Former Trump Organization CFO Allen Weisselberg sentenced for perjury

Release time：2024-05-21 10:31:23 Source：World Watch news portal

Less than a year after he was released from jail, former Trump Organization chief financial officer Allen Weisselberg is heading back.

Weisselberg was sentenced Wednesday to five months in New York City's Rikers Island jail complex, in line with a plea agreement reached with prosecutors over perjury he committed in a 2023 civil fraud case.  

Weisselberg pleaded guilty in March to two felony counts of perjury. The Manhattan District Attorney's Office said he admitted to giving false testimony regarding the size of former President Donald Trump's triplex apartment in New York during a July deposition.

Prosecutors initially charged Weisselberg with three additional counts of perjury, but their agreement allowed him to avoid pleading guilty to those charges. 

One of those initial counts was related to false sworn testimony on May 12, 2023, in a discovery deposition. The other two counts stemmed from Weisselberg's October 10, 2023, testimony in his civil fraud trial, in which he and longtime former boss Donald Trump were found liable for fraud and other related allegations.

Weisselberg spoke once during the brief, two-minute hearing, after Justice Laurie Peterson asked if he had anything to say. "No, your honor," Weisselberg replied. Moments later he was led out of the courtroom in handcuffs.

New York State Attorney General Letitia James had accused Trump and his associates, including Weisselberg, of inflating the value of the Trump Organization to receive favorable loans and other benefits. That civil case ended with a judge ordering the former president to pay more than $450 million, including interest.

Weisselberg was found liable for fraud and ordered to pay $1 million plus interest. During the fraud trial, he acknowledged receiving $2 million in severance after leaving the Trump Organization.

Bragg's office secured a previous guilty plea from Weisselberg in connection with a separate case, a 2022 criminal tax fraud case against the company, in which two subsidiaries of the Trump Organization were found guilty of 17 felony counts. 

The Trump Organization entities were fined $1.6 million in the 2022 case. Trump was not personally charged in that case and denied any knowledge of fraud.

Under Weisselberg's plea deal in that case, he was required to testify at the Trump Organization trial in 2022.

As part of his plea agreement in Weisselberg's perjury case, prosecutors agreed not to call him as a witness in Trump's upcoming criminal trial, which is scheduled to begin Monday.

A timeline of perjury

On April 19, 2023, Weisselberg was released from a five month jail sentence after 100 days, for good behavior. 

Thirty-two days later, on May 21, he committed perjury during a deposition, according to the Manhattan District Attorney. 

On July 17 — 55 days later — he did it again, he admits. 

And then again 87 days later, on Oct. 12, while on the stand in his civil fraud case, according to prosecutors. 

Now Weisselberg has once again been sentenced to five months in jail. 

He will be eligible for release in 100 days, with good behavior.

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