Trump Organization sentenced to maximum $1.6 million fine in tax fraud case

The Trump Organization, headed by former president Donald Trump, was fined the maximum $1.6 million penalty in a tax fraud case in New York this week that found the organization guilty of seventeen felonies.

The sentence, handed down on Friday by New York District Court Judge Juan Merchan, is the maximum fine allowed for such felonies, but Manhattan District Attorneys do not think the sentence covers the magnitude of the Trump Organization’s crimes.

“I want to be very clear, we don’t think that is enough,” Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg said to reporters. “Our laws in this state need to change in order to capture this type of decade-plus systemic and egregious fraud.”

Defense attorneys continued to argue that accounting errors were to blame for the tax infractions until the very end of the trial, but Merchan did not agree. “It’s not what the evidence has showed and it’s not what the jury found,” he said.

The defense also attempted to pin the entire case on former Trump CFO Allen Weisselberg.

“This case was all about Allen Weisselberg committing tax fraud on his personal tax returns. Every witness repeatedly testified that President Trump and the Trump family knew nothing about Allen Weisselberg’s actions,” said attorney Susan Necheles.

A Trump Organization spokesperson told CNN the verdict will be appealed. “New York has become the crime and murder capital of the world, yet these politically motivated prosecutors will stop at nothing to get President Trump,” the spokesperson said. “We did nothing wrong and we will appeal this verdict.”