Allen Weisselberg: Trump Organisation chief subpoenaed in potential criminal probe, report says

Prosecutors in New York have subpoenaed personal banking records for the Trump Organisation’s chief financial officer, according toThe New York Times.

Long-time company chief Allen Weisselberg has supervised Donald Trump’s company finances for several years.

Prosecutors working alongside Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance – who is engaging in a wider probe into the former president and his company – are reportedly investigating whether Mr Trump and associates falsely inflated property values and whether Mr Weisselberg and his family received questionable gifts from him, according to the newspaper, citing people with knowledge of the case.

Mr Vance’s office has reportedly sought other critical documents from the company, including bank records and property ledgers that contain receipts, notes on revenue and other details that prosecutors can reference against other sources, including tax and property records, among others.

The latest round of subpoenas follows prosecutors’ legal victory to obtain Mr Trump’s tax records, following a protracted legal battle and a US Supreme Court ruling in February after the former president’s last-ditch attempt to conceal his true financial history.

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Mr Vance has pursued a wide-ranging investigation to determine whether Mr Trump and his associates lied about the value of his assets for tax breaks and other benefits.

His office previously subpoenaed the former president’s accounting firm Mazars USA for eight years of personal and business tax filings amid a parallel investigation into hush-money payments arranged by Michael Cohen to adult film star Stormy Daniels. The office has also sought records from Deutsche Bank, one of Mr Trump’s main lenders, as well as JPMorgan and Capital One.

The former president and his legal team argued that he retained an executive “immunity” from complying with subpoenas, while swatting away the investigation as a “fishing expedition” or part of a partisan “witch hunt”.

Following February’s Supreme Court decision, the former president issued a statement calling the probe “a continuation of the greatest political witch hunt in the history of our country”.

Mr Vance’s office has not publicly revealed the scope of mounting allegations, but court filings in 2020 reveal that reported allegations of tax and insurance fraud justify a grand jury probe into the former president and his company.

In documents filed in the US Circuit Court of Appeals, prosecutors argued that “mountainous” allegations against the president – including misstatements about his business properties to insurers, potential lenders and the government – “could establish crimes” including tax and insurance fraud and falsification of business records, among others.

“Thus, even if the grand jury were testing the truth of public allegations alone, such reports, taken together, fully justify the scope of the grand jury subpoena at issue in this case,” prosecutors argued.