The Trump Organization's chief financial officer Allen Weisselberg was paraded in court wearing handcuffs on Thursday to hear charges that he failed to pay taxes for years on a company car, apartment and school fees for his grandchildren.
The investigation has cost millions of dollars but could yield just tens of thousands of dollars in back tax.
Weisselberg is accused of failing to pay tax on $1.5 million worth of perks since 2005, according to the indictment.
Assistant District Attorney Carey Dunne said: 'As spelled out in the indictment, this was a 15-year long tax fraud scheme.. .it was orchestrated by the most senior executives who were financially benefiting themselves and others.'
Trump's son Eric blasted the investigation before the charges were unsealed, saying taxpayers' money had been wasted
'It is an absolute abuse of power and a political vendetta,' he told DailyMail.com.
'They are petrified my father will run again in 2024.
'After five years, hundreds of subpoenas, three and a half million pages of documents, and dozens of witnesses, this is what they have?'
Trump Organization chief financial officer Allen Weisselberg was brought into New York Supreme Court wearing handcuffs
Trump Organization lawyers also slammed the indictment and said Weisselberg was being used as a 'pawn' in a 'scorched-earth attempt to harm the former president'.
The case against Weisselberg - who has worked for the Trump family since 1973 - could give New York prosecutors an opening to pressure a key Trump Organization figure into cooperating and offering evidence about the former president's financial dealings.
But so far Trump has shrugged off the threat and Weisselberg is not believed to have flipped on his boss.
This week Trump told advisers that charges against his business would backfire on Democrats and 'Sleepy Joe' and make him stronger, according to Politico.
He was on a conference call on Monday when he was told that only Weisselberg and the Trump Organization would be indicted this week. One of the advisers on the call said the former president was delighted by what he saw as light charges.
'Just wait until 2024, you’ll see,' he reportedly said, predicting that the case would be seen as a political witch hunt.
'This is going to hurt Sleepy Joe.'
Trump Organization chief Allen Weisselberg surrendered this morning to the Manhattan district attorney's office as he faces a tax indictment due to be unsealed later today
Weisselberg walked into the side door of the Manhattan District Court at 6am on Thursday morning ahead of his first appearance in court
He was on a conference call on Monday when he was told that only Weisselberg and the Trump Organization would be indicted this week, according to Politico.
One of the advisers on the call said the former president was delighted by what he saw as light charges.
'Just wait until 2024, you’ll see,' he reportedly said, predicting that the case would be seen as a political witch hunt.
'This is going to hurt Sleepy Joe.'
The Trump Organization said he was being used as a 'pawn in a scorched-earth attempt to harm the former president.'
'The district attorney is bringing a criminal prosecution involving employee benefits that neither the I.R.S. or any other district attorney would ever think of bringing,' it said. 'This is not justice; this is politics.'
Weisselberg, who began working for Donald Trump's father Fred in 1973, walked into the Lower Manhattan building to the DA's office at about 6.20am, according to The New York Times.
He walked into a side door of a court room and will appear before a judge this afternoon along with other Trump Organization representatives.
The charges are expected to focus on whether Weisselberg and other executives received perks such as rent-free apartments and leased cars without reporting them properly on their tax returns, people familiar with the probe have said.
Trump himself is not expected to be charged this week, though prosecutors have said their investigation into the Trump Organization is continuing, his lawyer Ronald Fischetti has said.
Weisselberg (c), the longtime CFO of the Trump Organization, is pictured with Donald Trump Jr. (r) and and the former president. He will be charged related to the firm not paying taxes on employee benefits such as cars, apartments and cash bonuses
The Trump Organization released a statement saying Weisselberg was being used as a 'pawn' in an effort to harm the former president. Perks given to employees are believed to be at the center of the investigation
Weisselberg is not believed to have flipped on Trump and has so far not cooperated with prosecutors, according to reports.
White House spokeswoman Karine Jean-Pierre declined to comment on the specifics of the investigation other than to say: 'In general, the president believes that the wealthiest among us should pay their fair share.'
Weisselberg - once lauded by the former president for doing 'whatever was necessary to protect the bottom line' - was CFO of the real estate business that made Trump a household name.
His office has looked into hush-money payments paid to women on Trump's behalf and truthfulness in the company's property valuations and tax assessments, among other matters.
The indictment, first reported this week, follows months of increasing pressure after the Manhattan DA Cyrus Vance, a Democrat, announced he was going to step down at the end of this 2021.
