By Michael R. Sisak and Tom Hays

Associated Press

NEW YORK — Donald Trump’s company and its longtime finance chief were charged Thursday in what prosecutors called a “sweeping and audacious” tax fraud scheme in which the executive collected more than $1.7 million in off-the-books compensation, including apartment rent, car payments and school tuition.

Trump himself was not charged, but prosecutors noted that he signed some of the compensation checks at the center of the alleged scheme.

It is the first criminal case to come out New York authorities’ two-year investigation into the former president’s business dealings.

According to the indictment unsealed Thursday, from 2005 through this year, the Trump Organization and Chief Financial Officer Allen Weisselberg cheated the state and city out of taxes by conspiring to pay senior executives off the books by way of lucrative fringe benefits and other means. Weisselberg alone was accused of cheating the federal government, the state and the city out of more than $900,000 in taxes.

Both Weisselberg and lawyers for the Trump Organization pleaded not guilty. Weisselberg was ordered to surrender his passport and released without bail. leaving the courthouse without comment.

The most serious charge against Weisselberg, grand larceny, carries five to 15 years in prison. The tax fraud charges against the company are punishable by a fine of double the amount of unpaid taxes, or $250,000, whichever is larger.

The 73-year-old Weisselberg has intimate knowledge of the Trump Organization’s financial dealings from nearly five decades at the company. And the charges against him could give prosecutors the means to pressure him to cooperate with the investigation and tell them what he knows.

In a statement, Trump branded the case a “political Witch Hunt by the Radical Left Democrats.” Weisselberg’s lawyers said he will “fight these charges.”

The case is being led by Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr. and New York Attorney General Letitia James, both Democrats.

Vance, who leaves office at the end of the year, has been conducting a wide-ranging investigation into a variety of matters involving Trump and the Trump Organization, such as hush-money payments paid to women on Trump’s behalf and whether the company manipulated the value of its properties to obtain loans or reduce its tax bills.

The news comes as Trump has been more seriously discussing a possible comeback run for president in 2024. He he has ramped up his public appearances, including holding his first rallies since leaving the White House.

In announcing the grand jury indictment, Carey Dunne, the top prosecutor in the district attorney’s office, said; “Politics has no role in the jury chamber, and I can assure you it had no role here.” He outlined a 15-year scheme “orchestrated by the most senior executives” at the Trump Organization.

The Trump Organization is the entity through which the former president manages his many ventures, including his investments in office towers, hotels and golf courses, his many marketing deals and his TV pursuits. Trump’s sons Donald Jr. and Eric have been in charge of the day-to-day operations since he became president.

Weisselberg came under scrutiny in part because of questions about his son’s use of a Trump apartment at little or no cost.

Weisselberg’s son Barry — who managed a Trump-operated ice rink in Central Park — paid no reported rent while living in a Trump-owned apartment in 2018, and he was charged just $1,000 per month — far below typical Manhattan prices — while living in a Trump apartment from 2005 to 2012, the indictment said.

Allen Weisselberg claimed residency in a modest home on Long Island despite living in a company-paid Manhattan apartment, prosecutors said. By doing so, Weisselberg concealed that he was a New York City resident and avoided paying hundreds of thousands of dollars in federal, state and city income taxes, instead collecting about $133,000 in refunds to which he was not entitled, prosecutors said.

Trump has said his company’s actions were standard practice in the business and in no way a crime. Barry Weisselberg’s ex-wife has been cooperating with investigators and provided tax records and other documents.