NEW YORK — The Trump Organization’s longtime chief financial officer Allen Weisselberg took the stand Tuesday as the star witness at the criminal tax fraud trial against Donald Trump’s family real estate business.
The convicted CFO’s testimony at Manhattan Supreme Court came after jurors heard from his deputy, company controller Jeffrey McConney, who pinned the multi-year tax fraud scam at the heart of the case to Weisselberg’s greed and corruption.
Wearing a dark gray suit and a sky blue tie, an uncomfortable-looking Weisselberg told jurors he started working for the former president’s family nearly half-century ago in 1973, when he was hired by his father, Fred Trump, to do accounting work for his Brooklyn-based real estate business.
He started working for Donald and the Trump Organization in 1986. From there, he worked his way up to become the most senior executive at the company without the last name Trump.
Under questioning by Assistant District Attorney Susan Hoffinger, the 75-year-old Weisselberg said he talked to Trump in person every day during the decades he worked at the company, saying their conversation topics “ran the gamut” from football games to business deals.
Weisselberg controlled the Trump Organization payroll department as the CFO. That included signatory authority for all Trump Organization entities and Donald Trump’s foreign bank accounts. He said Trump was regularly apprised of all the money going in and out in a one-page breakdown.
“(It was) a snapshot of what was going on at the business on a weekly basis,” said Weisselberg.
In the summer of 2021, Weisselberg, along with the Trump companies, was charged with dodging $1.7 million in taxes. Lavish work expenses, like rent-free apartments, Mercedes Benz car leases, and his grandkids’ private school tuition, were left off his taxes.
The veteran moneyman pleaded guilty in August to 15 felonies in exchange for a reduced prison sentence. Judge Juan Merchan has promised to sentence him to an agreed-upon period of five months on Rikers Island if he testifies truthfully, with the chance to get out after 100 days with good behavior.
McConney received immunity for testifying before the grand jury. Both men are still on the company payroll.
The Trump entities have pleaded not guilty to a host of criminal tax fraud charges. Trump has not been criminally charged in the case.
Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg says his office’s years-long, broader investigation into the former president — which the case on trial stems from — is “active and ongoing.” The DA says he’ll publicly explain his decision to bring an indictment when his mind’s made up.
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