The Trump Organization bribed New York City tax officials to lower its property tax for multiple buildings in Manhattan, ProPublica reported in a bombshell investigation.

Two former tax assessors told ProPublica they personally received illicit payments from the Trump Organization, and three former assessors said they had indirect knowledge of such payments. The Trump Organization denies these allegations.

One of the former assessors, Frank Valvo, served a year and a half in prison for his role in the scheme and told ProPublica there was "palpable" excitement in the office when they learned the Trump Organization had agreed to pay the bribes.

Describing how one of the assessors revealed the news, Valvo recalled, "He says, 'We got Trump!' Wow. Holy smokes."

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The Trump Organization bribed New York City tax officials to lower its property tax for multiple properties in Manhattan in the 1980s and 1990s, ProPublica reported, citing five former tax assessors and a former Trump Organization employee.

The report said two of the five assessors said they personally received illicit payments from the Trump Organization to artificially lower the property taxes on a Trump property, and the other three claimed they had indirect knowledge of such payments. The Trump organization denied these allegations to ProPublica.

Alan Garten, the Trump Organization's chief legal officer, said in a statement to ProPublica, "To be clear, at no time did the Trump Organization or any of its employees or principals ever pay anyone for the purpose of unlawfully obtaining a lower tax evaluation."

He added: "This was corroborated by multiple investigations which found no evidence of any wrongdoing by the company or any of its principals … if anything the Trump Organization was a victim of the scandal."

According to ProPublica, the five city tax assessors were indicted along with 13 others in 2002 for accepting bribes in exchange for lowering the tax value of real estate properties.

One of the indicted assessors, Frank Valvo, served a year and a half in prison for his role and told ProPublica there was "palpable" excitement in the office when they learned the Trump Organization had agreed to pay the bribes.

Describing how one of the assessors revealed the news, Valvo recalled, "He says, 'We got Trump!' Wow. Holy smokes."

President Donald Trump has been at the center of several financial scandals. The New York Times reported last year that Trump used a series of dubious tax schemes to shield a $400 million inheritance from the IRS.

And in September, Mother Jones published an investigation that found that Trump might have fabricated a loan to avoid paying $50 million in income taxes.

But Trump has long maintained that he has committed no financial or tax crimes. He has said he can't release his tax returns because they are under audit, even though there is no rule to prevent him from doing so.

The president's financial dealings are also at the center of a number of lawsuits.

Last year, the Supreme Court agreed to take up three major cases regarding Trump's taxes and financial records.

In all three cases, lower courts rejected Trump's arguments and said the president has to turn over his records to congressional and New York state investigators.

Two of the cases involve congressional subpoenas from Democratic-led committees investigating Trump's financial background. The third relates to the Manhattan district attorney's office's efforts to obtain Trump's business records to investigate whether the Trump Organization broke state law.

The Supreme Court is scheduled to begin hearing the cases this month and will come to a ruling by the end of its term in June. Currently, the court has a 5-4 conservative majority, and two of the justices, Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh, are Trump appointees.