After months of intense speculation, we move on to a new stage of the soap opera. The Trump Organization and its CFO Allen Weisselberg have been indicted for tax crimes by a grand jury, according to Wall Street Journal and several American media. The charges, which relate to alleged benefits in kind not declared to the tax authorities, are to be disclosed by New York prosecutors on Thursday.
Donald Trump and his family can breathe for now, but future indictments are not ruled out, especially if Allen Weisselberg decides to work with authorities. And the family empire could well be under pressure if the banks cut off the tap of the loans and demand the repayment of those already granted.
Pressure on the CFO
Prosecutors, who have been investigating the real estate company that also run luxury hotels and golf clubs for two years, are believed to be aiming to pressure Weisselberg into agreeing to work with investigators to add more evidence to the prosecution.
Asked several weeks ago to determine whether prosecution could indeed be brought, a grand jury gave the green light to Manhattan prosecutor Cyrus Vance to move forward, according to the three dailies. These charges, if they are confirmed, would be a setback for Donald Trump who suggests that he could be a candidate for the presidential election of 2024. He remains very present on the political scene, remains the strong man of the Republican Party and has resumed last week the major meetings that have made its trademark. On Wednesday, he went to the border with Mexico to denounce the migration policy of his Democratic successor Joe Biden.
The Trump organization in danger
The former president, now domiciled in Florida, had again qualified Monday these investigations of the justice of New York of “continuation of the greatest witch hunt of all time”. He also accused Democratic prosecutors of being “desperate” to hamper his political ambitions, “going so far as to commit professional misconduct.”
An accountant by training, Allen Weisselberg, 73, spent most of his career in the Trump family’s real estate empire, which he joined in 1973. When Donald Trump entered the White House in 2017, he had been tasked with managing the Trump Organization with the two sons of the new president, Eric and Donald Jr.
Avocado Bradley Moss explain it to 20 minutes, “The real risk to Trump’s empire is not a mandatory dissolution, but that the indictment hampers his ability to continue to borrow to finance its operations.” If all the creditors asked to be reimbursed, that would be the coup de grace ”. And the risk of another bankruptcy for Donald Trump.