Trump’s loyal CFO Allen Weisselberg may have lied on witness stand in fraud trial, New York AG's lawyers say

NEW YORK — Allen Weisselberg, the low-profile money man who served as the Trump family’s financial guardian for almost a half-century — before starting his retirement in a Rikers Island jail cell — remained mired in the ex-president’s legal perils Thursday as state lawyers pursued allegations he recently lied on the witness stand.

In a Thursday court filing, lawyers for New York Attorney General Letitia James said they had identified “likely omissions” in evidence provided by former President Donald Trump and his company honchos following a bombshell article in Forbes accusing Weisselberg of perjuring himself in testimony last week.

The potential gaps in the record concern inquiries by Forbes the year Trump became president about the size of his Fifth Avenue apartment.

The Trump Organization’s longtime chief financial officer told the court the size and value of Trump’s chandelier-filled Manhattan pad weren’t of interest to him when Forbes sought to fact-check the roughly 30,000-square feet Trump claimed it was — testifying that it was low on his list of priorities for being “de minimis relative to his net worth.”

Forbes, in response, cited a paper trail refuting Weisselberg’s claims that he “never even thought about the apartment” the magazine found was a third of the size Trump claimed.

“A review of old emails and notes, some of which the attorney general’s office does not possess, show that Weisselberg absolutely thought about Trump’s apartment—and played a key role in trying to convince Forbes over the course of several years that it was worth more than it really was,” the magazine reported.

“[It] defies all logic to think he truly believes what he is now saying in court.”

The AG’s office, suing Trump, Weisselberg, and top Trump Organization execs for committing rampant real estate fraud, said a review of evidence in the years-long litigation indeed appeared to show an incomplete picture of Forbes’ inquiries.

AG lawyer Kevin Wallace asked Manhattan Judge Arthur Engoron to order the monitor he’s appointed to oversee Trump’s real estate empire to comb through its electronic records between August and September 2016 and determine what Trump’s side failed to hand over by next week.

Correspondence about Forbes the AG does possess shows Weisselberg complaining to a commercial real estate executive in September 2016 about the magazine finding that one of Trump’s golf courses made less than it claimed.

“Those bastards always trying to tear people down, then when they are wrong they hide the apology,” the real estate exec, Steven Ekovich, wrote back.

The AG believes Trump’s side failed to disclose emails between Weisselberg and Ekovich after that exchange.

Wallace said the missing info pointed to “a breakdown” in the Trump Organization’s process of preserving and sharing complete evidence with AG investigators after having years to do so, noting “the failure is also suggestive of potentially broader issues in the production process.”

At one stage during the investigation that led to the case on trial, Engoron fined Trump $110,000 for not handing over documents —$10,000 every day he failed to meet a deadline.

The perjury allegations facing Weisselberg mark the latest legal headache for the CFO first hired by Trump’s father, Fred, as a bookkeeper in the 1970s.

The Brownsville, Brooklyn, native was found liable alongside Trump and other senior execs for widespread fraud in a blistering ruling Engoron issued the week before trial. He determined they inflated Trump’s net worth by between $812 million and $2.2 billion in annual statements submitted to banks and lenders between 2014 and 2021, which illegally boosted Trump’s bottom line.

The judge’s Sept. 27 ruling ordered Trump, his sons, Eric and Don Jr., Weisselberg, and his former deputy, Jeff McConney, stripped of certificates required to run a New York business, which they are appealing. They face more repercussions if found liable on the remaining six claims at trial, with AG James seeking to recover $250 million in illegal proceeds and to permanently bar them from heading a company in the state where Trump burnished his image as a billionaire business tycoon after inheriting his father’s housing empire.

The 76-year-old Weisselberg became a felon last year for on-the-job crimes unrelated to the AG’s case after pleading guilty to cheating taxes on lavish work benefits in Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s case against the Trump Organization. He testified against the company, leading to its conviction and a $1.6 million fine, to secure a lenient sentence of 99 days in jail.

The day a Manhattan grand jury indicted Trump for the separate hush-money scheme in March, The News reported that a jailed Weisselberg had been forced to dump his lawyer, Nick Gravante, against his wishes. A source told The News that Team Trump worried the veteran defense attorney would put Weisselberg’s interests above Trump’s while at risk of further prosecution in an ongoing criminal investigation by DA Bragg.

“Pressured intensely,” they said Weisselberg acquiesced, fearing losing the golden parachute secured on his way to jail. On the stand, he confirmed he’s yet to receive more than half of the $2 million severance.

And Thursday’s filing came as yet another member of the Weisselberg clan became tangled up in Trump’s legal perils. The CFO’s son, Jack Weisselberg, faced questioning by AG lawyers about how he worked with his dad to secure the company more than $250 million in loans at his firm Ladder Capital. He has not been accused of wrongdoing.

The younger Weisselberg’s firm loaned Trump $160 million in June 2015 to refinance a Capital One mortgage for Trump’s interests in 40 Wall Street. Engoron’s pretrial ruling found Trump’s loan application had fraudulently inflated the neo-Gothic skyscraper’s value by more than $200 million.

Manhattan prosecutors previously scrutinized Weisselberg’s other son, Barry, who ran Trump’s cash-only ice rink in Central Park for 20 years before its closure and lived for years rent-free in a nearby “corporate” apartment paid for by the company.

Weisselberg did not respond to requests seeking comment, nor did Trump’s lawyers. Trump and his associates deny wrongdoing, arguing, among other things, that valuing buildings is an art, not a science.

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