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Trump Org safety chief Matthew Calamari Jr. to testify earlier than Manhattan grand jury

Trump Org security chief Matthew Calamari Jr. to testify before Manhattan grand jury

Former U.S. President Donald Trump speaks during a rally in Cullman, AL.

Marvin Gentry | Reuters

Matthew Calamari Jr., the Trump Organization’s director of security and son of its chief operating officer, is expected to testify Thursday before a Manhattan grand jury investigating former President Donald Trump’s company, a person with direct knowledge of the matter told CNBC on Wednesday.

Calamari Jr. was served a subpoena for his testimony earlier this week, the person said.

The person declined to be named in order to discuss the secret grand jury proceedings.

The development in the ongoing investigation comes two months after the Trump Organization and its chief financial officer, Allen Weisselberg, were charged in connection with an alleged tax-avoidance scheme spanning 15 years. Weisselberg and the Trump Organization have pleaded not guilty.

Calamari Jr.’s testimony could grant him crucial immunity protections in the wide-ranging and long-running criminal investigation by Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr.’s office.

The office of New York Attorney General Letitia James is also probing Trump’s company “in a criminal capacity.”

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A spokesman for Vance’s office declined to comment. The Trump Organization did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the testimony.

The Wall Street Journal, which first reported Wednesday that Calamari Jr. is expected to testify this week, also reported that senior Trump Organization finance official Jeffrey McConney is expected to go before the grand jury this week as well.

The prosecutors are looking at how Calamari Jr. reported on his taxes an apartment he received from Trump’s company, the Journal reported.

McConney prepared the personal tax returns of Matthew Calamari Sr., according to the newspaper.

The elder Calamari has reportedly come under scrutiny by prosecutors over whether he violated tax rules when he received benefits from the company.

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Trump Group expects to be charged Manhattan DA case

Trump Organization expects to be charged Manhattan DA case

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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.

If the Trump organization is convicted of a crime, the company could face fines or behavioral restrictions.

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.”

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Politics

Trump tax returns in arms of Manhattan district lawyer

Trump tax returns in hands of Manhattan district attorney

Former President Donald Trump’s tax records were turned over to Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr. after the Supreme Court rejected the ex-President’s recent efforts to keep the documents safe.

A Vance spokesman Danny Frost confirmed that a subpoena against Trump’s longtime accounting firm Mazars USA was passed on Monday, hours after the country’s highest court dismissed Trump’s appeal.

The subpoena requested Trump’s 2011 personal and company records, including his tax returns. Trump defied modern precedent by refusing to make his tax returns available to the public despite running two campaigns for the presidency.

A spokesman for the former president did not immediately comment on Thursday. After the court allowed the rendition, Trump promised to “keep fighting” and said Vance was pursuing a “fishing expedition.”

The long-term investigation was closely monitored. Early reports suggested that prosecutors were looking into hush money payments made on Trump’s behalf to women allegedly linked to the real estate tycoon. Trump denied the affairs.

Recent court records have revealed that Vance may be investigating Trump and his company of the same name, The Trump Organization, for possible banking and insurance fraud. Trump has repeatedly denied allegations of financial inappropriateness and accused investigators of partisan motives.

The dispute over Trump’s tax documents reached the Supreme Court twice. On both occasions the panel refused to stop the lower court’s decisions on Vance’s side. In July, Chief Justice John Roberts wrote a statement for a 7-2 court rejecting Trump’s sweeping argument that he was immune to state criminal investigations during his tenure.

“In our judicial system, the public has a right to any man’s evidence.” Since the earliest days of the Republic, “every man” has included the President of the United States, “said Roberts, who was appointed to court by then-President George W. Bush.

After this decision, Trump’s lawyers continued to fight the subpoena on the grounds that it was too broad and badly issued, but the lower courts denied these claims. In October, Trump’s attorneys again called on the Supreme Court to intervene, but the court wrote in a one-line order on Monday that it was not.

Vance’s possession of Trump’s tax records does not guarantee that the public will ever know what they contain. The recordings were obtained in connection with a grand jury investigation and New York State law requires that the grand jury proceedings be confidential. It’s likely that the public will only be able to see the records if Vance ultimately charges and includes portions of the records in billing documents.

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Manhattan DA expands probe to Seven Springs property

Manhattan DA expands probe to Seven Springs estate

President Trump’s estate in Seven Springs in Mount Kisco, New York, here on September 30, 2020.

Johnny Milano | The Washington Post | Getty Images

The Manhattan Attorney’s Office has expanded its criminal investigation into President Donald Trump’s company to include a sprawling property in Westchester County, New York.

A Bedford, New York City attorney told CNBC that sometime “before Christmas” the city’s office issued a subpoena for records of the Trump Organization’s Seven Springs Estate as part of a criminal investigation.

Bedford’s attorney Joel Sachs said he believed the towns of New Castle and North Castle, in addition to Bedford, also had records cited from Vance’s office on the criminal investigation, as the 213-acre property spans all three towns.

The company’s multi-month evaluation of Seven Springs was the focus of a civil fraud investigation by the New York Attorney General.

