Former Trump Organization chief financial officer Allen Weisselberg was sentenced Wednesday to five months in prison after pleading guilty to lying under oath during his testimony in the civil fraud case brought against former President Trump by the New York attorney general. Letitia James.
Weisselberg, 76, pleaded guilty March 4 to two counts of perjury. He admitted to lying under oath on three occasions (depositions in July 2020 and May 2023 and on the witness stand at trial last October) when he testified that he had little knowledge of how Trump’s Manhattan penthouse came to be valued in its financial statements at almost three times their actual size.
However, to avoid violating his probation in a separate tax case, Weisselberg agreed to plead guilty only to charges related to his 2020 deposition testimony.
Weisselberg, wearing a black windbreaker and a surgical mask, declined to address the court during the brief sentencing, which lasted less than five minutes. He was quickly escorted out of the courtroom in handcuffs after the procedure to begin serving his sentence, The Associated Press reported.
The civil fraud trial ended with Judge Arthur Engoron ruling that Trump and some of his executives had planned to deceive banks, insurers and others by lying about their wealth in financial statements used to do business and obtain loans. The judge fined Trump $455 million and ordered Weisselberg to pay $1 million. They are both attractive.
ALLEN WEISSELBERG, FORMER CFO OF TRUMP ORG, PLED GUILTY IN MANHATTAN COURT
Allen Weisselberg, right, stands behind then-President-elect Donald Trump during a press conference in the lobby of Trump Tower in New York on January 11, 2017. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci, File)
In his decision, Engoron said he found Weisselberg’s testimony “intentionally evasive” and “highly unreliable.”
It will be Weisselberg’s second time behind bars. The former Trump Organization chief financial officer served 100 days in prison last year for evading taxes on $1.7 million in company profits, including a free Manhattan apartment and luxury cars. He will now once again trade his life as a Florida retiree for a stay at the famous Rikers Island prison complex in New York City.
Trump’s family employed Weisselberg for nearly 50 years and then gave him a $2 million severance package when tax charges led him to retire. The company continues to pay his legal bills.
Allen Weisselberg, former executive of former President Trump’s real estate empire, arrives at court in New York on Wednesday, April 10, 2024. (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura)
ALLEN WEISSELBERG, FORMER CFO OF THE TRUMP ORGANIZATION, SENTENCED TO 5 MONTHS AFTER PLED GUILTY TO TAX CRIMES
Weisselberg has already testified twice in trials for Trump. His plea deal does not require him to testify in Trump’s criminal hush money trial, which is scheduled to begin with jury selection on Monday. In accepting a five-month sentence, prosecutors cited Weisselberg’s age and his willingness to admit wrongdoing. In New York, perjury is a felony punishable by up to seven years in prison. Prosecutors promised not to prosecute Weisselberg for other crimes he may have committed in connection with his employment with the Trump Organization.
Trump’s lawyers took issue with Weisselberg’s perjury prosecution, accusing the Manhattan district attorney’s office of deploying “unethical and violent tactics against an innocent man in his 70s” while turning a “blind eye” to the allegations. of perjury against Michael Cohen, the former Trump. The lawyer who is now a key prosecution witness in the case against Trump involving hush payments to adult film actress Stormy Daniels.
Allen Weisselberg, former executive of former President Trump’s real estate empire, arrives for his sentencing in New York on Wednesday, April 10, 2024. (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura)
Prosecutors from Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s office and Weisselberg’s attorney, Seth Rosenberg, declined to address the court, according to the AP.
Trump valued the penthouse in his financial statements from at least 2012 to 2016 as measuring 30,000 square feet. A former Trump real estate executive testified that Weisselberg provided the figure. The former executive said that when he asked about the size of the apartment in 2012, Weisselberg responded: “It’s pretty big. I think it’s about 30,000 square feet.”
However, state attorneys noted, Weisselberg received an email earlier that year with an attachment from 1994 that pegged Trump’s apartment at 10,996 square feet. Weisselberg testified that he remembered the email but not the attachment and that he did not “walk in knowing the size” of the apartment.
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After Forbes magazine published an article in 2017 questioning the size of Trump’s penthouse, its estimated value on his financial statement dropped from $327 million to approximately $117 million.
While Weisselberg was testifying last October, Forbes published an article with the headline “Trump’s Veteran CFO Lied, Under Oath, About Trump Tower Penthouse.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
