According to people familiar with the situation, the New York attorney general’s office has been investigating the former President Donald J. Trump’s company’s chief financial officer for months over tax concerns. According to the people, the office of the attorney general, Letitia James, informed the Trump Organization in January that a criminal investigation into the chief financial officer, Allen Weissenberg, had been launched. Investigators looked at whether Mr. Trump’s fringe benefits, such as cars and tens of thousands of dollars in private school tuition for at least one of Mr. Weissenberg’s grandchildren, were taxed.
Ms. James’ office had previously only conducted a civil investigation into the Trump Organization, which meant it could sue the firm and demand damages but not criminal charges.
The attention on benefits and Mr. Weissenberg coincides with a long-running federal fraud investigation into Mr. Trump and his family company by the Manhattan district attorney. According to The New York Times, the district attorney’s office is investigating the degree to which Mr. Trump provided fringe benefits to some of his executives, including Mr. Weissenberg, and whether taxes were paid on those benefits.
According to one of the individuals, Ms. James’ office recently indicated to the organization in a new letter that the criminal investigation has broadened beyond Mr. Weissenberg. It wasn’t clear how the investigation had broadened. Fringe benefits, such as vehicles, flights, and club memberships, are generally taxable, but there are several exceptions. The withholding of such taxes from an employee’s paycheck is usually the responsibility of the employer.
Rather than risk colliding, the two investigation offices recently started working together, according to another source familiar with the situation. According to people familiar with the campaign, two assistant attorneys general from Ms. James’ office have joined the district attorney’s team, which has been attempting to turn Mr. Weissenberg into a cooperating witness against Mr. Trump and the Trump Organization. Mr. Weissenberg has never been charged with a crime. Mary E. Mulligan, his lawyer, declined to comment.
The partnership was announced Tuesday by the attorney general’s office, which said, “We are now aggressively investigating the Trump Organization in a criminal capacity, along with the Manhattan D.A.” The office did not respond to a request for additional information, and the district attorney’s office also declined to comment.
Ms. James and the district attorney, Cyrus R. Vance Jr., have looked into whether Mr. Trump’s company inflated the value of his assets to get favorable loans and reduced the prices to save money on taxes. Mr. Trump described the efforts as a “investigation in desperate pursuit of a crime” in a lengthy statement released Wednesday. Mr. Trump, a Republican, criticized both investigations as politically motivated fishing expeditions, as he has in the past. Mr. Vance and Ms. James are also members of the Democratic Party.
Advisers have characterized Mr. Trump as irritated by the two investigations. He decamped to Trump Tower for his first extended stay in years, spending time at the office where aides have been dealing with the investigations for months, since transferring last week from his private Florida club, Mar-a-Lago, to another of his clubs in New Jersey.
