Balanced News: Trump Organization to be sentenced for tax fraud, faces fine

NEW YORK — The stiffest penalty Donald Trump’s company could receive when it is sentenced Friday by a New York judge for helping its executives dodge taxes is a $1.6 million fine — not even enough to buy a Trump Tower apartment. By law, the maximum penalty that can be imposed by Judge Juan Manuel Merchan is around $1.6 million, an amount equal to double the taxes a small group of executives avoided on benefits including rent-free apartments in Trump buildings, luxury cars and private school tuition. Besides the company, only one executive was charged in the case: former Trump Organization Chief Financial Officer Allen Weisselberg, who pleaded guilty last summer to evading taxes on $1.7 million in compensation.