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New York prosecutors are investigating whether a top Trump Organization executive, Matthew Calamari, received tax -free benefits, as part of their investigation into whether former President Donald Trumps and employees illegally avoided its paying taxes on such perks, according to those familiar with the matter.
Prosecutors ’interest in Mr. Calamari, Trumps former bodyguard, suggests that their investigation into the Trump Organization’s alleged practice of providing certain employees with cars and apartments extends beyond Allen Weisselberg, the chief officer. of the finance of the company, and his family. Neither Messrs. Calamari and Weisselberg nor anyone else connected with the company have been accused of wrongdoing.
Receiving benefits such as free apartments, subsidized rent or car leases from an employer, and not paying tax on such benefits, can be a crime, although experts say prosecutors rarely bring cases on such perks alone.
The office of Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr. has been for months forcing Mr. Weisselberg to cooperate in its investigation, but there is no indication that prosecutors have been successful so far, people said. Mr. Vances ’office, in coordination with New York Attorney Letitia James’ office, said it is working on a broader criminal investigation into the Trump Organization’s potential bank, insurance or tax fraud and its official.
Prosecutors in recent weeks have advised Mr. Calamari and his son Matthew Calamari Jr., that they should hire their own attorney, people familiar with the matter said. The elderly Mr. Calamari, who works as chief operating officer of Trump Organizations, and his son, the company’s corporate security director, are represented by an attorney who also represents other Trump Organization employees, one said. to people.
Such a recommendation is often a sign that prosecutors ’interest in a subject has intensified, but does not mean Calamaris will be charged with wrongdoing.
The Calamaris took Nicholas Gravante Jr., head of commercial litigation at Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft LLP, some of the people said. Mr. Gravante represented prominent clients including the former head of American International Group Inc. that of Maurice R. Hank Greenberg and Hunter and James Biden, son and brother of President Bidens.
In a broader investigation, Manhattan prosecutors are examining whether the Trump Organization overvalued certain assets and underestimated others in order to obtain tax, debt and financial benefits, The Wall Street Journal reported. Prosecutors have summoned a special grand jury, an indication they are likely seeking to bring the case, the Journal reported.
Mr. Trump denied wrongdoing and said that the investigations by Mr. Vance and Ms. James, both Democrat, is politically driven. The Trump Organization had earlier said that Ms. Jamess probe has political motivation.
Elder Mr. Calamari has lived for years in an apartment on Trump Park Avenue, a luxury building on Manhattans East Side, other people familiar with the matter said. He also owns a home on Long Island, according to public records. Mr. Calamari drove a Mercedes leased by the Trump Organization, according to those people.
The younger Mr. Calamari lives in Trump Parc East, which is across the street from Central Park, the records showed. Barry Weisselberg, the son of Allen Weisselberg, said in a 2018 deposition for his divorce that he lives in the same building.
It’s a corporate apartment, so we don’t have rent, said Barry, who also worked for the Trump Organization, on the deposition.
An attorney for Barry Weisselberg did not respond to a request for comment.
In 2019 testimony before the House Oversight Committee, former longtime Trump attorney Michael Cohen cited elderly Mr. Calamari as among the employees who could testify to what Mr. Cohen described as Mr. Trumps practice in raising his assets with insurance companies.
Elder Mr. Calamari has worked with the Trump Organization for nearly four decades. She began working for Mr. Trump as her bodyguard after she faced hecklers in the semifinals of the 1981 U.S. Open women, Mr. Calamari told Bloomberg in 2015. She said Ivana Trump, Mr. Trumps wife at the time , asked his name on his wives behalf Mr. Calamari was eventually upgraded to chief operating officer.
In his 2004 book, Trump: How to Get Rich, Mr. Trump wrote, After meeting Matthew, I realized he had more to offer than his job title should get. He described both Mr. Calamari and Mr. Weisselberg, among others, as home-managed, grand-slam people in the awards section.
Mr. Calamari is short on the payroll of Trump’s presidential campaigns, according to a Federal Election Commission filing. He was paid $ 4,322 in July 2016, records show.
The younger Mr. Calamari joined the company’s security team in 2011 and was named the company’s director of security in 2017, according to LinkedIn. He graduated high school in 2011.
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