Who is Allen Weisselberg, Donald Trump’s ultra loyal former CFO? The 76-year-old began working for Fred Trump 50 years ago and even appeared on The Apprentice – now he’s off to jail for a second time

Apr 28, 2024

Retired Trump Organisation CFO Allen Weisselberg has just been sentenced to 5 months in prison for perjury. Photo: Getty Images/TNS

As Donald Trump’s ‘hush money’ trial continues in New York – the first time a former president has been in court on criminal charges – a key player close to him was sent to prison in a separate case

Allen Weisselberg, who’s just 14 months younger than The Apprentice star, has been working for the Trumps for 5 decades, and has just been sentenced to 5 months for perjury

It’s hard to keep up with all of Donald Trump’s criminal cases these days, let alone the key players in each one.

Trump is currently sitting as a defendant in a “hush money” trial in New York, making it the first time a former president has gone to trial on criminal charges. He is accused of covering up payments to adult film star Stormy Daniels, who claims she had an affair with him.

But just days before the trial began, former Trump Organisation CFO and The Apprentice star’s most trusted accountant, Allen Weisselberg, was sentenced to five months in prison after pleading guilty to perjury, admitting he lied under oath about Trump’s assets.

Despite the ageing retiree coming under extreme pressure to turn on his former boss, Weisselberg has remained ultra loyal to the Trump. Here’s what you need to know about him …

He lied under oath

The Trump Organisation’s former CFO Allen Weisselberg at the Manhattan Criminal Court in New York on March 4. Photo: Reuters

This April, Weisselberg was sentenced to five months in prison after he admitted to perjury. Weisselberg had claimed in a 2020 deposition that he did not know about errors linked to the size and value of Trump’s Manhattan penthouse until after an article by Forbes showed that the Trump Organisation had inflated it by three times in its financial statements.

Weisselberg had also claimed he was not present during an interview with Trump and Forbes where the size of the penthouse was interrogated. Forbes later showed evidence of Weisselberg not only being at the interview, but also that it had sent several emails to him before the article was published.

Allen Weisselberg has remained loyal to Donald Trump despite the significant personal cost to himself. Photo: Reuters

The charges brought by New York Attorney General Letitia James allege the Trump Organisation falsely inflated the value of its assets for personal gain, “to induce banks to lend money to the Trump Organisation on more favourable terms than would otherwise have been available to the company”.