Jennifer Weisselberg handed over boxes of financial records to investigators with the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office on Thursday as part of the investigation into former President Donald Trump’s finances.
Weisselberg is the ex-wife of Barry Weisselberg, son of the Trump Organization’s longtime Chief Financial Officer Allen Weisselberg. Weisselberg’s lawyer previously told Insider’s Jacob Shamsian that she was cooperating with the investigation and had “several boxes of documents” left to deliver.
Weisselberg was seen Thursday morning transporting three boxes of records as well as a laptop from her building, The Washington Post reported.
Duncan Levin, an expert in financial fraud and Weisselberg’s attorney, told Insider he was hired to help her sort through the documents and “turn over documents and information to law enforcement as is helpful.”
“She has joint-bank-account information, credit cards, tax records, tax returns – that’s the meat of what we’re looking at to see what types of patterns we might be able to find,” he said.
The Manhattan District Attorney’s Office and the New York attorney general are conducting parallel investigations into Trump’s personal finances and those of the Trump Organization. Weisselberg is cooperating with both offices as they look into whether the former president manipulated the value of his assets for loan and tax purposes.
Weisselberg was married to Barry Weisselberg from 2014 to 2018, and obtained the documents through their divorce. In addition to being CFO at the Trump Organization, his father, Allen Weisselberg, also manages the Trump family’s personal finances.
According to The Post, a subpoena directed Weisselberg to turn over her ex-husband’s records, such as bank and credit card statements, related to the Trump Organization and Central Park’s Wollman Rink, which is run by the company and managed by Allen Weisselberg.
District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr. has been trying to “flip” Allen Weisselberg and get him to cooperate with the investigation, The Post reported last month. Allen Weisselberg is believed to be a major focus of the criminal investigation into Trump’s finances, which could be in its final stages.
The attorney, Duncan Levin, said in an interview that he was hired to conduct his own analysis of the reams of documents Weisselberg has, which include Trump Organization financial records and show how intertwined the company is with the Weisselberg family’s finances.
“We’re basically culling through it methodically, and we will turn over documents and information to law enforcement as is helpful,” Levin said.
Weisselberg has been speaking with prosecutors in the Manhattan District Attorney’s office and the New York State Attorney General’s office as they investigate the finances of both Trump and the Trump Organization. The offices appear to be running parallel investigations into whether the former president and his company misrepresented the values of properties and other assets in order to pay less in taxes and procure favorable loan terms.
Weisselberg obtained the documents through a contentious divorce from Barry Weisselberg, who she was married to between 2014 and 2018, after a judge forced him to submit for a deposition and subpoenaed his financial information. Barry Weisselberg is the son of Allen Weisselberg, the longtime CFO of the Trump Organization who also manages the Trump family’s personal finances, and is a key Trump Organization employee in his own right as the manager of the company-run Wollman Rink in Central Park.
Levin, himself a former top official in Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr.’s office, is determining which documents might be relevant for the investigations before handing them over.
“She has joint bank account information, credit cards, tax records, tax returns – that’s the meat of what we’re looking at, to see what types of patterns we might be able to find,” Levin said.
Trump himself has disparaged the investigations as politically motivated. Allen Weisselberg’s attorney has declined to comment on his role in the investigations.
Weisselberg’s lawyer is an expert in financial fraud
“They picked up documents many times. They ended up taking seven boxes of my documents and scanning them, going through them,” she said, adding that “they took depositions, they took checks, routing numbers, bank-account [information], and things like that.”
Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr.
Drew Angerer/Getty Images
Vance’s investigation in particular appears to be heating up. Shortly after Trump left office, Vance hired Mark Pomerantz, a seasoned prosecutor of white-collar crimes and mob bosses, to help the investigation. Pomerantz has interviewed Jennifer Weisselberg several times, she told Insider. And Vance is widely expected to bring indictments before he leaves office at the end of this year.
“It was my distinct impression that things are heating up and that this investigation is of intense focus for prosecutors at the DA’s office,” Levin said. “They are staffed up and ramped up to investigate every aspect of this that they can.”
Levin, now a partner with his firm Tucker Levin PLLC, worked as the head of the Asset Forfeiture division for Vance between 2011 and 2014. Prior to that, he held positions as a prosecutor at the US Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York and in private practice with Vance, along with an earlier stint at the Manhattan DA’s office under Vance’s predecessor, Robert Morgenthau.
Together with a forensic accountant, Levin said he’s sorting through the remaining documents in Weisselberg’s possession.
“I’ve been building complex financial fraud cases for 20 years now,” Levin said. “I have been in close contact with the prosecutors’ offices. We have indicated to them that we are going through these documents in a very sophisticated way.”
Donald Trump, Allen Weisselberg, and Donald Trump Jr. in 2017.
“I can’t comment on any specific documents that may or may not belong to the Trump Organization, but I can say that the source of funds for their lifestyle was largely from the Trump Organization,” Levin said.
Prosecutors learned details about the Trump Organization’s finances after a key employee tried to withhold them in his divorce case, that employee’s ex-wife told Insider.
The move backfired. The judge in the divorce case forced him to sit for a deposition and hand over the documents as part of a subpoena, according to Jennifer Weisselberg.
