Good luck with the Sgt Shultz defense, "I know nothing", ignorance of the law is no excuse and won't keep his sons from getting nailed to the wall. Squeeze the weasel until he squeals, they don't need this bean counter to put the Trump's away, but he would be a nice addition to the states cases and a way later for the feds into many more crimes involving many others.
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Donald Trump moneyman Allen Weisselberg at center of NY legal probes - New York Daily News (nydailynews.com)
Allen Weisselberg, self-professed ‘stickler’ CFO at center of Trump criminal probe says he leaves ‘legal side’ of money flow to others
Allen Weisselberg, the steely financial sentry at the Trump Organization now in the crosshairs of prosecutors diving into Donald Trump’s business dealings, frankly claims he steers clear of the “legal side” of the money flow.
In previously unreported deposition documents obtained by the Daily News, Weisselberg, who has micromanaged the organization’s finances for decades, shrugged off interest in or knowledge of the legalities of Trump’s till. “That’s not my thing,” he declared.
It’s very much the thing of Manhattan District Attorney Cy Vance Jr., who recently used a grand jury subpoena to seize boxes of documents from Weisselberg’s estranged ex-daughter-in-law — and New York Attorney General Letitia James, who’s doing a civil investigation into Trump’s alleged asset inflation and deflation.
Weisselberg’s testimony during the June 2015 deposition tied to lawsuits over the now-defunct Trump University offers a rare look at the longtime bean counter — a tight-lipped and low-profile money man who’s been with the Trump Organization since it was run by Fred Trump, and who was once described by Donald Trump in 2004 as a guy who “knows how to get things done.” Weisselberg may also be the only person who truly knows how much the former president is worth.
In one potentially pivotal piece of information, Weisselberg said his tendency to micromanage had its limits when legal matters were involved, at least in 2015.
Asked about the time he found himself “eavesdropping” on a discussion among Trump lawyers about the alleged illegality of marketing Trump’s for-profit school as a “university” in New York, Weisselberg said he didn’t delve deeper.
He admitted asking in a 2005 email if executives planned to “just set up a fictitious office in Illinois/Delaware” as they dealt with the issue, but he said his inquiry centered exclusively on cost, not propriety.
“I can’t help them with that role. That’s not my thing,” he testified. “I was only concerned about the economic side of it. They were handling the legal side of it.”
He meticulously protected his own role as financial guardian, the deposition showed.
“Throughout all of our entities, people do know it’s important to involve me when it comes to financial matters because later on if things don’t prove out to be where they should be, they’ll have to deal with me on answering the question as to why,” he testified. “So they – they – they know the protocol.”
Weisselberg was also candid about his own handsome income, admitting has salary had been around $450,000 “a long time,” adding that he also received an annual bonus ranging “anywhere from 200 (thousand dollars) to $400,000 a year.”
He said he voluntarily suggested his bonus be reduced to about $300,000 around the time of the 2008 financial crash, but only because he already felt adequately compensated.
“I wanted to set an example for my company,” he said. “My kids are grown and I don’t have the same needs I had many years ago. So I was fine with what I was making. I had no problem with it.”
On the topic of his schedule, Weisselberg revealed he willingly worked almost around the clock.
“I take no vacations. That’s not even funny. My wife doesn’t laugh at all. I don’t. I just – I work a lot, and pretty much I – I’m in work all the time,” he said.
From left, Jennifer, Barry, Erica, Jack, Hilary and Allen Weisselberg are pictured at the inauguration of President Donald Trump in 2017.
Weisselberg testified he started working for Trump’s dad Fred in Brooklyn in 1973 after earning an accounting degree from Pace College and holding a few other prior jobs, including one teaching high school.
He eventually started moonlighting for Donald, helping with the accounting for the Hyatt Hotel in Manhattan and with ground leases in Atlantic City.
“I was doing a lot of Donald’s work on weekends or at – or at night. And that’s what eventually led me to leave Fred in 1986 and move into Manhattan to work for Donald,” he said.
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