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New York (Manhattan D.A.) v. Trump Organization - criminal case

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New York (Manhattan D.A.) v. Trump Organization - criminal case

#76

Post by MN-Skeptic »

RTH10260 wrote: Thu Nov 17, 2022 1:55 pm Do we know if the attorneys for the former guy happen to be the same?
I quickly read your comment as "Do we know if the attorneys for the former guy happen to be sane?" :lol:
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New York (Manhattan D.A.) v. Trump Organization - criminal case

#77

Post by Phoenix520 »

:lol:
Valid question, though.
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New York (Manhattan D.A.) v. Trump Organization - criminal case

#78

Post by raison de arizona »

0F4B653E-5649-4522-8F42-162F34EB4DC8.png
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“bare responsibility”
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New York (Manhattan D.A.) v. Trump Organization - criminal case

#79

Post by Phoenix520 »

GO AWAY
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New York (Manhattan D.A.) v. Trump Organization - criminal case

#80

Post by RTH10260 »

"This whitness, I hardly knew him ...."
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New York (Manhattan D.A.) v. Trump Organization - criminal case

#81

Post by RTH10260 »

Manhattan D.A. Is Jumpstarting Probe Into Trump Hush-Money Payment: Report

Ellie Quinlan Houghtaling
Published Nov. 21, 2022 12:49PM ET

The Manhattan district attorney’s office is looking to reboot a criminal investigation into Donald Trump over the $130,000 of hush money allegedly paid to former porn star Stormy Daniels on the eve of the 2016 presidential election, The New York Times reports. Previous investigations under prior district attorneys failed to bear fruit, in part because investigators decided to instead focus on Trump’s wider business practices. But the Times reports that D.A. Alvin Bragg is considering adding new charges to Allen Weisselberg, the former chief financial officer of the Trump Organization, in an effort to pressure testimony out of him on the payment. Weisselberg recently took a plea deal on unrelated tax fraud charges. On Friday, in a criminal trial against the Trump Organization on similar charges, Weisselberg implicated other executives along with Eric and Donald Jr., but has yet to turn on the former president.



https://www.thedailybeast.com/manhattan ... my-daniels
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New York (Manhattan D.A.) v. Trump Organization - criminal case

#82

Post by Kendra »

H/T to MN for the link to this reporter's twitter feed at the AG civil case thread. He's now over at the criminal case.



Change of scenery. I just stepped into Manhattan criminal court, where the Trump Organization is simultaneously on trial for tax dodging.

Donald Bender, the outside accountant at MazarsUSA who always did the company's taxes, is on the witness stand.
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New York (Manhattan D.A.) v. Trump Organization - criminal case

#83

Post by tek »

Hoffinger: At the time in 2005-2017, you didn't know the Trump Corp was paying rent for Allen Weisselbeg's Riverside apartment, did you?

Bender: No ma'am.

Prosecutor: Had you known, what would you have done?

Bender: "We would have had serious conversations about continuing with the client."
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New York (Manhattan D.A.) v. Trump Organization - criminal case

#84

Post by raison de arizona »

055A44AE-D776-465D-AF8E-18DF5F678D16.png
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New York (Manhattan D.A.) v. Trump Organization - criminal case

#85

Post by Suranis »

America is known for its With Hunts. The With is an endangered species. Support your local With pack!
Hic sunt dracones
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New York (Manhattan D.A.) v. Trump Organization - criminal case

#86

Post by Foggy »

His little avatar looks like he's about to burst out crying.
Out from under. :thumbsup:
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New York (Manhattan D.A.) v. Trump Organization - criminal case

#87

Post by RTH10260 »

raison de arizona wrote: Wed Nov 23, 2022 1:52 am
055A44AE-D776-465D-AF8E-18DF5F678D16.png
A penthouse is a small benefit? Nor does the media replace the court.
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New York (Manhattan D.A.) v. Trump Organization - criminal case

#88

Post by p0rtia »

Somebody add "With Hunt" to the list of fascista malapropisms.

