The Trump Organization’s former chief financial officer, who pleaded guilty in a New York court on Thursday, had ties to the former Trump International Hotel and Tower in Vancouver.
Allen Weisselberg began working for Donald Trump since 1973 and was charged in July 2021 over a 15-year tax fraud scheme. He admitted paying no taxes on US$1.76 million income, expenses and benefits. Under the plea bargain, he is required to repay US$2 million in taxes, interest and penalties, spend five months in jail and five years on probation.
Weisselberg is also expected to testify in court against two Trump companies during a trial beginning in late October.
In Trump’s first disclosure of his presidency, he told the United States Office of Government Ethics that there were four holding companies associated with the hotel in the 63-storey, Arthur Erickson-designed skyscraper on West Georgia: DT Marks Vancouver LP, DT Marks Vancouver Manager Corp., THC Vancouver Management Corp., and THC Vancouver Payroll ULC.
DT Marks Vancouver LP earned over $5 million in income from a hotel licensing deal, while THC Vancouver Management Corp. earned Trump only $21,576.
The hotel was built and operated by a subsidiary of Malaysian-owned TA Global Berhad, but THC Vancouver Payroll ULC was the only one of the companies registered in British Columbia.
It incorporated in February 2015 with Donald Trump the sole director and the records office is the Owen Bird law firm. By February 2016, directors also included Trump Hotels CEO Eric Danziger, Trump Organization senior vice-president Rhona Graff-Riccio, Ivanka Trump, Donald Trump Jr. and Weisselberg.
Danziger, Trump Jr., brother Eric and sister Tiffany were part of the entourage that opened the hotel in February 2017.
Donald Trump ceased to be a director of the B.C. company the day before his January 2017 presidential inauguration, leaving Donald Trump Jr. and Weisselberg on the registry.
Weisselberg’s name was removed on June 25, 2021, the week before the indictment against him and the Trump Organization and Trump Payroll Corp. was unsealed.
In 2020, the hotel’s operator, TA Hotel Management Partnership Ltd., filed for bankruptcy. It reopened last spring as the rebranded Paradox Hotel.
