Trump Org’s former CFO pleads guilty to perjury
Allen Weisselberg, the former chief financial officer for the Trump Organization, pleaded guilty to perjury Monday for lying at former President Donald Trump’s civil fraud trial.
Prosecutors in Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s office had accused Weisselberg of lying under oath when he answered questions in a deposition in May and at the October trial about allegations that Trump lied about his wealth on financial statements given to banks and insurance companies.
Weisselberg will be sentenced to five months in jail, the judge said. Sentencing is scheduled April 10.
“Allen Weisselberg looks forward to putting this situation behind him,” his lawyer Seth Rosenberg said in a statement.
Weisselberg has already served a jail term for tax fraud and falsification of business records in an unrelated case. But he received a $2 million settlement when leaving the Trump Organization and hasn’t cooperated with government lawyers while testifying at
Trump’s fraud trial.
The civil fraud trial resulted in a $454 million judgment against Trump for inflating the value of his real estate to get benefits such as lower interest rates from lenders.
The perjury conviction could serve as a warning to other witnesses in Bragg’s trial against Trump on criminal charges of falsifying business records, which is set to begin March 25. Trump has pleaded not guilty.
During Trump’s civil fraud trial, Weisselberg testified in October that he “never focused” on the square footage of Trump’s penthouse apartment in Trump Tower.
Trump’s financial statements listed the apartment as nearly three times the actual size of 10,996 square feet, which resulted in a $200 million overstatement of its value.
But Forbes magazine had discussed the apartment’s value with Weisselberg for years while estimating Trump’s net worth.
New York Judge Arthur Engoron wrote in his judgment about the case that Weisselberg’s testimony was “intentionally evasive, with large gaps of ‘I don’t remember.’ ”