Cohen; he was not charged with wrongdoing. Cohen pleaded guilty to tax evasion and campaign finance violations.

Vance could seek a court order granting him access to Weisselberg’s testimony in the federal case against Cohen, legal experts said.

During the 2019 committee hearing, Cohen identified Weisselberg as one of the Trump executives who knew that Trump inflated assets in statements to insurance companies for the purpose of reducing premiums. In response to questions from Democratic Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Cohen said he could not confirm a New York Times report on whether Trump under-reported values on inherited real estate to reduce his taxes.

“Who would know the answers to those questions?” she asked.

“Allen Weisselberg,” Cohen said.

 

https://www.yahoo.com/news/accountant-faces-pressure-turn-trump-165346952.html

 

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I would like to see pressure put on the Clinton’s, Biden’s, Kerry’s, Obama’s, Comey’s, Pelosi’s, Schummer’s, and many more Democrats tax accountants and personal attorneys to see if they are hiding anything.   

 

The political which hunts are fine with me with me as long as they are applied to both Party’s and are not a form of blackmail or revenge.  The unfair application is very third world and a complete disgrace in a Free Republic.  

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7 minutes ago, Pitcher said:

I would like to see pressure put on the Clinton’s, Biden’s, Kerry’s, Obama’s, Comey’s, Pelosi’s, Schummer’s, and many more Democrats tax accountants and personal attorneys to see if they are hiding anything.   

 

The political which hunts are fine with me with me as long as they are applied to both Party’s and are not a form of blackmail or revenge.  The unfair application is very third world and a complete disgrace in a Free Republic.  

 

Absolutely.....nobody is above the law.

 

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Associated Press

Claimed value of sleepy NY estate could come to haunt Trump

MICHAEL R. SISAK
Mon, March 8, 2021, 1:00 AM
 
 

NEW YORK (AP) — It’s sleepy by Donald Trump’s standards, but the former president's century-old estate in New York's Westchester County could end up being one of his bigger legal nightmares.

Seven Springs, a 213-acre swath of nature surrounding a Georgian-style mansion, is a subject of two state investigations: a criminal probe by Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr. and a civil inquiry by New York Attorney General Letitia James.

Both investigations focus on whether Trump manipulated the property's value to reap greater tax benefits from an environmental conservation arrangement he made at the end of 2015, while running for president.

Purchased by Trump in 1995 for $7.5 million, Seven Springs drew renewed scrutiny as he prepared to leave office and was on the cusp of losing legal protections he had as president. Vance issued new subpoenas in mid-December, and a judge ordered evidence to be turned over to James' office nine days after Trump departed Washington.

Other Trump legal woes, such as inquiries into his attempts to influence election officials and payments made on his behalf to women alleging affairs, have dominated the headlines. But former Manhattan prosecutor Duncan Levin said white-collar investigators go wherever the paper trail leads.

“While a tax issue related to a conservation arrangement might not be as sexy as a hush-money payment, prosecutors are likely to focus on any violation of law that they find,” Levin said. “Remember, the authorities got Al Capone on tax evasion.”

Seven Springs is an outlier in a Trump real estate portfolio filled with glossy high-rises and gold-plated amenities. It is listed on his website as a family retreat, although Trump hasn’t been there in more than four years.

At the heart of the estate is the mansion built as a summer getaway in 1919 by Eugene Meyer, who went on to become Federal Reserve chairman and owner of The Washington Post. In 2006, while pushing a plan to build luxury homes on the property near Mount Kisco, Trump floated the idea that he and his family were going to move into the mansion, but that never happened.

Brand new, the 28,322-square-foot dwelling featured more than a dozen bedrooms, an indoor swimming pool, a bowling alley and a tennis court. Meyer's daughter, the late Washington Post publisher Katharine Graham, was married at Seven Springs in 1940.

In her memoir “Personal History,” Graham described ambivalent emotions about going there, writing: “The older I got, the more I disliked the loneliness of the farm, but in my childhood days, it was, as I wrote my father when I was 10, ‘a great old Place.’”

At one point, Meyer owned about 700 acres. A philanthropic foundation established by him and his wife, Agnes, gifted 247 acres to the Nature Conservancy and the remaining land and buildings that made up Seven Springs to Yale University in 1973, after Agnes Meyer's death.

The estate changed hands again when the foundation took it back from Yale and operated a conference center there before passing the real estate holdings to Rockefeller University, which eventually sold it to Trump.

Trump paid about $2.25 million under the list price for Seven Springs, acquiring the land as part of an effort to jumpstart his fortunes after a series of failures in the early 1990s, including casino bankruptcies and the sale of his money-losing Trump Shuttle airline.

