Ivanka Trump, Donald Trump, Allen Weisselberg, Donald Trump, Jr. (Timothy A. Clary/AFP/Getty Images)
The former longtime CFO of the Trump Organization, himself already convicted of a slew of financial crimes, has now admitted to perjuring himself as New York Attorney General Letitia James (D) undertook a massive civil fraud probe into former President Donald Trump’s business empire.
Allen Weisselberg appeared in New York Supreme Court to plead guilty to two felonies on Monday morning before Judge Laurie Peterson. Thereafter, the judge set sentencing for April 10. In New York, first-degree perjury is committed when someone “swears falsely and when his false statement (a) consists of testimony, and (b) is material to the action, proceeding or matter in which it is made.”
A class D nonviolent felony, first-degree perjury is punishable by up to 7 years in prison. But between Weisselberg’s decision to plead guilty, his age — 76 — and the reported five-month sentence recommended by prosecutors, the defendant does not appear to face a stiff punishment, as was the case when he was sentenced the first time around and released from Rikers Island early for good behavior.
The court docket in the criminal case against Weisselberg lists the date of the two first-degree perjury offenses as July, 16, 2020, which is the first day of Weisselberg’s two-day initial sworn testimony in AG James’ investigation pursuant to a subpoena.
According to prosecutors, however, the lies to which Weisselberg pleaded guilty were told on July 17, 2020, when the AG pressed him on whether he was “ever present” when Trump described the size of his Trump Tower triplex.
“No,” Weisselberg responded to that question.
Prosecutors said that, on the contrary, Weisselberg was “present” on Sept. 21, 2015 when Trump “stated to a Forbes reporter that the size of his triplex was 33,000 square feet,” overestimating the square footage by a factor of three.
Recall that, well before the civil fraud case led to a $364 million dollar penalty and then some, Trump attorneys in the former president’s civil fraud case incited the ire of Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Arthur Engoron when they argued that calculating square footage was a “subjective process.”
“In opposition, defendants absurdly suggest that ‘the calculation of square footage is a subjective process that could lead to differing results or opinions based on the method employed to conduct the calculation,”” Engoron wrote, before adding: “A discrepancy of this order of magnitude, by a real estate developer sizing up his own living space of decades, can only be considered fraud.”
Weisselberg was also asked if he “advised any financial institutions” that a 2015 statement of financial condition contained the triplex calculation “error.”
“Well, we didn’t find out about the error until the Forbes article came out,” he answered.
Prosecutors said that, again, that was not true.
“Whereas, in truth and in fact, as the defendant knew, that testimony was false, and the truth was that the defendant was informed that the triplex was 10,996 square feet—not 30,000 square feet—prior to the publication of the May 2017 Forbes article and before the finalization on March 10, 2017 of the 2016 SOFC, which valued the triplex based on the misstatement of 30,000 square feet,” prosecutors said.
Weisselberg’s defense attorney Seth Rosenberg, reached for comment by Law&Crime, said his client “looks forward to putting this situation behind him.”
Read Weisselberg’s criminal information here.
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