Prosecutors in New York are reportedly examining cash bonuses amid their investigation into the Trump Organization, as former President Donald Trump's legal team braces for potential impending charges.
Investigators have been examining whether the company failed to appropriately pay taxes on benefits, and they're also looking into cash bonuses, though "it's not clear who received the bonuses or how much they totaled," CNN reported Wednesday. Criminal defense attorney Jeremy Saland explained to CNN that making a tax evasion case stemming from cash bonuses could be difficult due to a likely lack of records, but he explained this could be part of a case establishing a pattern of behavior.
"If it's large enough, it bolsters their case," Saland told CNN. "If it's insignificant, I don't know that I'd go down that road so much, because how are you corroborating that there was this cash transaction? … If it's overwhelming and you have good evidence of it, then it's consistent with [the] theory [of the company playing] fast and loose."
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Lawyers for the Trump Organization on Monday reportedly met with prosecutors to argue the company shouldn't face criminal charges, and the former president contends the probe is focusing on "things that are standard practice throughout the U.S. business community, and in no way a crime." Trump's legal team is expecting that criminal charges will be brought against the company "in the coming days," though they're not expecting charges against Trump himself, CBS News reports.
"They didn't use the word 'fringe benefits' or anything like that," Trump attorney Ronald Fischetti told CBS, "but they alleged improper benefits that were conferred on some of the high-ranking individuals in the Trump Organization."
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