Dive Brief:

• Former Trump Organization CFO Allen Weisselberg pled guilty Monday to felony perjury charges after reaching an agreement with the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office, according to reports. The charges relate to testimony given during the New York Attorney General’s civil fraud case against his former employer, ex-President Donald Trump, the Trump Organization and executives including Weisselberg himself.
• Charged with five counts of perjury, Weisselberg pled guilty to two counts of perjury in the first degree, his second felony conviction in two years, The Washington Post reported. A long-time employee of the Trump Organization, Weisselberg will be sentenced to five months in jail beginning April 10. Arriving at the Manhattan state court earlier Monday, Weisselberg admitted to lying under oath about the valuation of Trump’s triplex apartment in Trump Tower among other instances of perjury, ABC News reported. He was released under his own recognizance until his April 10 sentencing.
• “Allen Weisselberg looks forward to putting this situation behind him,” Seth Rosenberg, attorney for the former CFO with Clayman, Rosenberg, Kirshner & Linder LLP said in a statement emailed to CFO Dive in response to requests for comment on the plea deal.

Dive Insight:

The plea agreement follows weeks of negotiation between the ex-CFO and the Manhattan DA; the New York Times first reported a deal was in the works between the two parties in early February, and that it would require Weisselberg to plead guilty to charges of perjury.  

Weisselberg was previously convicted on charges of tax fraud in 2022 and sentenced to a five-month term on Riker’s Island as well as five years of probation. Pleading guilty to perjury as a felony would open the possibility of time served in state prison for the ex-CFO, attorneys told CFO Dive after news of the deal first broke in February.

The former finance chief’s legal troubles come as his former employer, ex-president Donald Trump faces fresh legal battles in the state after a months-long trial concerning the NY AG’s civil fraud case.

A named defendant in the NY AG’s case, Weisselberg was a “critical player in nearly every instance of fraud,” Judge Arthur Engoron said when issuing his ruling. The case concerned allegations that the Trump Organization had artificially inflated the value of certain real estate properties, including Trump’s triplex; Weisselberg’s level of involvement and responsibility in the Trump Organization came under close scrutiny throughout the trial, as did the terms of his departure from the company.

Weisselberg inked a $2 million severance agreement with the organization which included language barring the ex-CFO from disparaging his former employer and there is “substantial evidence that Allen Weisselberg’s $2 million separation agreement was negotiated to compensate him for his continued non-cooperation” with entities that have legal interests “adverse” to the organization, Engoron wrote in his ruling.

Weisselberg is therefore required to pay back the $1 million he has received from the organization back to New York State, Engoron said. The ex-CFO was also permanently barred from serving in the financial control function for any New York company as a result of the judge’s ruling.

Trump is appealing Engoron’s decision in the civil fraud case, but he is required to post a bond covering the full amount of the judgment — approximately $454 million — in order to do so, an appellate court ruled last week.

Meanwhile, the perjury conviction comes as Trump and Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg prepare for the ex-president’s upcoming criminal trial in the state, set to begin later this month. The Manhattan DA is alleging Trump committed electoral and financial crimes in association with hush-money payments during the 2016 presidential election.

It is unclear if Weisselberg will be called to testify during Trump’s upcoming criminal trial.

The Manhattan DA’s office did not respond to requests for comment.