You know them by their misuse of language
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New York (Manhattan D.A.) v. Trump Organization - criminal case

#89

Post by Tiredretiredlawyer »

Suranis wrote: Wed Nov 23, 2022 4:47 am America is known for its With Hunts. The With is an endangered species. Support your local With pack!
Link needed for donations to the Fogbow. :mrgreen:
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New York (Manhattan D.A.) v. Trump Organization - criminal case

#90

Post by noblepa »

raison de arizona wrote: Wed Nov 23, 2022 1:52 am 055A44AE-D776-465D-AF8E-18DF5F678D16.png
I did a quick Google search for "fringe benefit prosecution" and found this article, published by the Atlantic in July, 2021.

https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archi ... le/619353/

It mentions two fairly recent high-profile cases, Richard Josephberg and Leona ("taxes are for little people") Helmsley.
The Atlantic wrote: This is the type of conduct that puts other people behind bars. The investment banker Richard Josephberg was sentenced to four years in prison in 2007 for—among other tax-law violations—having a business pay for his homes in Westchester County, New York, and Greenwich, Connecticut, and then failing to report those payments as income. Leona Helmsley, the late real-estate billionaire and Trump friend-turned-enemy, was sentenced to four years in prison for essentially the same thing: having her company pay to renovate her Greenwich mansion and then failing to report those payments as income. (The U.S. attorney who brought the federal case against Helmsley was, incidentally, Trump’s future personal lawyer Rudolph Giuliani.)
So, once again (surprise, surprise), TFG is blindly making false, self-serving statements regarding subjects about which he knows little or nothing. I'm sure that the two cases mentioned are far from the only ones ever brought against employers or employees.

The article also says that TFG personally signed some of the checks used to pay tuition for Weisselberg's grandchildren. So, his claim that he knew nothing of the scheme is clearly a lie (again, no surprise).
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New York (Manhattan D.A.) v. Trump Organization - criminal case

#91

Post by RTH10260 »

Accountant testifies Trump claimed decade of huge tax losses

MICHAEL R. SISAK
Wed, November 23, 2022 at 1:11 AM·

NEW YORK (AP) — Donald Trump reported losses on his tax returns every year for a decade, including nearly $700 million in 2009 and $200 million in 2010, his longtime accountant testified Tuesday, confirming long-held suspicions about the former president’s tax practices.

Donald Bender, a partner at Mazars USA LLP who spent years preparing Trump’s personal tax returns, said Trump’s reported losses from 2009 to 2018 included net operating losses from some of the many businesses he owns through his Trump Organization.

“There are losses for all these years,” said Bender, who was granted immunity to testify at the company’s criminal tax fraud trial in Manhattan.

The short exchange amounted to a rare public discussion of Trump’s taxes — which the Republican has fought to keep secret — even if there was no obvious connection to the case at hand.

A prosecutor, Susan Hoffinger, questioned Bender briefly about Trump’s taxes on cross examination, at one point showing him copies of Trump tax paperwork that the Manhattan district attorney's office fought for three years to obtain, before moving on to other topics.



https://news.yahoo.com/stand-accountant ... 06247.html
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New York (Manhattan D.A.) v. Trump Organization - criminal case

#92

Post by much ado »

Foggy wrote: Wed Nov 23, 2022 6:45 am His little avatar looks like he's about to burst out crying.
He thinks he looks tough, mean, serious. What a joke.
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New York (Manhattan D.A.) v. Trump Organization - criminal case

#93

Post by Phoenix520 »

Suranis wrote: Wed Nov 23, 2022 4:47 am America is known for its With Hunts. The With is an endangered species. Support your local With pack!
Silly, that was a denture slip. He must have been dictating
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New York (Manhattan D.A.) v. Trump Organization - criminal case

#94

Post by humblescribe »

RTH10260 wrote: Wed Nov 23, 2022 1:50 pm
Accountant testifies Trump claimed decade of huge tax losses

MICHAEL R. SISAK
Wed, November 23, 2022 at 1:11 AM·

NEW YORK (AP) — Donald Trump reported losses on his tax returns every year for a decade, including nearly $700 million in 2009 and $200 million in 2010, his longtime accountant testified Tuesday, confirming long-held suspicions about the former president’s tax practices.