Trump envisioned transforming it into his first championship-caliber golf course, with an exclusive clientele and lofty membership fees.

He hired an architecture firm to plot fairways and greens but abandoned the effort when residents voiced concerns that lawn chemicals would contaminate neighboring Byram Lake, a local source of drinking water.

Trump’s then tried building houses. He proposed putting up 46 single-family homes, and after that plan also met community opposition, 15 mansion-sized dwellings which he described in 2004 as “super-high-end residential, the likes of which has never been seen on the East Coast.” The project was held up by years of litigation and no homes were ever built.

In 2009, Trump made a splash by allowing Libyan dictator Moammar Gadhafi to pitch his Bedouin-style tent on the Seven Springs property north of New York City because he had no other place to stay for a U.N. visit.

Trump initially suggested he didn’t know Gaddafi was involved, but later conceded he “made a lot of money” renting the land to the Libyan leader. Local officials halted work on the tent and Gaddafi never stayed there.

His development plans dashed, Trump opted for a strategy that would allow him to keep the property but reduce his taxes. He granted an easement to a conservation land trust to preserve 158 acres (60 hectares) of meadows and mature forest.

Trump received a $21 million income tax deduction, equal to the value of the conserved land, according to property and court records. The amount was based on a professional appraisal that valued the full Seven Springs property at $56.5 million as of Dec. 1, 2015.

That was a much higher amount that the evaluation by local government assessors, who said the entire estate was worth $20 million.

Michael Colangelo, a lawyer in the New York attorney general's office, outlined the central question involving the Seven Springs easement at a hearing last year regarding a dispute over evidence.

“If the value of the easement was improperly inflated, who obtained the benefit from that improper inflation and in what amounts?” Colangelo said. “It goes without saying that the attorney general needs to see the records that would reflect the value of that deduction, as it flowed up to intermediate entities, and ultimately to Mr. Trump, personally.”

A message seeking comment was left with Trump’s spokesperson. In the past, the Republican ex-president has decried the investigations as part of a “witch hunt.”

Seven Springs caught investigators’ attention after Trump’s longtime personal lawyer and fixer Michael Cohen told a congressional committee in 2019 that Trump had a habit of manipulating property values — inflating them in some cases and minimizing them in others to gain favorable loan terms and tax benefits.

Cohen testified that Trump had financial statements saying Seven Springs was worth $291 million as of 2012. He gave copies of three of Trump's financial statements to the House Committee on Oversight and Reform during his testimony.

Cohen said the statements, from 2011, 2012 and 2013, were ones Trump gave to his main lender, Deutsche Bank, to inquire about a loan to buy the NFL's Buffalo Bills and to Forbes magazine to substantiate his claim to a place on its list of the world's wealthiest people.

Trump, on his annual financial disclosure forms while president, said the property was worth between $25 million and $50 million.

New York's attorney general was first to act. James issued subpoenas to commercial real estate services firm Cushman & Wakefield for records relating to its assessment work on Trump’s behalf; to law firms that worked on the Seven Springs project; and to Trump’s company, the Trump Organization, for records relating to its annual financial statements and the conservation easement.

James also subpoenaed zoning and planning records in 2019 from the three towns Seven Springs spans, Bedford, North Castle and New Castle. Vance followed with his own subpoenas in December. One town clerk said investigators were given “boxes and boxes of documents” in response. They included tax statements, surveying maps, environmental studies and planning board meeting minutes.

James’ investigators have interviewed Trump’s son, Eric Trump, an executive vice president at the Trump Organization and the president of the limited liability company through which it owns Seven Springs; Trump’s chief financial officer, Allen Weisselberg; and lawyers Trump hired for the Seven Springs project who specialize in land-use and federal tax controversies.

The investigators have yet to determine whether any law was broken.

Vance, who like James is a Democrat, hasn’t disclosed much about his criminal probe, in part because of grand jury secrecy rules. The district attorney's office has said in court papers that it is focusing on public reports of “extensive and protracted criminal conduct at the Trump Organization.”

Documents filed in connection with the criminal investigation — buoyed by a U.S. Supreme Court ruling last month granting Vance access to Trump’s tax records — have listed Seven Springs among possible targets.

Along with the mansion, Seven Springs has a Tudor-style home once owned by ketchup magnate H.J. Heinz, and smaller carriage houses that Trump’s adult sons, Donald Jr. and Eric, have said served as “home base” when they visited the estate to hike and ride ATVs.

During his presidency, Trump himself opted for higher-profile properties like his Bedminster, New Jersey golf course and his Mar-a-Lago club in Florida, where he’s been living since leaving the White House.

