- Allen Weisselberg pled guilty in August to evading taxes on $1.76 million in personal income.
- In exchange for a five-month jail sentence, he agreed to testify at the trial.
- The Trump Organization is charged with illegally providing executive benefits for 15 years without informing tax authorities.
Allen Weisselberg, a longstanding senior executive at the family firm of former U.S. President Donald Trump, testified as the prosecution’s star witness in the Trump Organization’s tax fraud trial in New York state court on Tuesday.
In 2021, the Manhattan district attorney’s office charged The Trump Organization with illegally providing executive benefits for 15 years without informing tax authorities and improperly classifying bonuses as non-employee remuneration. It entered a not-guilty plea.
Weisselberg, 75 years old, pled guilty in August to evading taxes on $1.76 million in personal income and assisting Trump’s real estate company in devising a tax fraud plan. In exchange for a five-month jail sentence, he agreed to testify at the trial in exchange for his guilty plea.
Weisselberg, who worked for Trump for fifty years and is presently on paid leave, allegedly engineered the scam for his own advantage, according to the company’s attorneys.
Weisselberg stated during Tuesday’s questioning by prosecutor Susan Hoffinger that he began working as an accountant for Trump’s father, real estate magnate Fred Trump, in 1973. He stated that after approximately 13 years he began working for Donald Trump.
Since Weisselberg joined the Trump Organization, its corporate portfolio has expanded to include hotels, golf courses, and commercial buildings, he added.
“I’m sure you remember ‘The Apprentice’, that was one thing we did,” Weisselberg added, alluding to Donald Trump’s reality television show.
After Weisselberg was elevated to CFO in 2002, he stated that he was ultimately accountable for the accounting and finances of the corporation.
Weisselberg is the third witness to testify in the trial, which began on October 24 with jury selection.
Trump, a Republican, has not been charged with a crime and has claimed that the prosecution is politically motivated. Democrats Alvin Bragg and Cyrus Vance, his predecessor who initiated the probe, are both Manhattan district attorneys.
The case is one of several legal issues facing 76-year-old Trump as he prepares to make a second presidential candidacy after losing in 2020.
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