Ex-Trump CFO Allen Weisselberg sentenced to 5 months for perjury in Trump civil fraud trial

Allen Weisselberg, the former chief financial officer of the Trump Organization, was sentenced Wednesday to five months in jail after pleading guilty to two counts of perjury last month in his testimony during former President Donald Trump’s civil fraud trial.

The sentencing matched Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg's recommendation.

After Weisselberg's sentence was agreed upon by prosecutors and the defense, Judge Laurie Peterson asked him whether there was anything he would like to say.

Weisselberg replied, "No, your honor," and the judge handed down the sentence.

The hearing lasted only about two minutes.

In a statement after the sentencing, Weisselberg's attorney, Seth L. Rosenberg, said his client "accepted responsibility for his conduct and now looks forward to the end of this life-altering experience and to returning to his family and his retirement."

Weisselberg was accused of committing perjury in a deposition and during testimony in Trump’s trial, including allegedly lying when he said in July 2020 that he learned Trump’s triplex apartment had been overvalued from a Forbes report, but really knew about it well beforehand, Bragg’s office said.

Weisselberg received a separate five-month sentence in a criminal case last year, serving only 100 days, after pleading guilty in 2022 to tax fraud charges in a 15-year scheme involving the Trump Organization’s business dealings. He agreed to pay nearly $2 million in taxes, interest and penalties for allegedly dodging tax payments on $1.7 million of his income with “off the books” benefits, including tuition for his grandkids, a luxury apartment and two Mercedes-Benz vehicles.

Weisselberg was a witness and a co-defendant in the civil trial, in which Judge Arthur Engoron ruled in February that Trump, his company and current and former top executives including Weisselberg had to pay more than $350 million in damages and forbade the former president from running businesses in the state for three years — which ultimately became $464 million when pre-judgement interest was included.

Engoron wrote that Weisselberg lacked credibility on the stand, finding his testimony “highly unreliable” and “intentionally evasive, with large gaps of ‘I don’t remember.’” His ruling ordered Weisselberg to pay the $1 million he’s already received from his $2 million separation agreement from the company as “ill-gotten gains.”

The damages judgment is on hold while Trump appeals it.

A state appeals court last month reduced the size of the bond Trump needed to freeze the judgment while he appeals, ruling that he and his co-defendants could post a $175 million bond instead of the full amount in damages. Trump posted that bond with the help of Don Hankey, the billionaire chairman of Knight Insurance Group, but the state attorney general's office has questioned whether the bond conforms to New York standards. A hearing on the issue has been scheduled for April 22.