The New York Times reported last year that Trump’s tax records showed he classified the estate not as a personal residence but an investment property, enabling him to write off more than $2 million in property taxes since 2014.

 

https://www.yahoo.com/news/claimed-value-sleepy-ny-estate-060012439.html

 

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18 minutes ago, boomhand86 said:

Trump could sell all his real estate and not be homeless.. he lives rent free in a lot of people's heads

 

You are NOT referring to The True The United States Of America Patriot (now former) President Donald J Trump's "favorite" "one" "son" NOW are YOU, Boomhand86???!!!

 

Donald Trump Winning - Rent Free - Imgflip

 

Say it isn't SO, Boomhand86!!!

 

THEE "favorite" "one" "son" DISAGREES!!!

 

 

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Reuters

Trump’s former fixer Michael Cohen to meet again with Manhattan DA in Trump probe

d57c27500b15eed390db3cf0cac0f103
 
Michael Cohen arrives at his Manhattan apartment in New York City
 
Roselle Chen
Wed, March 10, 2021, 1:02 PM
 
 

By Roselle Chen

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Donald Trump’s former lawyer and fixer, Michael Cohen, said he would go in for a seventh interview on Wednesday with the Manhattan district attorney’s office pursuing a criminal investigation into the former U.S. president.

In a brief interview with Reuters, he likened a March 1 U.S. Supreme Court decision denying Trump's last-ditch effort to keep his tax records private to the “holy grail” for Manhattan District Attorney Cy Vance Jr.'s investigation into whether the Trump Organization committed financial crimes.

After that ruling, Vance’s office obtained millions of pages of records from Trump's accountants at Mazars USA LLP, including tax returns and the business records on which they are based, and communications between the Trump Organization and its accountants.

 

Cohen declined to comment on what he expected to discuss in Wednesday’s meeting with Vance’s office, which would be conducted virtually because of the coronavirus pandemic.

The Manhattan district attorney said in an August filing that the office is investigating “possibly extensive and protracted criminal conduct” at the Trump Organization, though he has not fully disclosed the scope of the probe. In a September filing, he said “mountainous” misconduct allegations could justify a grand jury probe into possible tax fraud, insurance fraud and falsification of business records.

In court filings, the Trump Organization has denied wrongdoing. Trump, a Republican, has described the New York investigations as politically motivated. Vance is a Democrat.

Cohen, who had described himself as Trump’s longtime, do-anything fixer, is in home confinement serving a three-year sentence on charges related to payoffs he made during the 2016 presidential race to buy the silence of two women who alleged they had affairs with Trump.

The interview with Reuters was conducted on Wednesday outside his Manhattan apartment building while he was out for a walk allowed under the terms of his home confinement.

Vance opened the investigation in 2018 to examine the alleged hush-money payments. The probe has since expanded to include Trump’s conduct as a private business owner and whether the Trump Organization engaged in criminal tax evasion among other charges.

 

https://www.yahoo.com/news/trump-former-fixer-michael-cohen-180214802.html

 

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HuffPost

John Dean Warns Trump That Prosecutors Are Closing In: 'Only A Matter Of Days'

 
 
Ed Mazza
·Overnight Editor, HuffPost
Thu, March 11, 2021, 4:41 AM
 
 
 

John Dean, the White House counsel to President Richard M. Nixon who was once dubbed the “master manipulator” of the Watergate scandal, says he knows legal trouble and former President Donald Trump is in it deep.

Dean shared a report on former Trump personal attorney Michael Cohen, who has been meeting with the Manhattan district attorney’s office, which is investigating Trump for potential fraud, including tax fraud. It was Cohen’s seventh meeting with the DA’s office.

Dean pointed out on Twitter the significance of all those meetings:

 

The DA’s office last month obtained years of tax data from Trump’s accounting firm after the Supreme Court ruled against his efforts to block that access. In an interview with Reuters, Cohen called those files the “holy grail.”

Cohen was Trump’s longtime personal attorney and fixer before turning on him in 2018 and testifying before Congress. He also pleaded guilty to lying to Congress and campaign finance violations for arranging the hush-money payments from Trump to porn star Stormy Daniels and former Playboy model Karen McDougal.

Cohen was sentenced to three years in prison but was released into home confinement last year due to the coronavirus pandemic.

