Thursday, July 01, 2021

How So Serious

So, as to the details of the big news event: The grand jury investigating the trump Organization's "questionable business practices" officially charged the Chief Financial Officer Allan Weisselberg and the Organization itself (apparently you CAN charge a corporate entity) on 15 counts covering tax fraud, grand larceny, filing false instruments, and improperly loading rolls of toilet paper the wrong direction. Here's the explainer via Andrew Prokop from Vox:

The charges allege that Weisselberg and the Trump Organization did not properly pay taxes related to $1.7 million worth of “fringe benefits” Weisselberg received as part of his salary — most notably apartment and car leases for Weisselberg and private school tuition for his grandchildren. The specific charges also include conspiracy and grand larceny, but those too are related to these fringe benefits. Both Weisselberg and the company pleaded not guilty.

But reports in recent months have made clear that Vance’s investigation is focused on more than just corporate perks. He has also been probing matters close to the heart of the Trump Organization’s business practices, examining whether the company overvalued certain properties to score favorable loan terms while undervaluing them to pay less in property taxes. He even obtained Trump’s tax returns after a battle that went to the Supreme Court...

It's a question of understanding just how trump and his CFO were trying to cheat the tax system:

As CFO of the Trump Organization, Weisselberg received an official salary. But he also received various lucrative perks on top of that — “fringe benefits.” These included:

An apartment lease: Trump’s company paid the lease and utility bills for an apartment on Manhattan’s Upper West Side that prosecutors say has been Weisselberg’s primary residence since 2005.

Car leases: Trump’s company paid the leases on two Mercedes-Benz cars used by Weisselberg and his wife.

Private school tuition: From 2012 to 2017, either Trump or a Trump trust paid hundreds of thousands of dollars in tuition to a New York City private school for two of Weisselberg’s grandchildren.

Though fringe benefits such as these aren’t technically part of an employee’s salary, they have monetary value and as a result should be considered taxable income paid by the employer. (Certain types of fringe benefits, like employer-provided health insurance, are excluded from taxation, but most aren’t.)

Prosecutors allege that both the Trump Organization and Weisselberg participated in a scheme to avoid paying taxes on these perks. They argue that the Trump Organization should have paid payroll taxes, and that Weisselberg — whom they allege also hid his New York City residency — evaded more than $500,000 in federal taxes, more than $100,000 in state taxes, and more than $200,000 in New York City taxes...

I recall seeing a Twitter post questioning "Why even play around with these schemes when trump could have simply paid Weisselberg better or at least properly report these benefits for tax purposes?" A good answer to that may be due to what trump (and Weisselberg and others) were trying to avoid: Accountability for their debts.

Another Twitter thread, this one from Kurt Eichenwald, notices in the details how trump's financial empire is low on real cash, riddled with debt, and unable to function like a normal company:







Basically, trump may think he can lie and bluff and cheat and call it good business, but the banks he tries to deal with can't. They have to answer to the government where they operate, and to that body of laws regulating banking practices, and they need to cross every T and dot every I otherwise regulators can fine the shit out of them and even shut them down. If they can't trust the client they're dealing with, they'll stop dealing with him.

And they should have been avoiding trump already. By the 1990s his bad habits of borrowing like mad and bankrupting like mad scared away most American-based banks. trump was able to find overseas buyers for his bull, Deutsche Bank in particular. But now, if Eichenwald is right, every one of those banks ought to be freaking out and making phone calls:



I've mentioned it before: the gambit for the Presidency was trump's last big con. He had always been a "clown living on credit" posing as a billionaire to his admirers when he had no true value to his name. He had nothing else waiting for him past that. He had been running from scheme to scheme, trying to find something that would make him a real billionaire instead of the puffed-up fraud his debts made him seem. That was it for him, he had nowhere else to go. It was one of the biggest reasons why he was so desperate to steal the legal election away from Biden: delaying the inevitable call from his creditors that would bankrupt him forever.

The criminal charges that still await trump on this - as soon as Weisselberg gets a good plea deal, he'll flip, and the only thing Weisselberg has of value is whatever dirt he has on trump - are still pending, but it's the hit to his gaslighting ego about wealth and success that will be an even bigger blow. Once the bills come due, he won't even be able to lie to himself anymore.

Right now, the way these numbers are looking, the amount of debt trump is drowning in, *I* might have more worth than donald fucking trump.

Sucks to be you, donnie.

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1 comment:

dinthebeast said...

Yeah, Tish James and Cy Vance aren't doing this as a vanity project, and as for Weaselberg, his "fringe benefits" are more than my entire 32 year working income.

-Doug in Sugar Pine

5:05 PM

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