Questions have begun to swirl about the identity of “Unindicted Co-conspirator #1” who was listed in the criminal indictment against longtime Trump Organization chief financial officer Allen Weisselberg that was handed down by a grand jury in Manhattan this week.
As noted by the Washington Examiner, prosecutors have said the person was a party to the alleged tax fraud involving former President Donald Trump’s principal company and Weisselberg that began around 2005 and continued to the present day.
The 15-count indictment noted that “the named defendants and others, including Unindicted Co-conspirator #1, agreed to and implemented a compensation scheme with the object of enabling Weisselberg to underreport his income to federal authorities, and thereby evade taxes and falsely claim federal tax refunds to which he was not entitled.”
According to CNN, the longtime controller of the Trump Organization, Jeffrey McConney, is the unindicted co-conspirator. The outlet reported that he also recently testified before the grand jury.
“The indictment charged the Trump Organization, Trump Payroll Corporation and Weisselberg,” the outlet reported. “Prosecutors in court described a 15-year tax scheme and said the charges include 15 felony counts, including a scheme to defraud, conspiracy, grand larceny and falsifying business records.”
Business Insider, meanwhile, reported that additional possibilities are the former president himself, a third-party accountant, or a tax preparation specialist. The outlet went on to report that the unindicted co-conspirator “agreed to and implemented” the alleged tax fraud scheme that allowed Weisselberg to claim tax refunds that he did not have coming to him as well as avoid taxes altogether on $1.7 million worth of income over the aforementioned timeframe.
“On or before April 5, 2010, the Trump Corporation, acting through its agent, Unindicted Co-conspirator #1, underreported Allen Weisselberg’s taxable income for the tax year 2009,” the indictment reads.
“As a result of the conspirators’ actions, during the period of the conspiracy, Weisselberg took approximately $94,902 from the United States Internal Revenue Service in federal tax refunds to which he was not entitled,” it adds.
According to New York Attorney General Letitia James and Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance, those who were indicted carried out a multi-year scheme that allowed top executives to avoid paying taxes with perks and benefits off-the-books.
Weisselberg, 73, immediately pleaded not guilty. Trump himself has not been charged, but reports alleged that he signed some of the checks involved in the case.
In a statement following his indictment, the Trump Organization issued a statement saying, “Make no mistake…this is not about the law; this is all about politics.”
Appearing on “The Ingraham Angle” Fox News program Thursday night, Trump Organization Vice President Eric Trump told guest host Raymond Arroyo that New York Democrats have been targeting his father since he first declared his candidacy for the Oval Office in 2015.
(Video: Fox News)
“They don’t care about Allen Weisselberg, they care about one person,” Trump said, “and that’s taking down my father.”
“They’ve subpoenaed three-and-a-half million documents, they’ve gone through every single tax record that my father has had since 2005, and this is what they have? They have a company car? They have employment perks?”
In a statement issued through his Save America PAC, the former president lashed out at “radical” Democratic prosecutors in his former home state.
“Radical Left New York City and State Prosecutors, who have let murderers, rapists, drug dealers, and all other forms of crime skyrocket to record levels, and who have just announced that they will be releasing hundreds of people involved in violent crime back onto the streets without retribution of any kind, are rude, nasty, and totally biased in the way they are treating lawyers, representatives, and some of the wonderful long-term employees and people within the Trump Organization,” he said.
“After hundreds of subpoenas, over 3 million pages of documents, 4 years of searching, dozens and dozens of interviews, and millions of dollars of taxpayer funds wasted, they continue to be ‘in search of a crime’ and will do anything to frighten people into making up the stories or lies that they want, but have been totally unable to get,” he added.
“In an unprecedented move, they retained an outside ‘Never Trumper’ lawyer from a Trump-hating law firm to work on the case. It is a continuation of the greatest Witch Hunt of all time,” Trump said.
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Jon@bizpacreview.com
Jon is a staff writer for BizPac Review with 30 years' worth of reporting experience, as well as an author and U.S. Army veteran. He has a BA in political science from Ashford University and an MA in national security studies/intelligence analysis from American Military University.
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