Former Trump Organization CFO, Allen Weisselberg, surrendered to the Manhattan DA on Monday (Mar. 4) to face new criminal charges and is anticipated to plead guilty to perjury.
The prosecutor's office did not provide any further details about the nature of the charge, but people familiar with the investigation previously told the Associated Press and other reporters - on the condition of anonymity - that prosecutors were charging the 76-year-old former CFO with perjury when he answered questions at former President Donald Trump's civil fraud trial in October about allegations that Trump lied about his wealth on financial statements.
Weisselberg's lawyer, Seth Rosenberg, did not immediately return to reporters' requests for comment.
Weisselberg is on probation, previously serving 100 days in jail last year after pleading guilty to dodging taxes on $1.7 million in off-the-books compensation from the Trump Organization. Prior to that he had no criminal record.
He left New York City's Rikers Island in April, days after Trump was indicted in his New York hush money criminal case.
Under that plea deal, Weisselberg was required to testify as a prosecution witness when the Trump Organization was put on trial for helping executives evade taxes. He did so carefully, laying out the facts of his own involvement in evading taxes but taking care not to implicate Trump, telling jurors that his boss was unaware of the scheme.
Weisselberg's new criminal case comes just weeks before Trump is scheduled to stand trial on separate allegations that he falsified business records, which involved allegations that Trump falsified company records to cover up hush money payments made in the 2016 campaign to bury allegations that he had extramarital sexual encounters.
Trump pleaded not guilty and denied any wrongdoing about the matter.
Last month, the New York Times reported that Weisselberg was in negotiations to plead guilty to perjury, and Judge Arthur Engoron, who presided over the fraud trial, ordered attorneys to provide details related to the Times' report.
Trump is scheduled to appeal Engoron's judgment ordering him to pay more than $454 million in fines and interest for submitting fraudulent information about his asset values on years of financial records.
Former Trump lawyer and fixer Michael Cohen said Weisselberg had a role in creating and managing the payments, but he has not been charged in that case, and neither prosecutors nor Trump's lawyers have indicated they would call him as a witness. That trial is scheduled to begin on March 25.
