On Thursday, The New York Times reported that Matthew Calamari, the former bodyguard of Donald Trump and chief operating officer of the former president's family business, could face charges in the expanding case by New York prosecutors against the organization.
"At least one employee at Donald J. Trump's family business testified before a grand jury on Thursday as prosecutors in Manhattan weighed whether to charge a senior executive at the company with tax-related crimes, according to people with knowledge of the matter," reported Ben Protess, William K. Rashbaum and Kate Christobek. "The Manhattan district attorney's office is scrutinizing whether the executive, Matthew Calamari, benefited from what prosecutors have described as a 15-year scheme at the Trump Organization to help its top leadership evade taxes by compensating them with off-the-books luxury perks such as free cars and apartments."
This comes after prosecutors indicted longtime Trump Organization CFO Allen Weisselberg, and the Trump Organization itself, on tax fraud charges. The organization subsequently removed Weisselberg from several key roles in the company for legal reasons.
Investigations have revealed that Calamari, his family, and others have extensively used apartments and cars owned or leased by the Trump Organization, in ways that suggest they may be evading taxes on benefits given by the company.