 

https://www.yahoo.com/huffpost/john-dean-trump-matter-of-days-094145978.html

 

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Business Insider

Manhattan DA's probe ramps up, placing new scrutiny on Trump's debt-ridden New York properties

Joshua Zitser
Sat, March 13, 2021, 7:55 AM·2 min read
 
 
trump tower debt buildings
 
Banks have now placed three of the four of former President Donald Trump's real estate holdings on debt "watch lists," CBS News said. Getty Images
  • The Manhattan DA probe into former President Donald Trump is heating up, Insider reported on Friday.

  • The investigation is placing new scrutiny on Trump's commercial properties.

  • Banks have placed three of the former president's buildings on debt "watch lists," CBS News said.

As Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr.'s probe into former President Donald Trump steps up a gear, four of Trump's New York properties have come under renewed scrutiny.

Trump Tower, Trump International Hotel and Tower, 40 Wall Street, and Trump Plaza have missed lenders' earning projections for five consecutive years, CBS News reported.

Banks have now placed three of the four real estate holdings on debt "watch lists," the media outlet said.

 

Mortgage-payment processors have flagged the loans tied to these three properties due to consistent financial underperformance, CBS said.

Wells Fargo and other banks have told investors that reduced incomes on these holdings, due partly to the COVID-19 pandemic, could result in the properties not generating enough money to cover their mortgage payments, CBS News reported.

In addition to presenting Trump with financial troubles, investigations into these properties could also pose legal challenges.

The Manhattan District Attorney's office has subpoenaed a New York property tax agency as part of the broad criminal probe, Reuters reported. Prosecutors are looking for signs of possible fraud, the media outlet said.

While Vance's sprawling probe's exact scope is not known, court filings suggest that he could be looking into whether Trump and the Trump Organization violated New York laws by manipulating the values of these commercial properties for tax and loan purposes.

The wide-ranging investigation into whether Trump or his businesses violated state tax laws could be reaching its conclusion imminently, Insider reported on Friday.

John Dean, President Richard Nixon's White House counsel who played a major role in the Watergate scandal, said on Twitter that Trump could be indicted in just a matter of days.

 

"From personal experience as a key witness, I assure you that you do not visit a prosecutor's office 7 times if they are not planning to indict those about whom you have knowledge," Dean's tweet said.

This refers to Michael Cohen, Trump's former personal attorney, meeting with prosecutors for the seventh time this week. His latest meeting lasted for over two hours, NBC News reported.

Cohen, who was sentenced to three years in prison after pleading guilty to several felonies, has previously testified to Congress about Trump's alleged financial mismanagement. In the 2019 testimony, Cohen said that Trump had manipulated the value of assets "when it served his purposes."

 

https://news.yahoo.com/manhattan-das-probe-ramps-placing-125510312.html

 

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1 hour ago, Shabibilicious said:
Business Insider

Manhattan DA's probe ramps up, placing new scrutiny on Trump's debt-ridden New York properties

Joshua Zitser
Sat, March 13, 2021, 7:55 AM·2 min read
 
 
trump tower debt buildings
 
Banks have now placed three of the four of former President Donald Trump's real estate holdings on debt "watch lists," CBS News said. Getty Images
  • The Manhattan DA probe into former President Donald Trump is heating up, Insider reported on Friday.

  • The investigation is placing new scrutiny on Trump's commercial properties.

  • Banks have placed three of the former president's buildings on debt "watch lists," CBS News said.

As Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr.'s probe into former President Donald Trump steps up a gear, four of Trump's New York properties have come under renewed scrutiny.

Trump Tower, Trump International Hotel and Tower, 40 Wall Street, and Trump Plaza have missed lenders' earning projections for five consecutive years, CBS News reported.

Banks have now placed three of the four real estate holdings on debt "watch lists," the media outlet said.

 

Mortgage-payment processors have flagged the loans tied to these three properties due to consistent financial underperformance, CBS said.

Wells Fargo and other banks have told investors that reduced incomes on these holdings, due partly to the COVID-19 pandemic, could result in the properties not generating enough money to cover their mortgage payments, CBS News reported.

In addition to presenting Trump with financial troubles, investigations into these properties could also pose legal challenges.

The Manhattan District Attorney's office has subpoenaed a New York property tax agency as part of the broad criminal probe, Reuters reported. Prosecutors are looking for signs of possible fraud, the media outlet said.

While Vance's sprawling probe's exact scope is not known, court filings suggest that he could be looking into whether Trump and the Trump Organization violated New York laws by manipulating the values of these commercial properties for tax and loan purposes.

The wide-ranging investigation into whether Trump or his businesses violated state tax laws could be reaching its conclusion imminently, Insider reported on Friday.

John Dean, President Richard Nixon's White House counsel who played a major role in the Watergate scandal, said on Twitter that Trump could be indicted in just a matter of days.