Donald Bender, a partner at Mazars USA LLP who spent years preparing Trump’s personal tax returns, said Trump’s reported losses from 2009 to 2018 included net operating losses from some of the many businesses he owns through his Trump Organization.

“There are losses for all these years,” said Bender, who was granted immunity to testify at the company’s criminal tax fraud trial in Manhattan.

The short exchange amounted to a rare public discussion of Trump’s taxes — which the Republican has fought to keep secret — even if there was no obvious connection to the case at hand.

A prosecutor, Susan Hoffinger, questioned Bender briefly about Trump’s taxes on cross examination, at one point showing him copies of Trump tax paperwork that the Manhattan district attorney's office fought for three years to obtain, before moving on to other topics.



https://news.yahoo.com/stand-accountant ... 06247.html
Those ginormous tax losses are probably the source of the refund claim of $90 million or whatever the amount was that is/was being contested with the interminable audit that he is undergoing.

There are likely two situations: The first is that these losses (net operating losses) can be carried back two years to reduce income in those years and get receive a refund. What is not absorbed by carrying those losses to the two previous years can be carried forward twenty years to offset future income, or the taxpayer can elect out of the carryback provisions.

The second has to do with the dread Alternative Minimum Tax. There are certain income tax treatments that are allowed for the "regular" tax, but are not allowed for the AMT. Some are lost forever (called exclusion items.) Others are essentially timing differences: You pony up the tax now, and when things reverse, you receive a dollar-for-dollar tax credit against the regular tax that you will owe tomorrow. Bush Jr. and his band of Merry Men tweaked this credit for 2009 and 2010 that allowed the refund of previously-paid AMT to be utilized in the current tax year even though the old rules would have prohibited it. It is entirely possible that tfg had to pay AMT several years earlier due to various timing differences and wanted to receive that money back with those particular returns. (This is from memory, and I might be off a year or two.)
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New York (Manhattan D.A.) v. Trump Organization - criminal case

#95

Post by humblescribe »

OK, I don't know this Bender guy from the man in the moon.

I wonder what sort of due diligence he and his staff did on the myriad income tax returns they cranked out for all the entities that are under the trumpian umbrella.

I've prepared my share of returns over the decades for all sorts of businesses. There are just things that are done before we put numbers in boxes to give us that feel-good feeling about the information reported. Then there are things that we do once we think the returns are final but before we send them off for the client to sign.

Unless the taxpayer receives a full-blown audit of the financial statements, we look into the detail behind the numbers on the balance sheet and income statement. We compare the current year numbers to previous years'. We have documentation in the file to support our conclusions and discussions. We obtain supporting documentation to validate balance sheet amounts and make any necessary accruals. We'll propose adjustments to the numbers if the client does not know or messed up. We obtain key contracts, loan docs, and other information that will have an impact on the books.

It is inconceivable to me that Bender would have heard no evil, seen no evil, and spoken no evil over all those years. Methinks he didn't want to piss off his firm's Golden Goose.
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New York (Manhattan D.A.) v. Trump Organization - criminal case

#96

Post by RTH10260 »

Trump Org defense rests case as judge chews out lawyers for throwing ‘anything and everything’ at jury

Molly Crane-Newman, New York Daily News
Tue, November 29, 2022 at 1:32 AM

NEW YORK — Trump Organization lawyers rested their case Monday as a Manhattan judge chewed them out for throwing “anything and everything” at a jury as they heard remaining evidence in the tax fraud case.

The last witness on the stand for the former president’s company was Donald Bender, a partner at Mazars USA LLP, who testified about handling the Trump Organization’s tax returns for over three decades.

Trump has sought to blame Bender for not detecting the fraud central to the criminal case.

As the trial entered its sixth week, even-tempered Judge Juan Merchan sounded like he’d reached the end of his rope, partly incensed with defense lawyers for trying to enter a caseload of new exhibits in the eleventh hour.

