Former Trump Organization CFO Allen Weiselberg will plead guilty Thursday to a corporate tax evasion scheme in a low-prison deal with the Manhattan District Attorney’s office, Insider has learned.
Under the deal, Weiselberg will agree before a judge to testify against his co-defendant, the Trump Organization, when the tax evasion indictment goes to trial. An Oct. 24 trial date was set Friday.
However, a source with knowledge of the deal told Insider that Weiselberg has nothing incriminating to say about anyone with the last name Trump, and if called to testify, he would tell jurors just that.
In exchange for his guilty plea and possible testimony, Weiselberg, 75, will likely serve 5 months – 100 days – at New York’s notorious Rikers Island prison. He will also serve probation, the source said, describing the deal. In addition, Weisselberg will have to pay back taxes along with penalties and interest.
It’s a favorable outcome for Weisselberg, considering the top theft charge for allegedly pocketing thousands in fraudulently obtained federal tax refunds typically carries a mandatory minimum sentence of one year behind bars — and a possible maximum sentence of 15 years.
But the threat of Weiselberg’s deposition trial is also a potential black eye for the former president’s multibillion-dollar real estate and golf resort company. The Trump Organization faces possible fines and a felony conviction for allegedly conspiring to understate Weiselberg’s income to federal tax authorities.
Following his plea on Thursday, Weisselberg is expected to admit that he conspired with someone he supervised — former Trump Organization controller Jeffrey McConney — to pay McConney and possibly other company executives perks like cash, apartments and cars that he didn’t get. was subject then. in payroll taxes.
But Weisselberg cannot harm McConney, who testified under subpoena before a DA grand jury last year, and who therefore has immunity from prosecution, according to previous court rulings in the case. McConney himself told grand jurors that to the extent the fringe benefits were not reported as taxable income, it was his fault.
Neither Weisselberg nor McConney have implicated Trump in the alleged tax evasion scheme. According to the source and defense filings since January, Weiselberg has not testified or otherwise cooperated in the DA’s investigation of Trump and his business, a three-year investigation that has so far resulted in only the tax evasion indictment payroll.
And McConney, too, was less than enlightening. In his testimony last year, he told jurors that “at the time of the alleged events he did not believe he was doing anything wrong” and “did not understand or believe he was helping Mr. Weisselberg commit tax fraud,” the filings state.
Weiselberg, the longtime top Trump Organization official and Trump family accountant, was previously expected to plead guilty in the upcoming deal, as first reported by The New York Times. He and the organization were charged last summer with 15 felonies that include scheme to defraud, conspiracy and grand larceny.
The charges stemmed from a “sweeping and daring payment scheme,” prosecutors said, in which Weiselberg avoided paying taxes on up to $1.7 million in income — pay he instead enjoyed in the form of free apartments, cars and tuition for his grandchildren. during the 15-year period starting in March 2005.
A spokesman for the DA’s office declined to comment.