 

"From personal experience as a key witness, I assure you that you do not visit a prosecutor's office 7 times if they are not planning to indict those about whom you have knowledge," Dean's tweet said.

This refers to Michael Cohen, Trump's former personal attorney, meeting with prosecutors for the seventh time this week. His latest meeting lasted for over two hours, NBC News reported.

Cohen, who was sentenced to three years in prison after pleading guilty to several felonies, has previously testified to Congress about Trump's alleged financial mismanagement. In the 2019 testimony, Cohen said that Trump had manipulated the value of assets "when it served his purposes."

 

https://news.yahoo.com/manhattan-das-probe-ramps-placing-125510312.html

 

GO RV, then BV

 

Considering that NY has been one of the most shut down States for the past year is it surprising that Trumps hospitality businesses would be hurting......?

 

Kind of a foolish article.....have to wonder how Trumps businesses are doing compared to other similar businesses?    CL 

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Business Insider

Trump's CFO's ex-daughter-in-law is cooperating with prosecutors and 'refuses to be silenced,' her lawyer says

 
 
Jacob Shamsian
Mon, March 15, 2021, 5:16 PM
 
 
donald trump jr allen weisselberg
 
Donald Trump along with Allen Weisselberg in 2017. TIMOTHY A. CLARY/AFP via Getty Images
  • Jennifer Weisselberg is cooperating with an investigation into Trump's finances, her lawyer says.

  • She's the ex-daughter-in-law of Allen Weisselberg, the Trump Org CFO the DA wants to "flip."

  • "Jennifer refuses to be silenced any longer," her lawyer told Insider in a statement.

An attorney representing the former daughter-in-law of the Trump Organization CFO Allen Weisselberg says she's cooperating with prosecutors conducting an inquiry into Donald Trump's finances and "refuses to be silenced."

"Jennifer Weisselberg is committed to speaking the truth, no matter how difficult that may be," her attorney, Duncan Levin, told Insider in a statement. "She will continue to cooperate fully with the various law enforcement agencies that are investigating her ex-husband's family and the very powerful interests they represent."

"Jennifer refuses to be silenced any longer by those who are conspiring to prevent her from sharing what she has learned over the past 25 years," Levin added.

Video: Watch the implosion of Trump's failed casino

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
602d9483ae808b446a5a0858_o_U_v2.jpg
Scroll back up to restore default view.

Levin's comments come in response to a request for comment Friday about a New Yorker story on Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr.'s investigation into the former president and the Trump Organization. The story includes an anecdote from Jennifer Weisselberg, who told the New Yorker's Jane Mayer she met Trump at a shiva and that he shared photos of naked women at the Jewish mourning ceremony.

The Manhattan District Attorney's office is conducting a wide-ranging inquiry into Trump and his company. Court filings suggest prosecutors are focusing on whether they illegally kept two sets of books - one that painted a rosy financial picture to obtain favorable loan terms, another featuring grim data to pay less in taxes.

A major subject of the investigation is Allen Weisselberg, who for decades has been the chief financial officer of the Trump Organization and the personal bookkeeper of the Trump family. The Washington Post reported prosecutors are trying to "flip" Weisselberg into cooperating with the investigation.

Jennifer Weisselberg divorced Allen Weisselberg's son Barry in 2018. The couple received an apartment as a gift from Trump when they married in 2004, but Barry Weisselberg may have skipped out on paying taxes on it by categorizing it incorrectly in his tax filings, according to Bloomberg News. That apartment - as well as other numerous financial entanglements between the Weisselberg and Trump families - appear to be at the center of the effort to flip Weisselberg into cooperating.

Vance appears to be approaching the final stages of his investigation into Trump. He will retire at the end of 2021, he announced Friday.

"I'm sure he is absolutely pressing to have a decision made on whether to prosecute anyone, whom to prosecute, and for what charges, by the end of the year," Daniel R. Alonso, a former top Vance deputy, told Insider Friday.

 

https://www.yahoo.com/news/trumps-cfos-ex-daughter-law-211626645.html

 

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7 minutes ago, Shabibilicious said:
Business Insider

Trump's CFO's ex-daughter-in-law is cooperating with prosecutors and 'refuses to be silenced,' her lawyer says

 
 
Jacob Shamsian
Mon, March 15, 2021, 5:16 PM
 
 
donald trump jr allen weisselberg
 
Donald Trump along with Allen Weisselberg in 2017. TIMOTHY A. CLARY/AFP via Getty Images
  • Jennifer Weisselberg is cooperating with an investigation into Trump's finances, her lawyer says.

  • She's the ex-daughter-in-law of Allen Weisselberg, the Trump Org CFO the DA wants to "flip."

