Trump Organization could face criminal charges from Manhattan prosecutor -NY Times

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The Manhattan district attorney’s office has told lawyers for former U.S. President Donald Trump it is considering filing criminal charges against his family business in connection with fringe benefits it awarded a top executive, the New York Times reported on Friday.

The district attorney, Cyrus Vance, could announce charges against the Trump Organization and its chief financial officer Allen Weisselberg as soon as next week, the newspaper said, citing several people with knowledge of the matter.

Lawyers for the Trump Organization could not immediately be reached for comment.

Any criminal charges would be the first in Vance's probe into Trump and his business dealings.

Vance's office has said it was investigating "possibly extensive and protracted criminal conduct" at the Trump Organization, including tax and insurance fraud and falsification of business records.

Court filings and records subpoenaed in the investigation show that Weisselberg and his son Barry have received corporate perks and gifts worth tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars in their years associated with the Trump Organization.

If they failed to account properly for that money on tax returns and other financial filings, they could be in legal jeopardy, legal experts have said.

New York's attorney general, Letitia James, has also opened a criminal probe into Trump's company.

She has been investigating whether the Trump Organization falsely reported property values to secure loans and obtain economic and tax benefits.

(Reporting by Lisa Lambert and Paul Grant; Editing by Jonathan Oatis and Howard Goller)