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Two of Donald Trump’s companies were found guilty of engaging in a scheme that allowed executives such as former chief financial officer Allen Weisselberg to evade taxes on company-paid perks including free apartments and luxury cars for more than a decade.

It is the first time a Trump business has been convicted of criminal conduct and comes as the former president is running for a second term. The momentous verdict also comes as he faces a raft of other legal perils, including criminal probes of his handling of classified documents and of efforts by Trump and his allies to overturn the 2020 election.

The jury reached its verdict Tuesday on the Trump Organisation’s Trump Corp. and Trump Payroll Corp. after a month long trial — rattling off a straight run of convictions on all 17 counts against them, including scheme to defraud, conspiracy, criminal tax fraud and falsifying business records. Defense lawyer Michael van der Veen, for Trump Payroll Corp., shook his head gravely. Lawyers for both companies said they would appeal.

During the trial, prosecutors in the office of Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg showed that over a 13-year period, Trump executives often disguised holiday bonuses as consulting fees and that Trump even paid for the private school tuition of Weisselberg’s grandchildren.

Trump wasn’t charged, but the prosecutor in his closing statement last week told the jury Trump “knew exactly what was going on” and had “explicitly sanctioned tax fraud.”

Outside the courtroom after the verdict, Bragg commended his team and the jury and said “this was a case about lying and cheating.” – Bloomberg