  • "Jennifer refuses to be silenced any longer," her lawyer told Insider in a statement.

An attorney representing the former daughter-in-law of the Trump Organization CFO Allen Weisselberg says she's cooperating with prosecutors conducting an inquiry into Donald Trump's finances and "refuses to be silenced."

"Jennifer Weisselberg is committed to speaking the truth, no matter how difficult that may be," her attorney, Duncan Levin, told Insider in a statement. "She will continue to cooperate fully with the various law enforcement agencies that are investigating her ex-husband's family and the very powerful interests they represent."

"Jennifer refuses to be silenced any longer by those who are conspiring to prevent her from sharing what she has learned over the past 25 years," Levin added.

Video: Watch the implosion of Trump's failed casino

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
602d9483ae808b446a5a0858_o_U_v2.jpg
Scroll back up to restore default view.

Levin's comments come in response to a request for comment Friday about a New Yorker story on Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr.'s investigation into the former president and the Trump Organization. The story includes an anecdote from Jennifer Weisselberg, who told the New Yorker's Jane Mayer she met Trump at a shiva and that he shared photos of naked women at the Jewish mourning ceremony.

The Manhattan District Attorney's office is conducting a wide-ranging inquiry into Trump and his company. Court filings suggest prosecutors are focusing on whether they illegally kept two sets of books - one that painted a rosy financial picture to obtain favorable loan terms, another featuring grim data to pay less in taxes.

A major subject of the investigation is Allen Weisselberg, who for decades has been the chief financial officer of the Trump Organization and the personal bookkeeper of the Trump family. The Washington Post reported prosecutors are trying to "flip" Weisselberg into cooperating with the investigation.

Jennifer Weisselberg divorced Allen Weisselberg's son Barry in 2018. The couple received an apartment as a gift from Trump when they married in 2004, but Barry Weisselberg may have skipped out on paying taxes on it by categorizing it incorrectly in his tax filings, according to Bloomberg News. That apartment - as well as other numerous financial entanglements between the Weisselberg and Trump families - appear to be at the center of the effort to flip Weisselberg into cooperating.

Vance appears to be approaching the final stages of his investigation into Trump. He will retire at the end of 2021, he announced Friday.

"I'm sure he is absolutely pressing to have a decision made on whether to prosecute anyone, whom to prosecute, and for what charges, by the end of the year," Daniel R. Alonso, a former top Vance deputy, told Insider Friday.

 

https://www.yahoo.com/news/trumps-cfos-ex-daughter-law-211626645.html

 

GO RV, then BV

Seems like they have to dig really deep to get someone to flip, I wonder how much it’s costing them ?

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Associated Press

Trump's taxes in hand, Manhattan DA's probe heats up

FILE - In this Feb. 14, 2020 file photo, Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr., center, leaves Harvey Weinstein's rape trial at Criminal Court, in New York. Vance, leading a criminal probe into Donald Trump's business dealings, said Friday, March 12, 2021, he would not seek re-election. (AP Photo/Bebeto Matthews)

Manhattan Prosecutor

FILE - In this Feb. 14, 2020 file photo, Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr., center, leaves Harvey Weinstein's rape trial at Criminal Court, in New York. Vance, leading a criminal probe into Donald Trump's business dealings, said Friday, March 12, 2021, he would not seek re-election. (AP Photo/Bebeto Matthews)
 
JIM MUSTIAN and MICHAEL R. SISAK
Wed, March 17, 2021, 6:46 PM
 
 

NEW YORK (AP) — With former President Donald Trump’s tax returns finally in hand, a team of New York prosecutors led by a newly hired former mob-buster is sending out fresh subpoenas and meeting face-to-face with key witnesses, scrutinizing Trump's business practices in granular detail.

Amid the swirl of activity, the Manhattan district attorney's office is scheduled Friday to meet again with Trump's longtime former personal lawyer Michael Cohen, according to a person familiar with the investigation.

It would be the eighth time he has spoken with investigators working for District Attorney Cyrus R. Vance Jr., dating to Cohen's time in federal prison for tax evasion and campaign finance violations.

The person familiar with the inquiry wasn’t authorized to speak publicly about the interview and spoke to The Associated Press on the condition of anonymity.

 

In a recent interview with Cohen, investigators asked questions about Trump's Seven Springs estate as part of an inquiry into whether the value of the 213-acre Westchester County property was improperly inflated to reduce his taxes.

Investigators asked Cohen about individuals involved in the appraisal of the estate and benefits derived from its valuation, including a $21 million income tax deduction.

