The former chief financier of the Trump "Empire" is sentenced for perjury

2024-04-10 20:36:00, Kosova & Bota CNA

The former chief financier of the Trump "Empire" is sentenced for

Allen Weisselberg

Allen Weisselberg, the former chief executive of Donald Trump's real estate empire, was sentenced Wednesday to five months in prison for perjury during his statements in the former US President's civil case for wealth fraud.

The 76-year-old, now retired, pleaded guilty last month to two counts of lying when he testified he had little knowledge of how Mr Trump's Manhattan apartment was declared on his financial statements to be worth three times more than the real.

Asked if he wanted to express himself during the hearing this Wednesday, Mr. Weisselberg answered: "No, honorable judge." He was escorted from the courtroom in handcuffs after a hearing that lasted less than 5 minutes.

It is the second time that Allen Weisselberg is behind bars. The former Trump Organization chief financier served 100 days in jail last year for tax evasion on $1.7 million in employee benefits, including a rent-free Manhattan apartment and luxury cars.

He will now serve his sentence at Rikers Island prison in New York City.

The two cases highlight Mr. Weisselberg's unwavering loyalty to Donald Trump, the candidate expected to secure the Republican nomination for the presidential race.

The Trump family employed Mr. Weisselberg for nearly 50 years and offered him a $2 million severance package when allegations of tax evasion forced him to retire. The company continues to pay his legal defense bills.

Mr. Weisselberg testified twice in Mr. Trump's trials, but on each occasion he tried hard to suggest that his boss had not committed any serious legal violations. The guilty plea does not compel him to testify in former President Trump's criminal trial for concealing a payment made to a pornographic actress in exchange for her silence, which is expected to begin jury selection on Monday.

In the deal reached to sentence Mr. Weisselberg to five months in prison, prosecutors noted his age and willingness to plead guilty. In New York, perjury is punishable by up to 7 years in prison.

Prosecutors have promised not to investigate Mr. Weisselberg for other crimes he may have committed related to the Trump Organization.

The latest sentence appears to be a repeat of his previous case, in which he was sentenced to 5 months in prison but was released after just over three months for good behaviour. He had not committed any legal offense before.

Mr. Trump's lawyers accused the Manhattan District Attorney's office of acting in ethical violations and using strong-arm tactics against an innocent elderly man while turning a blind eye to perjury charges against Michael Cohen, the former lawyer. to Mr. Trump, now a key witness for the prosecution in the case against the former President for concealing the payment to the actress Stormey Daniels.

Prosecutors from the Manhattan District Attorney's office, Alvin Bragg, and Mr. Weisselberg's lawyer, Seth Rosenberg, declined to address the court.

Mr. Weisselberg pleaded guilty on March 4. He admitted to making false statements on three occasions while testifying in the lawsuit filed by New York Attorney General Letitia James against Mr. Trump: in statements made in July 2020 and May 2023 and in trial testimony last October. To avoid violating his probation in the tax case, he agreed to plead guilty only to charges related to the 2020 testimony.

The size of Mr Trump's Manhattan apartment was a key issue in the wealth fraud case.

In asset statements from at least 2012 to 2016, Mr. Trump stated that his apartment had an area of ??2,800 square meters.

A former executive at the Trump company testified that he got this figure from Mr. Weisselberg. The former manager said that when he asked about the area of ??the apartment in 2012, Mr. Weisselberg had replied: "It is quite big. I think it's about 2,800 square feet.

However, state lawyers noted that Mr. Weisselberg received an email earlier that year that attached a document from 1994 that listed the apartment as 1,022 square feet. Mr. Weisselberg testified that he remembered the e-mail but not the attached document.

After Forbes magazine published an article in 2017 questioning the apartment's acreage, its valuation in the wealth declaration dropped from $327 million to $117 million.

In February, Judge Arthur Engoron ruled against former President Donald Trump and several of his executives for what the judge called a multiyear scheme to defraud banks and others through financial statements that artificially inflated the value of Mr. Trump's wealth, with in order for him to secure business deals and loans with better terms.

The judge fined Mr. Trump $455 million and ordered Mr. Weisselberg to pay $1 million. Both are in the process of appealing against this decision.