Oops: The Trump Organization Kept Literal Spreadsheets of Its Crimes

[babylonsister]

https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2021/07/allen-weisselberg-trump-organization-spreadsheets

Levin Report
Oops: The Trump Organization Kept Literal Spreadsheets of Its Crimes
Which is something one should probably avoid if one is hoping to avoid prison time.
By Bess Levin
July 1, 2021


In life, a good rule of thumb is to not engage in the sort of behavior that could result in being charged with numerous felonies; in other words, don‘t do crimes. But if you’re going to ignore that rule, and you don’t want to spend years in prison, another piece of advice is to not leave such an obvious paper trail of said crimes that you might as well have stuck a Post-it note on a stack of files that reads, “Hey, everybody, come check out all the laws I’ve been breaking! It’s all right here! Get the handcuffs ready!” Which, based on the indictment unsealed in a Manhattan courtroom today, is basically what the Trump Organization and its longtime CFO did, for more than a decade. Whoops!

Yes, in a turn of events perhaps unsurprising given Donald Trump‘s frequent pronouncements that he‘s “like, really smart,” it appears that not only did the Trump Organization and Allen Weisselberg engage in so many scams that they were hit with a whopping 15 criminal charges—including conspiracy, grand larceny, and multiple counts of tax fraud and falsifying records—but they were really, really stupid about it. Despite the fact that Weisselberg and the company were very effective at (allegedly) hiding all sorts of income from the Internal Revenue Service—largely through fringe benefits like apartments, cars, and private school tuition the Trump Org paid for that were never declared as income—they apparently never envisioned a scenario in which they would be investigated, hence the decision to keep meticulous records of all the taxes they were allegedly dodging. (In total, Weisselberg was accused of dodging taxes on $1.7 million worth of perks.)

As one delightful section of the indictment reads:

Weisselberg caused the Trump Corporation to issue corporate checks made payable to a Trump Organization employee who cashed the checks and received cash. The cash was given to Weisselberg for his personal use. The Trump Corporation booked this cash as “Holiday Entertainment,” but maintained internal spreadsheets showing the cash to be part of Weisselberg’s employee compensation.

Oops! Great work, dummies! Here’s another fun example:

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.

Weisselberg, who pleaded not guilty on Thursday alongside the ex-president‘s business, is now facing more than a decade in prison, if convicted on all charges. And while prosecutors are presumably still hoping he’ll flip and testify against Trump, according to former Trump Organization attorney Michael Cohen, the government will still be able to make its case without him:

Link to tweet

[malaise]

1. Here's the thing

The Slobfather trusts no one so he kept the paperwork to make sure the Weasel wasn't robbing him. As we say here tief from tief!
Bwaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!

[malaise]

2. Here's the thing

The Slobfather trusts no one so he kept the paperwork to make sure the Weasel wasn't robbing him. As we say here tief from tief!
Bwaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!

[C_U_L8R]

3. Trump signed the checks.

And sealed his fate.

[lagomorph777]

11. Again, Oopsie!

[nuxvomica]

4. I would like to know what the usual outcome is for this sort of crime

Have other people done similar types of tax fraud and received lengthy sentences for it? It seems that good journalists could dig up that information and provide context to help with our expectations. I know about Al Capone but that was a different era.

[babylonsister]

5. There's 10 here, starting with Leona Helmsley...

http://content.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,1891335_1891333_1891317,00.html

Top 10 Tax Dodgers

Leona Helmsley will always be remembered for one of the most arrogant statements ever uttered: "We don't pay taxes. Only the little people pay taxes." A touching sentiment from the New York hotel tycoon widely dubbed the "Queen of Mean" but not one shared by a jury of her peers. In 1989 Helmsley received 16 years in prison for a wide variety of tax offenses resulting in several million dollars owed. And in a fitting bit of chronology, the judge ordered her prison sentence to start on April 15 — Tax Day!

[nuxvomica]

6. Thanks a lot!

It sounds like the truly innocent, like Willie Nelson, get socked with penalties but the deliberate, like Helmsley, can serve some serious time.

[tanyev]

7. When your organization is full of crooks, you have to keep good records

to make sure they're not stealing more than they're supposed to.

[walkingman]

8. After hearing the explaination of the indictments - I would bet it is

probably a very common occurrence in small and especially more of the family-type corporations. After all our tax code is definitely a green light for business interests to do whatever they like. The only thing stopping them is the justice department and the IRS - both of which usually require some sort of trigger to investigate.

Face it - unless we change our tax code it will always be an issue. (That is not going to happen)

Having said that, I hope they get Trump and family - no person deserves real jail time than that family.

[LetMyPeopleVote]

9. This is in effect a smoking gun or confession

Link to tweet

[Mr. Ected]

10. I remember laughing out loud when people thought Trump engaged in 3-dimensional chess

I think this pretty much clarifies, it was 3-dementia chess all along.

[Blue Owl]

12. Hey Donny don't forget to burn your printed-out emails!