Cohen was released to home confinement last year amid coronavirus fears, and his recent meetings have been conducted via video conference.

Vance's office declined to comment, as did Cohen's lawyer, Lanny Davis. A message seeking comment was sent to the Trump Organization.

Vance announced last week that he would leave office at the end of the year and not seek reelection, but in a memo to staff, he stressed that the investigation wouldn't stop.

“The work continues,” Vance wrote, echoing his short statement after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled last month that he could have Trump's tax records.

Vance recently hired former mafia prosecutor Mark Pomerantz — who, as a federal prosecutor, oversaw the prosecution of Gambino crime boss John Gotti — as a special assistant district attorney to assist in the wide-ranging probe of Trump's finances.

The inquiry, according to court filings, includes an examination of whether Trump or his businesses lied about the value of assets to gain favorable loan terms and tax benefits. The district attorney also is scrutinizing hush-money payments paid to women on Trump’s behalf.

After a lengthy legal battle, his office is now in possession of eight years of Trump’s tax records, including final and draft versions of tax returns, source documents containing raw financial data and other financial records held by his accounting firm.

Vance’s focus on Seven Springs involves an environmental conservation arrangement Trump made in return for a tax deduction at the end of 2015, following failed attempts to turn the property into a golf course and luxury homes.

Trump granted an easement to a conservation land trust to preserve 158 acres (60 hectares) and received a $21 million income tax deduction, equal to the value of the conserved land, according to records. The amount was based on a professional appraisal that valued the full Seven Springs property at $56.5 million as of Dec. 1, 2015.

That was a much higher amount than the evaluation by local government assessors, who said the entire estate was worth $20 million. Trump bought the property, including a palatial Georgian-style mansion that once belonged to the family of newspaper publisher Katharine Graham, for $7.5 million in 1995.

In a sign of prosecutors' deepening interest in Seven Springs, Vance's office has sent new subpoenas in recent weeks to local governments in the towns the property spans — Bedford, North Castle and New Castle — following up on an initial round of subpoenas issued in mid-December.

Vance's office has also subpoenaed material from people who worked on projects to develop the property for Trump, including an engineer who said his duties involved presenting plans to the local planning board.

The engineer, Ralph Mastromonaco, said Wednesday that he received Vance's subpoena in mid-February and promptly handed over the requested documents, including records of his work on the property and correspondence with the Trump Organization.

Mastromonaco was subpoenaed for similar material in December 2019 by New York Attorney General Letitia James, who also is investigating whether Trump and his company improperly inflated the value of his assets on annual financial statements in order to secure loans and obtain tax benefits.

“I really know absolutely nothing about this whole mess,” Mastromonaco said Wednesday.

Vance's investigators have also peppered Cohen with questions about the role that Allen Weisselberg played as chief financial officer of Trump Organization.

Weisselberg's attorney, Mary Mulligan, declined to comment Wednesday.

But it emerged in recent days that his former daughter-in-law, Jen Weisselberg, is cooperating with both Vance's and James' inquiries, according to her attorney.

“She will continue to cooperate fully with the various law enforcement agencies that are investigating her ex-husband’s family and the very powerful interests they represent,” her lawyer, Duncan Levin, said in a statement to AP. “Jennifer refuses to be silenced any longer by those who are conspiring to prevent her from sharing what she has learned over the past 25 years."

 

https://www.yahoo.com/finance/news/trumps-taxes-hand-manhattan-das-224651473.html

 

GO RV, then BV

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Associated Press

NY prosecutors interview Cohen an 8th time in Trump inquiry

 
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Scroll back up to restore default view.

JIM MUSTIAN
Fri, March 19, 2021, 12:00 PM
 

NEW YORK (AP) — Donald Trump's former personal attorney, Michael Cohen, was interviewed on Friday for an eighth time by New York prosecutors investigating the former president's finances.

Cohen met with investigators at the Manhattan District Attorney's Office amid a swirl of new activity in the the criminal inquiry, including fresh subpoenas and face-to-face meetings with key witnesses.

The investigation includes an examination of whether Trump or his businesses lied about the value of assets to gain favorable loan terms and tax benefits. Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus R. Vance Jr. also is scrutinizing hush-money payments paid to women on Trump’s behalf.

His office is now in possession of eight years of Trump’s tax records after a lengthy legal battle.

In a recent interview, investigators asked Cohen about Trump’s Seven Springs estate as part of an inquiry into whether the value of the 213-acre Westchester County property was improperly inflated to reduce his taxes. Prosecutors asked about individuals involved in the appraisal of the estate and benefits derived from its valuation, including a $21 million income tax deduction.