Vance fought a long battle to get Trump's tax records and has been subpoenaing documents and interviewing company executives and other Trump insiders.
Trump did not respond to reporters' shouted questions about the New York case as he visited Texas on Wednesday, but earlier in the week, the Republican had blasted the prosecutors as 'rude, nasty, and totally biased' and said his company's actions were 'standard practice throughout the U.S. business community, and in no way a crime.'
It marks the first criminal charges brought against the former president's firm since the DA's office began its investigation three years ago, according to the Wall Street Journal.
The development will come as a deep blow to Trump, whose lawyers met with prosecutors on Monday in a last effort to deflect charges.
However, the DA's office has apparently failed to 'flip' Weisselberg, who was spotted driving from his home to Trump Tower on Tuesday.
That appears to be a clear indication that he remains loyal to Trump.
The case involves unpaid taxes on benefits given to Weisselberg, including a company car and corporate apartment, according to a source quoted by Bloomberg News.
It earlier emerged that perks included up to $500,000 in school fees paid for Weisselberg's two grandchildren to attend Columbia Grammar and Prep School in Manhattan.
Manhattan district attorney Cyrus Vance walks into his office on Thursday morning ahead of Weisselberg's arraignment
Former President Donald Trump leaves his New York Trump Tower building Tuesday afternoon - the day before his chief financial officer was charged
Allen Weisselberg's wife Hillary leaves their New York home and walks to a nearby market. She made no comment when asked about how she feels that her husband is likely to be indicted.
At the same time, CNN reported that investigators had begun looking at cash bonuses paid to staff as part of their probe into benefits, believed to include rent-free apartments and school tuition.
Just how essential Weisselberg would be to prosecutors is a matter of debate – with high-stakes relevancy Trump.
On Tuesday, top House Democratic impeachment lawyer Daniel Goldman tweeted that Weisselberg's cooperation is vital to whether prosecutors are able to go after Trump himself.
'As I've been saying for a while, if Allen Weisselberg does not cooperate with the Manhattan DA's office — and all indications are that he has not and will not — that office will not be able to criminally charge Donald Trump for any of the conduct under investigation,' Goldman wrote.
That drew a retort from longtime Trump lawyer and fixer Michael Cohen, who has met numerous times with prosecutors in New York amid the probe.
'Wrong! They have documents to prove more than you know or should be commenting on. Weisselberg is not the key to a Trump indictment,' Cohen responded.
Another former federal prosecutor in New York, Daniel Alonson, later tweeted his own view that that potential charges being publicly discussed might not be enough to ensure Weisselberg's cooperation.
Cohen also reacted Wednesday to the news of a looming potential indictment, calling it a 'Bad day for Trump Organization' but a 'good day for The United States of America!'
'Evading taxes on fringe benefits is important to prosecute - but by itself isn't the type of earth-shaking charge that typically leads defendants to cooperate,' he wrote.'
Trump's former spokesman Jason Miller took to Twitter to ridicule the way the investigation had fallen far short of its intended target.
'This is politically terrible for the Democrats,' he wrote.
'They told their crazies and their supplicants in the mainstream media this was about President Trump. Instead, their Witch Hunt is persecuting an innocent 80 year-old man for maybe taking free parking!'
Trump's lawyers have shrugged off the threat, saying it would be highly unusual for the district attorney to target a company over employee compensation or fringe benefits.
They met with prosecutors on Monday in a final push to persuade prosecutors not to bring charges.
But reports suggest prosecutors have spent months building a case against Weisselberg, a senior executive, in the hope that he might flip, and offer evidence against his boss.
Photographs on Tuesday captured a man in a suit carrying a cardboard banker's box with '45 Office' written on the outside. That is the same phrase the former president attaches to his post-presidential statements from his taxpayer-funded post-presidential office. Perched atop the case was a tan briefcase with a combo lock.
Trump himself was spotted exiting his Fifth Avenue building in the afternoon, departing after longtime aide Dan Scavino, who helps organize Trump's social media strategy and served as his golf caddie decades ago.
Trump's attorney Fischetti says he doesn't expect charges to be brought against the former president after meeting New York prosecutors on Monday.
Weisselberg helped run the company when Donald Trump took the White House.
He has been identified as one of the principal figures with legal exposure after prosecutors combed through company finances and picked through unusual pay and benefit packages including up to $500,000 in prep school tuition for his grandchildren.
His former daughter-in-law, Jennifer Weisselberg, told CNN Monday night she is willing to testify to a federal grand jury meeting in Manhattan.
'We're
