"Guilty on all counts of tax fraud."

So reads the verdict of a Manhattan jury in the Trump Organization criminal trial for a 15-year tax fraud scheme. Sentencing is scheduled for January 13.

The holding company of former US president Donald Trump risks a fine of up to 1.7 million dollars , but the exact amount will be established by the judge at a later time. Two of the holding's 500 entities and 75-year-old Allen Weisselberg , the company's former chief financial officer, were accused . The man would have received from 2005 to 2021 luxury cars, leased apartments, expensive private school fees for family members, evading taxes for 900 thousand dollars. The investigators thought he could be the weak link to nail Trump on these and other crimes but the tycoon's trusted man refused to cooperate and limited himself to admitting his guilt to avoid a sentence of up to 15 years. The plea deal gave him only a 5-month sentence. Another executive at the company, Jeffrey McConney, was granted immunity after admitting to the crimes and testifying as a prosecution witness.

Even if the former president, like his children, is not charged for him, this is a worrying setback that risks exacerbating the already strong distrust of banks and business partners in him.

The sentence is also a tile for his re-nomination which adds to the other investigations in which he is involved: from the parallel one of the New York attorney general Letitia James - who promoted a civil action against the man and his three adult children asking for 250 million dollars in damages – to the Georgia lawsuit over pressure to overturn the vote in the parliamentary inquiry into the January 6, 2021 Capitol storming.

(Unioneonline/vf)

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