Trump CFO removed from subsidiaries
Corporate filings show Weisselberg no longer in leadership role at over 40 units
The Trump Organization has removed indicted Chief Financial Officer Allen Weisselberg from his leadership roles at more than 40 subsidiary companies, according to corporate filings in the U.S. and Scotland.
The changes were made Thursday and Friday, a week after a grand jury in Manhattan indicted Weisselberg on 15 felony counts, including grand larceny and tax fraud. Weisselberg was accused by New York prosecutors of helping run a 15-year scheme to evade income taxes by concealing executive’s salaries.Two Trump corporate entities were indicted alongside Weisselberg.
On Thursday, the Trump Organization removed Weisselberg as a director of the company that runs its golf course in Aberdeen, Scotland, according to British corporate records. The next day, the company filed paperwork in Florida to remove Weisselberg as a director at 40 subsidiaries registered in the state, according to an online database of Florida records.
Those subsidiaries included a holding company that owns many Trump businesses, a corporate entity that handles payroll for many Trump employees, and even a Trump project in Fort Lauderdale that went bust more than a decade ago.
Previously, Weisselberg had shared the leadership of these companies with one of Trump’s adult sons or, in the case of the Mar-a-Lago Club in Palm Beach, with Trump himself. Now, records show, the Trump family members are left in charge.
The Florida filings were first reported by the Wall Street Journal.
The removal of Weisselberg’s name from these corporate filings could avoid questions from regulators, lenders or vendors, by leaving out the name of an indicted executive, but it may not change much in the companies’ operations.
On paper, the Trump Organization is a web of interconnected entities, each with its own set of officers. In practice, however, the subsidiaries have all been run by the same small group of executives at Trump Tower in New York, including Trump, his adult sons and Weisselberg.
The Journal reported Monday that Weisselberg remains chief financial officer of the Trump Organization as a whole.
A person familiar with the company told The Washington Post, “Allen Weisselberg’s at the company. He’s got a job. He’s going to remain at the company.”
The Trump Organization did not respond to questions about the changes in Weisselberg’s roles on Monday. An attorney for Weisselberg, Mary Mulligan, declined to comment.
The 73-year-old has worked for Trump’s company since the 1970s. When Trump entered the White House in 2017, he left the company’s day-to-day leadership in the hands of Weisselberg and his sons Eric and Donald Jr.
Now, prosecutors in New York have charged Weisselberg with helping orchestrate a scheme that concealed some of the income of top Trump executives, including himself.
Prosecutors said that some executive salary would be paid in noncash benefits such as free apartments, cars or tuition help. Then, prosecutors said, Weisselberg and others hid that income from taxing authorities and thus avoided paying payroll and income taxes on it.
Weisselberg himself evaded more than $900,000 in taxes, prosecutors said.
Trump has not been charged in the investigation, led by Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr. and New York Attorney General Leititia James, both Democrats. Vance and James have said the investigation is continuing.
Prosecutors hoped that Weisselberg would flip, and seek to lower his own legal risk by agreeing to testify against Trump, according to one person familiar with the investigation. But Weisselberg pleaded not guilty, and his lawyers said he intended to fight the charges.