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The former chief financial officer of the Trump Organization was sentenced to five months in prison Wednesday for perjury stemming from former President Trump’s civil fraud case.
Allen Weisselberg, Trump’s longtime financial gatekeeper, pleaded guilty to two counts of felony perjury last month as part of a deal with the Manhattan district attorney’s office. LOCK HIM UP
The charges stemmed from a 2020 deposition with the New York attorney general’s office as it built its sprawling civil fraud case against the Trump Organization, but as part of the deal, he also admitted to lying during his trial testimony and another deposition last year.
In his July 17, 2020, deposition with the attorney general’s office, state lawyers questioned Weisselberg over the size of Trump’s Manhattan triplex apartment in Trump Tower. The property was listed on the former president’s financial statements as 30,000 square feet in size, but it is actually less than 11,000 square feet.
Weisselberg told state lawyers he “didn’t find out about the error” in the triplex’s listed size until Forbes reported it and that he was never present when Trump described the size of the property. He has now admitted that both remarks were untrue.
The inquiry into Weisselberg’s perjury was spurred by his October testimony in the civil fraud trial, in which he was also a defendant. Without pleading guilty to a specific charge, he admitted as part of his plea deal that he falsely testified he “never focused” on the triplex throughout the course of his work for the Trump Organization.
Prosecutors with the district attorney’s office said in charging documents that the Trump Tower triplex’s size was “material” to the attorney general’s investigation.
The civil fraud trial ended earlier this year with a New York judge ruling that Trump and top executives, including Weisselberg, conspired to alter the former president’s net worth for tax and insurance benefits.
Weisselberg was ordered to pay more than $1.1 million, plus interest, and barred for three years from serving in top leadership positions in any New York corporation or business entity. He was also barred for life from serving “in the financial control function” of any New York business.
In a statement, Weisselberg lawyer Seth Rosenberg said the ex-CFO accepted responsibility for his conduct and “now looks forward to the end of this life-altering experience and to returning to his family and his retirement.”
Trump was ordered to pay $454 million, plus interest, and faced similar business-related penalties. All penalties are paused for the time being, while the defendants appeal, after they posted a $175 million bond in the case.
thehill.com |
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