NEW YORK (AP) — Donald Trump’s longtime chief of finance took the witness stand Tuesday at the Trump Organization’s criminal tax fraud trial, making his long-awaited turn as the prosecution’s lead witness after pleading guilty to evading taxes on $1.7 million in company-paid benefits, including a Manhattan apartment and luxury cars.
Allen Weisselberg, a senior adviser and former chief financial officer at Trump’s company, has a deep understanding of the company’s financial dealings from his nearly five decades of working there. But he is not expected to include Trump or members of the Trump family in his testimony.
Weisselberg’s testimony is required as part of a plea deal he reached in August. If he testifies truthfully and meets other conditions of the deal, he will be sentenced to five months in prison and can be released after about 100 days on good behavior. Otherwise, he could be sentenced to 15 years in prison.
Weisselberg will remain free on bail until he is formally convicted following the company’s trial.
The Trump Organization — the entity through which former President Donald Trump manages his real estate holdings, marketing deals, and other ventures — has been accused of helping some top executives avoid paying income taxes on compensation they received in addition to their 15-year salary.
Prosecutors allege that the Trump Organization — through its subsidiaries Trump Corp. and Trump Payroll Corp. – is liable for the settlement because Weisselberg, the longtime chief of finance, was a “senior executive agent” entrusted to act on behalf of the company and its various entities.
By pleading guilty, the 75-year-old Weisselberg placed the blame for the scheme on himself and other company executives, including senior vice president and controller, Jeffrey McConney, who testified for the first five days of the trial.
The Trump Organization has denied wrongdoing. The lawyers allege that Weisselberg devised the plan on his own, without the knowledge of Trump or the Trump family, and that the company did not profit from his actions. If convicted, the company could be fined more than $1 million.
The company’s lawyers spent part of Monday and Tuesday’s court hearings trying to prevent Weisselberg’s testimony, using their cross-examination to substantiate their claim that others at the company, including Trump, knew nothing about the plan .
The prosecution’s first two witnesses — McConney and Deborah Tarasoff, supervisor of the company’s accounts payable — portrayed Weisselberg as a rogue agent who emphasized secrecy about his various financial schemes.
Both witnesses worked under Weisselberg and both testified that they helped him hide benefits – telling the jurors they were simply following orders. Tarasoff agreed with a lawyer’s description of Weisselberg as a demanding, authoritarian but highly trusted micromanager.
Tarasoff said she prepared company checks for Weisselberg to pay his apartment rent and car lease. She said she prepared checks from Trump’s private account to pay for private school tuition for Weisselberg’s grandchildren.
In September 2016, as Trump’s presidential election approached, Tarasoff said Weisselberg had instructed her to delete notes about some transactions in the company’s accounting system. Tarasoff said she didn’t think Weisselberg was asking her to do anything illegal. But even if he had, she said, “I think I would because he’s the boss and he told me to do it.”
Weisselberg is the only person to face criminal charges to date in the Manhattan district attorney’s investigation into the company.
Weisselberg started working for the company in 1973, when it was run by Fred, Trump’s father. Following his arrest in July 2021, the company changed its title from CFO to senior advisor. The position of CFO remains vacant.
Prosecutors alleged that the Trump Organization had given untaxed benefits to senior executives, including Weisselberg, for 15 years. Weisselberg alone was charged with defrauding the federal, state and city of more than $900,000 in unpaid taxes and unearned tax refunds.
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