Rudy Giuliani sent Trump business rival Leona Helmsley to prison for tax fraud
New York is America's largest city, but sometimes it feels like it keeps recycling the go-go '80s with a tiny cast of characters. On Thursday, New York prosecutors charged the Trump Organization and its longtime CFO, Allen Weisselberg, with 15 counts of tax-related felonies. They pleaded not guilty.
The alleged tax fraud scheme, as laid out by prosecutors, is actually pretty simple: the Trump Organization used company money to pay Weisselberg's rent, car lease, and other personal expenses, allowing him to avoid paying federal and local taxes, and kept track of the money in a secret ledger.
"As I was reading the indictment, the one thing I kept thinking was: 'My God, this is some street-level mobster bulls--t,'" one former New York prosecutor told The Independent. "Two sets of books? That's like 'How to Commit Tax Fraud 101' at crime college." University of Chicago law professor Daniel Hemel added, "This is Leona Helmsley-level stuff."
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
Helmsley, who died in 2007, was a greed-is-good tabloid-staple real estate magnate who served 19 months in prison after being convicted of tax fraud in 1989. She and her husband, Harry Helmsley, renovated their Greenwich, Connecticut, mansion with millions siphoned from their hotel and real estate empire, which included the Empire State Building, among other properties.
The prosecutor who sent Helmsley to jail was Rudy Giuliani, then the crusading U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York. When Helmsley appealed her conviction, her lawyer was Alan Dershowitz. And Donald Trump himself kicked Helmsley when she was down, leaking a letter to the New York Post in 1988 amid an easement dispute over an Atlantic City property Trump bought from Penthouse magazine.
Howard Kurtz, now a Fox News media critic, contemporaneously described Trump's "deliciously vitriolic letter" to Helmsley in The Washington Post, saying it revealed Trump's "previously hidden capacity for venom." In the letter, Trump called Helmsley "a disgrace to the industry and a disgrace to humanity in general," and told her that without her husband, she "would not be able to randomly fire and abuse people in order to make yourself happy."
What Helmsley was convicted of and Trump's company indicted for is "the kind of crime that super-rich people think they can get away with — and that they can get caught for, particularly if they are brazen about it," Rachel Maddow said on MSNBC Thursday night. And "comically high-profile people" aren't exempt.
Create an account with the same email registered to your subscription to unlock access.
Sign up for Today's Best Articles in your inbox
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.
-
Ottawa climate talks: can global plastic problem be solved?
In the spotlight Nations aim to draft world's first treaty on plastic pollution, but resistance from oil- and gas-producing countries could limit scope
By Harriet Marsden, The Week UK Published
-
Netherlands split on WFH for sex workers
Speed Read Councils concerned over 'nuisance' of at-home sex work, but others say changes will curb underground sex trade
By Arion McNicoll, The Week UK Published
-
'He adored Trump, and then rejected him'
Today's Newspapers A roundup of the headlines from the US front pages
By The Week Staff Published
-
Sitting in judgment on Trump
Opinion Who'd want to be on this jury?
By Susan Caskie Published
-
Ukraine cheers House approval of military aid
Speed Read Following a lengthy struggle, the House has approved $95 billion in aid for Ukraine and Israel
By Peter Weber, The Week US Published
-
Poland, Germany nab alleged anti-Ukraine spies
Speed Read A man was arrested over a supposed Russian plot to kill Ukrainian President Zelenskyy
By Peter Weber, The Week US Published
-
Israel hits Iran with retaliatory airstrike
Speed Read The attack comes after Iran's drone and missile barrage last weekend
By Peter Weber, The Week US Published
-
Peter Murrell: Sturgeon's husband charged over SNP 'embezzlement' claims
Speed Read SNP expresses 'shock' as former chief executive rearrested in long-running investigation into claims of mishandled campaign funds
By Arion McNicoll, The Week UK Published
-
How could the Supreme Court's Fischer v. US case impact the other Jan 6. trials including Trump's?
Today's Big Question A former Pennsylvania cop might hold the key to a major upheaval in how the courts treat the Capitol riot — and its alleged instigator
By Rafi Schwartz, The Week US Published
-
Mark Menzies: Tories investigate MP after 'bad people' cash claims
Speed Read Fylde MP will sit as an independent while party looks into allegations he misused campaign funds on medical expenses and blackmail pay-out
By Arion McNicoll, The Week UK Published
-
'A direct, protracted war with Israel is not something Iran is equipped to fight'
Instant Opinion Opinion, comment and editorials of the day
By Harold Maass, The Week US Published