Trump Corporation lawyer Susan Necheles sought to introduce 18 new exhibits as part of the defense theory that Bender knew how the Trump Organization compensated senior executives like CFO Allen Weisselberg and Chief Operating Officer Matthew Calamari, Sr., with lavish untaxed benefits.

But the judge had already made clear it wasn’t Bender’s job to police the organization. Merchan previously told Trump Organization lawyers they couldn’t argue that the company was not to blame for the fraud because it relied on its accountant to detect it.

He described their efforts to introduce new evidence at midnight Monday as an attempt “to throw anything and everything” at jurors hoping it would confuse them.

“You can’t, that’s not how it works,” said Merchan.

In the end, while allowing Necheles some leeway, the judge said he had “bent over backward to allow” the Trump Org and Trump Corp to present a fair defense.




https://www.yahoo.com/news/trump-org-de ... 00098.html
(original Daily News)
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New York (Manhattan D.A.) v. Trump Organization - criminal case

#97

Post by RTH10260 »

Trump Org. defense lawyer scolded for using struck testimony

MICHAEL R. SISAK
Thu, December 1, 2022 at 6:05 PM

NEW YORK (AP) — Closing arguments at the Trump Organization’s criminal tax fraud trial got off to a rocky start Thursday as a lawyer for the company was caught showing jurors portions of witness testimony that had previously been stricken from the official court record.

Prosecutors objected to the display about an hour into lawyer Susan Necheles’ presentation. The judge, Juan Manuel Merchan, admonished Necheles and halted arguments so she could remove any other precluded testimony from a slideshow she was showing to jurors.

Necheles said she didn’t intend to show any testimony that had been stricken as a result of a sustained objection. Merchan noted that the objections themselves had been removed from the excerpts Necheles showed, but not the objectionable testimony.

Necheles resumed her closing argument after a half-hour break. Merchan briefly discussed the transcript issue with jurors and Necheles proceeded to show them the correct version, prefacing her remarks with a mea culpa: “Ladies and gentlemen, I apologize for that error.”

The transcript kerfuffle was just the latest dust-up involving Trump Organization lawyers. Earlier this week, Merchan scolded the defense for submitting hundreds of pages of court papers just before midnight Sunday.

The Trump Organization, the entity through which former President Donald Trump manages his real estate holdings and other ventures, is accused of helping some top executives avoid paying income taxes on company-paid perks, such as apartments and luxury cars.

The tax fraud case is the only trial to arise from the Manhattan district attorney’s three-year investigation of Trump and his business practices.

The Trump Organization’s longtime finance chief, Allen Weisselberg, has admitted that he came up with the long-running scheme on his own, that he did so to save money on his own personal income taxes, and that neither Trump nor Trump's family knew what he was doing.

Prior to the interruption, Necheles was using excerpts from Weisselberg’s three days of testimony to underscore her argument that the executive was only intending to benefit himself, not the Trump Organization, and that the company shouldn’t be blamed for his transgressions.

“We are here today for one reason and one reason only: the greed of Allen Weisselberg,” Necheles said, her remarks accompanied at one point by the wail of a siren from an emergency vehicle outside.




https://www.yahoo.com/news/trump-org-de ... 47775.html
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New York (Manhattan D.A.) v. Trump Organization - criminal case

#98

Post by Slim Cognito »

Didn't one of his kids, Eric I think, go on some right wing outlet and brag that his Dad was such a nice guy to pay for all this shit? I guess that didn't make it into the testimony, eh?
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New York (Manhattan D.A.) v. Trump Organization - criminal case

#99

Post by Kendra »

Deadline Whitehouse just did an update on this trial - bonus appearance from Michael Cohen. I believe the reporter they talked to said that the defense in closing arguments brought up Donald Trump this and Donald Trump that, the prosecution says that opens the window for them to bring up tfg too.
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New York (Manhattan D.A.) v. Trump Organization - criminal case

#100

Post by MN-Skeptic »

A great thread on today's closing arguments -

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