“They picked up documents many times. They ended up taking seven boxes of my documents and scanning them, going through them,” she told Insider, adding: “They took depositions, they took checks, routing numbers, bank account [information], and things like that.”
But an earlier peek into those finances came in September, when Jennifer Weisselberg handed her documents over. Weisselberg was married to Barry Weisselberg, the son of Trump Organization CFO Allen Weisselberg, between 2004 and 2018. Barry Weisselberg is also a key employee of the Trump Organization in his own right, managing the Wollman Rink in Central Park in Manhattan.
Barry Weisselberg initially withheld financial information from Jennifer during divorce proceedings, she said. The divorce judge recognized perks he received from the Trump Organization – like their shared apartment – could have monetary value and should be considered during divorce negotiations, she said.
“The judge said there was a lot of imputed money,” Jennifer Weisselberg said. “They subpoenaed a lot of things after Barry’s deposition.”
An attorney representing Barry Weisselberg didn’t immediately respond to Insider’s request for comment.
‘I don’t think they realized that I had that stuff’
Donald and Melania Trump gave Barry and Jennifer Weisselberg an apartment in the Trump Parc East Building in Manhattan as a wedding gift. It was part of many perks the Trump Organizations offered members of the Weisselberg family, as reported by Bloomberg’s Cabe Melby in November.
Following the publication of that article, investigators in the New York Attorney General’s office expressed renewed interest in the documents Jennifer Weisselberg gave them, she said.
“Since the Bloomberg article came out – I don’t think they realized that I had that stuff,” Weisselberg told Insider. “The AG came and they started picking up more boxes.”
Donald Trump poses for photographs in his Trump Tower office on Wednesday, June 13, 2012, in New York.
“It’s so controlling,” she continued. “Because if you want to leave and make the same money – you live there. If you want to leave, where are you going to live?”
Jennifer Weisselberg said she’s now glad to have left Trumpworld.
“I don’t want anything to do with them,” she said. “I don’t want their money. I’m good.”
Prosecutors in the Manhattan DA’s office are now interested in “flipping” Allen Weisselberg to guide them through the millions of documents they’ve obtained, according to The Washington Post. They are looking into whether perks like the apartment broke tax laws, according to Bloomberg.
The office recently hired Mark Pomerantz, who has experience as a prosecutor pursuing mob bosses. It also sent a forensic accountant with experience analyzing mob finances to review Jennifer Weisselberg’s documents, she said.
Representatives for the Trump Organization didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment for this story. Representatives for Allen Weisselberg, the Manhattan DA’s office, and the New York Attorney General’s office declined to comment.
The former wife of a key Trump Organization employee scrutinized by prosecutors said the company holds sway over employees through unusual financial arrangements, including paying for her home and tuition for her children.
Weisselberg is a cooperating witness in investigations into Donald Trump’s finances. Between 2004 and 2018, she was married to Barry Weisselberg, the son of Trump’s loyal longtime CFO Allen Weisselberg. Barry Weisselberg is also a significant employee for the company in his own right, as the manager of the Trump Organization-operated Wollman Rink in Central Park.
The office successfully subpoenaed millions of pages of tax documents from the Trump Organization in February. Prosecutors there are now seeking to “flip” Allen Weisselberg into guiding them through those pages, the Washington Post reported.
Jennifer Weisselberg says the company retains a grip on key employees by withholding raises. In yearly compensation meetings with Barry Weisselberg, she said, Trump or Allen Weisselberg would offer to pay the tuition of their children instead of giving raises. She said her ex-husband’s base salary didn’t change substantially in the roughly 20 years he’s worked there.
“It was like Allen designing a plan,” she said. ‘It was like, ‘Okay, the way we’re going to maestro this is instead of a raise, we’re going to pay my daughter’s tuition. Instead of a raise, we’re going to pay for the apartment.'”
‘If you want to leave, where are you going to live?’
Donald and Melania Trump gave Jennifer and Barry Weisselberg an apartment in their Trump Parc East building by Central Park in Manhattan as a wedding gift, as Bloomberg News first reported. The couple paid only $400 per month in utilities and other fees – far below the market rate for rent. Prosecutors are examining whether the way the arrangement was reported in tax documents violated tax laws, according to Bloomberg News.
“Obviously, it’s not a gift when you get the same salary for 20 years,” she said.
“It’s so controlling,” she continued. “Because if you want to leave and make the same money – you live there. If you want to leave, where are you going to live?”
Donald Trump at his desk in his office in Trump Tower.
Susan Watts/NY Daily News via Getty Images
Since Allen Weisselberg handled the finances for both the Trump Organization and her family, gifts like that also served as a way to avoid paying taxes, Jennifer Weisselberg said.
“That’s the compensation. They just pay for everything, instead of paying on the books,” she said. “It was a way Allen decided to [benefit] Donald, or to avoid employee taxes, state taxes, gift taxes. I mean, if you want to get compensated and thank Donald – great. But you got to pay taxes on it.”
Representatives for the Trump Organization and for Barry Weisselberg didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment for this story. Representatives for Allen Weisselberg, the Manhattan DA’s office, and the New York Attorney General’s office declined to comment.