AG Letitia James has stated that it is investigating whether Trump’s company has fraudulently increased the value of Seven Springs on financial statements that have been used to obtain credit and obtain economic and tax advantages. Trump bought the property in 1996 for only $ 7.5 million. In 2012, he valued the property at a whopping $ 291 million.

Vance’s office was previously known to be investigating hush money payments to women who claimed to have sex with Trump, as well as possible tax, banking, and insurance fraud. Trump has denied having sex with the women, porn star Stormy Daniels and Playboy model Karen McDougal.

Trump has asked the U.S. Supreme Court to block a subpoena for his accountants’ longstanding tax and financial filings issued by a Manhattan grand jury acting at Vance’s request. The Supreme Court has yet to decide whether it will hear Trump’s appeal against court rulings that Mazars USA must submit these documents.

On Friday, The Associated Press reported that investigators in Vance’s office interviewed Trump’s former private attorney Michael Cohen for hours on Thursday, asking him about the president’s business dealings, focusing on his relationship with Deutsche Bank, Trump’s largest lender.

Cohen testified before Congress in 2019 that the president’s financial statements increased to the values ​​of his assets to get favorable terms on loans and insurance, while the value of other assets was decreased to lower property taxes due on them .

New Castle Town supervisor Ivy Pool declined to comment when contacted by CNBC. North Castle officials did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Vance spokesman Danny Frost declined to comment.

A Trump Organization spokeswoman did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The Wall Street Journal first reported the expansion of Vance’s investigation to Seven Springs.

AG James’s office in a lawsuit related to their investigation found that “Valuations of Seven Springs was used to obtain an apparent tax deduction of $ 21.1 million for a property conservation donation for the 2015 tax year and for Filings with financial institutions to be claimed as part of Mr. Trump’s fortune. “

James’ research also examines the valuation of other Trump properties on 40 Wall Street in Manhattan, the Trump International Hotel and Tower Chicago, and the Trump National Golf Club in Los Angeles.

Eric Trump, the son of the President and Executive Vice President of the Trump Organization, was forced to answer questions from James’ investigators for their investigation last fall after failing to convince a judge to postpone his testimony until the presidential election his father had lost to Joe Biden.

Eric Trump ran the Trump organization with his brother Donald Trump Jr. while their father was president.

Donald Trump was indicted for the second time by the House of Representatives on Wednesday.

He is accused in this trial of inciting a crowd of supporters to get upset in the US Capitol, which disrupted the confirmation by a joint session of Congress of Biden’s election. Five people, including a Capitol policeman who was killed by the crowd, died as a result of the incident.

Biden is due to take office on Wednesday.

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Business

Renters return to Manhattan in November, driving 30% achieve in leases

Renters return to Manhattan in November, driving 30% gain in leases

A man enters a building that houses rental apartments in New York City on August 19, 2020.

Eduardo MunozAlvarez | VIEW press | Corbis News | Getty Images

Tenants returned to Manhattan in November, lured by a record drop in rental prices, according to a new report.

New rentals increased 30% year over year in November, according to a report by Miller Samuel and Douglas Elliman. This was the strongest November in 12 years with over 4,000 new leases.

The jump suggests the outflow of Manhattan residents, which began in March, may be turning as lower rates attract new renters and others returning to the city after months in suburban or country homes. The median effective net rent, or rental prices including concessions, fell 22% in November. In October, that was the biggest decline in its history.

The median rental price is now $ 2,743, with most landlords offering free rentals for more than two months.

“Lower prices created that trigger for inbound migration,” said Jonathan Miller, Miller Samuel CEO. “This is one of the first signs that the market may be improving.”

A real estate rebound in Manhattan is likely to take years, given the huge supply of vacant apartments, condos, and cooperatives for sale, realtors say. There are still more than 15,000 unlet apartments in Manhattan, and the vacancy rate – typically around 2% – is still at a record 6%, the report said.

In addition, many buildings do not even offer all vacant rental apartments, fearing that they will put even more strain on the market. Miller said this “shadow inventory” of unlisted vacant homes could mean the actual vacancy rate in Manhattan could be closer to 18%.

“It’s going to be an upward trend,” he said.

Many of the new tenants are asking for 18 to 24 month leases so they can keep today’s low rates longer, the brokers said.

According to information from brokers and landlords, new tenants are led by three main groups. There are residents who use the price cuts to upgrade their apartments and get more space. There are Manhattaners who have lived in the suburbs since March when coronavirus cases hit the city but now want to return because they can’t spend that much time outdoors – or miss the urban lifestyle.

“What clients tell me is that they tried the suburbs and missed the city,” said Janna Raskopf, a senior real estate agent at Douglas Elliman. “They say they miss going to a grocery store or coffee shop and not relying on a car.”

She said she has also had a number of customers who lived outside of the city – on Long Island or other suburbs – and sold their homes because of rising property prices in the suburbs. Now they’re renting in Manhattan to see if they like it and want to buy.

Realtors say another large group renting in Manhattan are millennials or younger renters who moved back with their parents for months but are now returning.

“They tell me I had to get out of there,” said Raskopf. “They want their own space back.”