Allen Weisselberg, a former financial director of the Trump Organization, was sentenced to five months in prison on Wednesday for perjury during a civil trial involving financial fraud charges against his former boss, Donald Trump. This was not his first time behind bars, as he had previously spent several months imprisoned for tax fraud in 2022, as part of a case that targeted the economic empire of the former President.
Weisselberg pleaded guilty to perjury in early March related to the overvaluations of the Trump Organization’s real estate assets during the civil trial. Upon arriving at court, he did not make any statements and was immediately handcuffed and taken into custody after the judge pronounced his sentence. This latest conviction comes just five days before the scheduled opening of the first criminal trial against Donald Trump in New York courts, which is linked to the concealment of payments made to Stormy Daniels, a former porn star who alleged she had a sexual relationship with Trump in 2006. Trump is accused of falsifying business records to hide these payments and risks a prison sentence if found guilty.
Weisselberg’s admission of lying during the previous civil trial revealed the illegal inflation of the value of Trump’s real estate assets, including his personal triplex in Trump Tower. The former President was already fined $355 million by the Supreme Court of the State of New York for financial fraud related to this case, and he has appealed the conviction, posting a guarantee of $175 million in American justice while continuing to deny the allegations.
