New York prosecutors are reportedly looking into whether an ex-bodyguard to former President Trump received tax-free fringe benefits as part of his work with the Trump Organization.
The Wall Street Journal reported on Monday that prosecutors are looking into Trump Organization executive Matthew Calamari to determine if he received gifts from the company that he did not pay taxes on.
Sources familiar with the matter told the Journal that Calamari has lived at the luxury Trump Park Avenue apartment building for years and has driven a Mercedes leased through the Trump Organization.
Calamari reportedly first began working for Trump in 1981 as a bodyguard after he tackled a heckler at the U.S. Open women’s semifinal. He was eventually promoted to chief operating officer.
In his 2004 book, “Trump: How to Get Rich,” the future president mentioned Calamari, writing that he “had a lot more to offer than his job title warranted,” according to the Journal.
Calamari’s son, Matthew Calamari Jr., who works as corporate director of security for the Trump organization, lives in the Trump Parc East apartment building in what a former employee of the Trump administration once said was a corporate apartment for which he did not have to pay rent, the Journal reported.
Prosecutors have reportedly advised both Calamaris to hire their own lawyers, indicating that their investigation is intensifying. However, neither Trump Organization employee has been accused of any wrongdoing.
In coordination with the New York attorney general’s office, Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr. has been investigating the Trump Organization and its executives over potential fraud violations.
Trump’s former personal attorney Michael Cohen said in 2019 testimony in front of the House Oversight and Reform Committee that the elder Calamari would have information that backed up his claims that Trump inflated the value of his assets over the years for insurance purposes.
After news of prosecutors looking into Calamari broke, Cohen tweeted, “One by one…the house built on lies will fall!”