(NewsInsights.org) – Allen Weisselberg served the Trump Organization for 50 years, serving as Chief Financial Officer (CFO) and vice president of Trump Hotels and Casino Resorts before he stepped down in 2023. Donald Trump trusted him to operate the company on a day-to-day basis after he won the 2016 presidential election. Yet, on Monday, March 4, Weisselberg, 76, pleaded guilty to felony perjury charges in a Manhattan plea agreement.
The plea follows on the heels of completing a five-month sentence at Riker’s Island, where he stayed in the prison infirmary. The former CFO pleaded guilty in 2022 to 15 counts of criminal tax fraud, grand larceny, and falsifying business records brought against him by the Manhattan District Attorney’s office. Based on the new plea agreement, prosecutors are seeking another five-month sentence, acknowledging Weisselberg’s age and health conditions.
The accountant also featured in the recent Trump civil trial brought by New York Attorney General Letitia James and admitted to lying in depositions. However, prosecutors didn’t force him to plead guilty to that perjury as part of the plea agreement. In that case, Judge Arthur Engoron found that the Trump Organization had vastly inflated property values to obtain loans while severely undervaluing those same properties for tax purposes.
Engoron penalized former President Trump with fines exceeding $450 million plus interest and banned him from doing business in New York for three years. The judge also levied more than $1 million in fines and interest on Weisselberg and prohibited him from serving any New York company in a financial capacity.
Weisselberg fashioned an agreement in which he only pleaded guilty to perjury on statements he made in 2020 before his first conviction for tax fraud. That distinction allowed him to avoid classification as a two-time felon and reduced his sentence, according to The New York Times.
The Trump Organization reportedly gifted Weisselberg a $2-million severance package, paid in installments over several years, when he left the company in 2023 after 50 years of dedicated service. In his February decision, Judge Engoron called the former CFO a “highly unreliable” witness and concluded that the severance package maintained Weisselberg’s loyalty to the Trump family.
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