new york donald trumps company and its longtime finance chief were charged thursday in what a prosecutor called a sweeping and audacious tax fraud scheme that saw the trump executive allegedly receive more than 17 million in offthebooks compensation including apartment rent car payments and school tuitionit is the first criminal case new york authorities twoyear investigation into the former president has yielded according to the indictment filed wednesday and unveiled thursday from 2005 through this year cfo allen weisselberg and the trump organization cheated the state and city out of taxes by conspiring to pay senior executives off the booksboth weisselberg and lawyers for the trump organization pleaded not guiltyprosecutor carey dunne described a 15year scheme orchestrated by the most senior executivestrump himself was not charged at this stage of the investigation jointly pursued by manhattan district attorney cyrus vance jr and new york attorney general letitia james both democratsweiiselberg 73 was photographed walking into a building that houses both the criminal courts and the manhattan district attorneys office around 620 am thursday he was led into court in the afternoon with his hands cuffed behind his backweisselbergs lawyers mary mulligan and bryan skarlatos said in a statement before his appearance that the executive would fight these charges in court skarlatos later said dunnes remarks were misleading in regard to his clientweisselberg was ordered to surrender his passport after prosecutors called him a flight risk with access to private jets for foreign travel he was released without bail however and left the courthouse without commenting to assembled reportersa lieutenant to generations of trumps weisselberg has intimate knowledge of the former presidents business dealings and the case could give prosecutors the means to pressure him into cooperating with an ongoing probe into other aspects of the companys businessso far though theres no sign that the man regarded by trumps daughter ivanka as a fiercely loyal deputy whos stood alongside my father and our family for decades will suddenly turn on themin a thursday statement before the charges were unveiled the trump organization defended weisselberg saying the 48year employee was being used by vances office as a pawn in a scorchedearth attempt to harm the former presidenttrump a republican did not respond to reporters shouted questions about the case as he visited texas on wednesday earlier in the week he blasted new york prosecutors as rude nasty and totally biased and said his companys actions were standard practice throughout the us business community and in no way a crimehe issued a press release after the not guilty pleas once again excoriating the probe as a political witch huntdunne asserted politics played no role in the decision to bring chargespolitics has no role in the jury chamber and i can assure you it had no role here dunne saidin court trump organization lawyer alan futerfas said dunnes remarks sounded like a press releaseif the name of the company was something else these charges would not have been brought futerfas added outside courtvance