Allen Weisselberg, right, stands behind then-President-elect Donald Trump during a news conference in the lobby of Trump Tower in New York, Jan. 11, 2017. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci, File)
In his decision, Engoron said he found Weisselberg’s testimony "intentionally evasive" and "highly unreliable."
It will be Weisselberg’s second time behind bars. The former Trump Organization CFO served 100 days last year for dodging taxes on $1.7 million in company perks, including a rent-free Manhattan apartment and luxury cars. He will now again trade life as a Florida retiree for a stay at New York City’s notorious Rikers Island jail complex.
Trump’s family employed Weisselberg for nearly 50 years, then gave him a $2 million severance deal when the tax charges prompted him to retire. The company continues to pay his legal bills.
Allen Weisselberg, a former longtime executive in former President Trump’s real estate empire, arrives for his sentencing in New York on Wednesday, April 10, 2024. (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura)
Prosecutors with Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s office and Weisselberg’s lawyer Seth Rosenberg declined to address the court, according to the AP.
Trump valued the penthouse in his financial statements from at least 2012 to 2016 as though it measured 30,000 square feet. A former Trump real estate executive testified that Weisselberg provided the figure. The former executive said that when he asked for the apartment's size in 2012, Weisselberg replied: "It’s quite large. I think it’s around 30,000 square feet."
However, state lawyers noted, Weisselberg got an email early in that year with a 1994 document attached that pegged Trump’s apartment at 10,996 square feet. Weisselberg testified that he remembered the email but not the attachment and that he did not "walk around knowing the size" of the apartment.
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After Forbes magazine published an article in 2017 disputing the size of Trump’s penthouse, its estimated value on his financial statement was cut from $327 million to about $117 million.
As Weisselberg was testifying last October, Forbes published an article with the headline "Trump’s Longtime CFO Lied, Under Oath, About Trump Tower Penthouse."
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Danielle Wallace is a reporter for Fox News Digital covering politics, crime, police and more. Story tips can be sent to danielle.wallace@fox.com and on Twitter: @danimwallace.
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