Trump companies would be indicted for tax offenses 0:52
(CNN) -
Trump Organization CFO Allen Weisselberg turned himself in to the Manhattan district attorney's office Thursday morning ahead of the expected announcement of criminal charges against him and the company in connection with alleged tax offenses, his lawyer to CNN.
Weisselberg will be arraigned later Thursday in lower Manhattan court.
A Manhattan investigative jury indicts the Trump Organization and its chief financial officer Allen Weisselberg, sources say
A Manhattan grand jury filed the allegations Wednesday, and they are scheduled to be unveiled around 2 p.m. ET Thursday, according to two sources familiar with the matter.
The exact type or number of charges they are expected to face was unclear at this time.
Although former President Donald Trump faced multiple investigations by federal and state prosecutors during his administration, the district attorney's indictment would be the first to target his eponymous company, the Trump Organization, for events that occurred when he ran it.
Trump himself is not expected to be charged, his attorney has said.
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Trump Organization CFO Allen Weisselberg is a close associate of former President Donald Trump.
Two years of research
The indictment against the Trump Organization is the product of more than two years of investigation by the district attorney, Cyrus Vance Jr, an investigation that began with questions about accounting practices linked to payments of money to keep quiet conducted by the former attorney of Trump, Michael Cohen, and that ultimately led to a fight in the Supreme Court over a subpoena of Trump's tax documents.
It is unusual, according to tax evasion attorneys, for prosecutors to file charges solely related to fringe benefits provided by a company, and in recent weeks, attorneys for the Trump Organization met with prosecutors from the office of Vance, hoping to persuade them not to present the case.
"It is outrageous.
It is unprecedented.
It's never happened before, ”Trump's attorney Ron Fischetti said last week in connection with the indictment of a company for failing to pay taxes on profits.
Throughout the investigation, prosecutors have examined a wide range of possible violations, including whether the real estate company misled lenders and insurers or committed tax fraud, and even added a special prosecutor, Mark Pomerantz, to assist in the extensive investigation.
But in recent months, the focus has shifted to income taxes.
Criminal investigation into Trump Organization begins 2:01
Weisselberg's role
In particular, it came to focus on Weisselberg, Trump's longtime deputy, a senior company executive who has worked for him since 1973.
Starting late last year, prosecutors gathered evidence on Weisselberg with the cooperation of his ex-wife, Jennifer Weisselberg.
In the months since he began speaking with authorities, he has turned over boxes full of financial records and met with investigators multiple times, his lawyer told CNN.
The documents of Jennifer Weisselberg's divorce from Allen Weisselberg's son, Barry, show thousands of dollars in car payments, rent, educational tuition, medical bills and more, going from Allen Weisselberg to his son's family.
An indictment against Weisselberg would intensify pressure for him to cooperate with prosecutors in their broad investigation into Trump, the company and its executives, an outcome prosecutors have been seeking for months but that his lawyers have told authorities they have rejected.
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