The Trump Organization, sentenced to pay 1.61 million dollars for tax evasion

First modification: 01/14/2023 – 03:04

“A stain on the ex-president’s reputation as a shrewd businessman now that he aspires to reach the White House.” This is how the ‘New York Post’ published the news that the Trump Organization was sentenced to pay 1.61 million dollars for tax evasion.

This is the maximum sentence that the Manhattan Prosecutor’s Office had recommended, under the leadership of lawyer Alvin Bragg, the same one who celebrated the decision in a statement. Bragg called the verdict “momentous” and held it up to other companies and executives to see it as an example.

This sentence is announced a week after the former president’s group’s top financial manager was sentenced. Allen Weisselberg was convicted on 15 counts of tax fraud. This happened after the existence of a tax evasion system that benefited both Weisselberg and the organization was confirmed.

The company’s lawyers insisted for months that everything tested was for the benefit of the former chief financial officer.

The analysis of the ‘New York Times’ went further. The news of the million-dollar fine by the Trump organization “exposes a culture that (the entity) has fostered illegality for years and provides political ammunition to opponents” of former President Donald J. Trump.

A case that offers “zero deterrence”

In an analysis of the case, Bill Black, a professor at the University of Missouri School of Law, called the penalty a “rounding error.” According to Black, this conviction offers a “zero deterrent.” The specialist in white collar crimes considers that “no one is going to stop committing these crimes for this type of sentence.” “This is a farce,” he concluded.

However, the case represented a significant burden on the shoulders of the former head of state. Trump considers it part of a “witch hunt” by members of the rival party, the Democrats.

Although this case was not directly against the former occupant of the White House (neither Trump nor his relatives are accused), the tycoon faces, in another plot, a civil lawsuit of 250 million dollars, raised by the attorney general of the state of New York, Letitia James, who accuses Trump and three of her children of inflating her net worth and the value of her company’s assets to save on insurance and loans.

Prosecutors Bragg and James are Democrats, as is Alvin Bragg’s pre-prosecutor, who brought the case. One more plot that complicates the path of the candidate to return to the White House in 2025.

With Reuters and EFE