Manhattan District Attorney Cy Vance brought the charges, working with attorneys from New York Attorney General Letitia James’s office. Both officials are Democrats, and former President Donald Trump has said their investigation is politically motivated.

The charges come after Manhattan prosecutors spent more than two years combing through the Trump Organization’s financial information. They also won a Supreme Court court fight to secure and scrutinize eight years’ worth of Trump’s personal tax returns.

The indictment focuses on how the Trump Organization provided some top executives with fringe benefits and perks.

It alleges that several top executives including Weisselberg received valuable perks that they did not pay taxes on. Those perks included private school tuition, apartments, and cars. Weisselberg is charged with evading payments on more than $900,000 in city, state and federal taxes due to the scheme, the indictment alleges. It also alleges he received more than $133,000 in tax refunds that he wasn’t entitled to. Prosecutors allege that the scheme ran over the course of 15 years.

The charges do not name the former president or members of his family. Investigators have said their work is ongoing.

Trump’s legal team argued in comments outside the courtroom that the investigation was politically motivated. Weisselberg's indictment may also disappoint Trump’s political opponents, who for years hoped his tax returns would include evidence of criminal activity that could put the former president himself in personal legal jeopardy.

The Trump Organization, meanwhile, on Thursday accused the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office of using the company’s chief financial officer Allen Weisselberg as a “pawn” in a political crusade against former President Donald Trump, while avoiding any specific denials of wrongdoing by the newly indicted top executive. The Trump Organization described Weisselberg as “a loving and devoted husband, father and grandfather,” who “is now being used” by Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr. “as a pawn in a scorched earth attempt to harm the former President.”

Vance “is bringing a criminal prosecution involving employee benefits that neither the IRS nor any other District Attorney would ever think of bringing,” the Trump Organization added. “This is not justice; this is politics.”

Weisselberg’s lawyer, Mary Mulligan, said in a statement that her client “intends to plead not guilty” and “will fight these charges in court.”

Trump did not respond to reporters’ shouted questions about the New York case as he visited Texas on Wednesday. But earlier in the week, he had blasted the New York prosecutors as “rude, nasty, and totally biased,” and said his company’s actions were “standard practice throughout the U.S. business community, and in no way a crime.”

The White House did not weigh in directly on the expected indictments, although deputy press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters aboard Air Force One on Thursday that President Joe Biden “has made clear that it’s long past due for the wealthiest Americans to pay their fair share.”

Vance's office has looked into alleged "hush-money" payments paid to women on Trump’s behalf and the company's property valuations and tax assessments, among other matters.

Weisselberg, 73, came under scrutiny, in part, because of questions about his son’s use of a Trump apartment at little or no cost. Barry Weisselberg, who managed a Trump-operated ice rink in Central Park, testified in a 2018 divorce deposition that Trump Park East apartment was a “corporate apartment, so we didn’t have rent.”

Barry’s ex-wife, Jen Weisselberg, has been cooperating with both inquiries and given investigators reams of tax records and other documents.

Duncan Levin, Jen Weisselberg's lawyer, told POLITICO that his client made the case possible. She met with prosecutors numerous times to discuss the perks her ex-husband’s family members received.

“The case is a very serious one involving millions of dollars of fringe benefits having been paid out in lieu of salary,” Levin told POLITICO, “and Jen Weisselberg was privy to firsthand conversations about the payment of some of these fringe benefits, and she reported those conversations to prosecutors.”

“The fact that these charges are coming now is indisputably the direct result of the work that Jen Weisselberg has done in putting together leads for the prosecutors and providing documents to them to support these charges,” Levin added. “I think that her cooperation has been invaluable to them, and we are very gratified to see them moving forward.”

The Trump Organization is the business entity through which the former president manages his many entrepreneurial affairs, including his investments in office towers, hotels and golf courses, his many marketing deals, and his television pursuits.

Trump’s sons, Donald Jr. and Eric, have been in charge of the company’s day-to-day operations since he became president.

James Repetti, a tax lawyer and professor at Boston College Law School, said a company like the Trump Organization would generally have a responsibility to withhold taxes not just on salary, but other forms of compensation — like the use of an apartment or automobile.

Such perks wouldn’t be considered taxable income if they were required as a condition of employment, Repetti said — including providing an apartment for the convenience of an employee who is required to be at the office or worksite at odd or frequent hours, or allowing the use of a car for business purposes.

Another prominent New York City real estate figure, the late Leona Helmsley, was convicted of tax fraud in a federal case that arose from her company paying to remodel her home without her reporting that as income.

“The IRS routinely looks for abuse of fringe benefits when auditing closely held businesses,” Repetti said. “The temptation for the business is that it claims a tax deduction for the expense, while the recipient does not report it in income.”

Regardless of whether a jury finds the company guilty or innocent, the indictment could be a body blow. Many banks and lenders refuse to do business with entities that are under indictment. And many loans include clauses saying the banks can force borrowers to pay them back immediately if they are criminally charged. Eventual exculpation will not reverse those financial consequences, which is why many prosecutors are hesitant to charge companies.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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