Signage is seen outside the Trump Building in New York City, New York, the United States, June 28, 2021.
Andrew Kelly | Reuters
The Trump organization should expect the Manhattan prosecutor to file criminal charges against the company of former President Donald Trump as early as Thursday afternoon, NBC News reported on Wednesday.
It is not yet clear whether other people, in particular the Trump organization’s chief financial officer, Allen Weisselberg, will also be charged on Thursday. Trump is not expected to be indicted himself on Thursday.
NBC reported that two Trump organization officials said they had been told the indictment was imminent.
The Manhattan Attorney’s Office has been investigating a number of issues against the Trump Organization for several years.
Recently, prosecutors focused the investigation on fringe benefits offered by the Weisselberg company and one of its sons who work for the Trump Org, and whether taxes were properly paid on those benefits, which included housing.
Any charges filed on Thursday or later in the week are unlikely to be the end of the case. The Vance office continues to investigate allegations that the Trump Organization misrepresented the value of various properties for financial reasons.
Trump has denied any wrongdoing.
A spokesman for DA Cyrus Vance Jr. has repeatedly declined to comment on the investigation or the timing of possible charges.
Ronald Fischetti, a Trump organization attorney and company spokesman, did not immediately respond to requests from CNBC for comment.
Fischetti told CNBC last week, “In my 50+ years of practice, I’ve never seen prosecutors target a company for employee compensation or fringe benefits.”
“The IRS did not want to and did not file such a case,” said the attorney. “Even the financial institutions that caused the 2008 financial crisis, the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression, have not been prosecuted.”
Fischetti also confirmed the likelihood of criminal charges against the company last week.
“It looks like they’re going to bring charges against the company, and that’s totally outrageous,” Fischetti told NBC News at the time.
“They couldn’t get Allen Weisselberg to cooperate and tell them what they wanted to hear and so they are going to pursue these allegations and they couldn’t get him to cooperate because he wouldn’t say that Donald Trump knew or Had information he “may not have properly deducted the use of cars or an apartment.”