Cohen was released to home confinement last year amid coronavirus fears, and his recent meetings have been conducted via video conference.

Vance announced last week that he would leave office at the end of the year and not seek reelection. He recently hired former mafia prosecutor Mark Pomerantz — who, as a federal prosecutor, oversaw the prosecution of Gambino crime boss John “Junior” Gotti — as a special assistant district attorney to assist in the wide-ranging probe of Trump’s finances.

 

https://news.yahoo.com/ny-prosecutors-interview-cohen-8th-160005118.html

 

GO RV, then BV

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Business Insider

The ex-wife of a key Trump employee investigated by prosecutors says the company controls people by 'compensating you with homes and things'

 
 
Jacob Shamsian
Fri, March 19, 2021, 12:04 PM
 
 
donald trump jr allen weisselberg
 
Donald Trump and Allen Weisselberg in 2017. TIMOTHY A. CLARY/AFP via Getty Images
  • Jennifer Weisselberg told NBC News Donald Trump controls people by giving them "homes and things."

  • She's Barry Weisselberg's ex-wife. Prosecutors are reportedly investigating to flip his father.

  • Trump Org. CFO Allen Weisselberg has been loyal to the Trumps for more than 40 years.

Jennifer Weisselberg, who Manhattan prosecutors are speaking with as part of a wide-ranging investigation into Donald Trump's finances, says the former president instills loyalty in close aides through control.

"They control people by compensating you with homes and things," Weisselberg said in an interview with NBC News published Friday. "It's not easy to walk away when they provide your home."

Weisselberg has spoken with prosecutors in the Manhattan District Attorney's Office "multiple times," she told NBC News. The office is examining the finances of Trump and the Trump Organization. Court filings suggest investigators are looking into whether they broke tax laws by keeping two sets of books to receive both favorable loan terms and low tax rates, which ProPublica previously reported.

Prosecutors in the office are trying to "flip" Allen Weisselberg, the CFO of the Trump Organization and personal bookkeeper of the Trump family's finances, The Washington Post reported. They've obtained millions of pages of documents about Trump's finances through subpoenas and want Weisselberg to guide them through the paperwork, according to the Post.

 

Jennifer Weisselberg, who divorced Allen Weisselberg's son Barry in 2018, may be helping prosecutors flip him.
She told Bloomberg News in 2020 that she and Barry received an apartment from Trump when they got married in 2004 and didn't pay any rent for it. Prosecutors appear to be looking into whether Barry Weisselberg broke tax laws by miscategorizing the apartment on his filings, and whether those details could be used to secure Allen Weisselberg's cooperation. Allen Weisselberg's other son, Jack Weisselberg, also lived in the building for a time, according to property records reviewed by Insider.

"The likelihood of him cooperating goes up significantly if, in fact, the prosecutors have criminal charges that can reasonably be brought against his sons," Jeff Robbins, a former federal prosecutor, previously told Insider. "For the simple human reason that what father would not do something unpleasant in order to help his sons out of a legal jam?"

matthew calamari donald trump jr
 
Donald Trump Jr. and Matthew F. Calamari, COO The Trump Organization, in 2012. Bobby Bank/Getty Images

Allen Weisselberg has been one of Trump's most loyal employees, hired by Donald Trump's father Fred Trump in the 1970s and working for his family ever since.

His former daughter-in-law suggested to NBC News that the extensive and unusual financial ties between Trump's high-ranking employees and the Trump Organization itself may help explain that loyalty. Barry Weisselberg also runs the Wollman Rink, operated by the Trump Organization, in Central Park. Matthew Calamari, the COO of the Trump Organization and another loyal aide, also has an apartment at the Trump Parc View building and also has a son who works for the company.

"His office is right next door. He discusses everything with him," Jennifer Weisselberg told NBC News of her former father-in-law. "And Donald trusts him to continue the legacy the way his father set things up."

Jennifer Weisselberg also said she's speaking to the public because of a custody dispute with Barry Weisselberg over her two children.

"I have no reason to be here except that I am not a woman who is willing to live a life of secrecy, out of fear, any longer," she told NBC News. "They will out resource me in the courts forever, and I have tried to be graceful, and I have tried to handle this privately. And they are not agreeing to do so at all. What choice do I have?"

Her lawyer also previously told Insider that Jennifer Weisselberg "refuses to be silenced any longer by those who are conspiring to prevent her from sharing what she has learned over the past 25 years."

A representative for the Trump Organization didn't immediately respond to Insider's request for comment.

 

https://www.yahoo.com/news/ex-wife-key-trump-employee-160455351.html

 

GO RV, then BV

Edited by Shabibilicious
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