On Thursday, at a virtual hearing in Scotland, attorney Kay Springham requested a judge to let the government issue an “unexplained wealth order (UWO) against the Trump Organization in Scotland according to The Scotsman. The attorney pointed out that the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office had filed tax fraud charges against both the Trump Organization and Allan Weisselberg, its chief financial officer, who had been a director at the Trump International Golf Club, Scotland.
Weisselberg had stepped down from his role of director of the golf club in Scotland shortly after he was indicted in New York according to a report by the Business Insider. Springham indicated that the charges against Weisselberg in New York was a reason for which the Scottish government should investigate if Trump had hidden the sources of his wealth.
She also suggested that the UWO also called the MacMafia Order might be extended to both Weisselberg and the Trump Organization. Weisselberg had been a director of Trump International Golf Club which is the holding company which owns Trump’s Aberdeenshire golf resort, the Trump International Golf Links.
The UWO is a recent legal instrument introduced by the United Kingdom. It was introduced in 2018. This new order can be used to investigate money laundering and other similar financial fraudulent activities.
According to The Scotsman Springham expressed substantial concerns about the financial arrangements of the Trump Organization. Avaaz, a nonprofit group, had earlier said that Trump had purchased his Scottish golf resorts as a part of a $400 spending spree. This raised questions about how these deals were financed.
Early this year, almost eight months ago, Green Party co-founder and a member of the Scottish Parliament Patrick Harvie had asked for a UWO investigation into Trump’s all cash purchases of golf courses. Prime Minister Nicola Sturgeon said that the government could not order a UWO and only law officers or independent prosecutors could do so.
Both Harvie and Avaaz are challenging this claim and Avaaz hired Springham to convince a judge that the prime minister had not interpreted the law correctly and that the elected ministers of Scotland could invoke their powers and investigate.
Lord Sandison has said that he will decide on the case. If the high court rules that the law has been misinterpreted as put forth by the human rights organization Avaaz’s hired lawyer Springham, then Scottish lawmakers will have to make a decision whether a UWO investigation against the Trump Organization could begin.
Image Gage Skidmore
