Trump CFO Allen Weisselberg Has Been Helping His Boss Lie For Years

There’s probably no one who knows the truth about Trump’s finances better than Allen Weisselberg. Not that he has always told it.

It’s September 2015, and Donald Trump is breezing through Trump Tower, showing off its stunning views of the New York City skyline. In the distance stands 40 Wall Street, which the real estate mogul is zeroing in on at the moment. “By the way,” he says, turning to his right-hand man, “You know what the mortgage is? The mortgage is paying, what, 2.5%?”

“Yeah, that’s what we get,” his lieutenant dutifully replies. “It’s very low.” 

Trump, three months into his bid for president, is waging a different campaign on this day—to get Forbes to place him as high as possible on The Forbes 400 list of America’s richest people. Which explains why he’s so eager to boast about something as small as his low interest rate. Never mind the facts—it’s actually 3.665%, not 2.5%. 

Trump has long been accustomed to lying about his finances. And for years, his charade has relied on the support of his best soldier: Allen Weisselberg, the Trump Organization’s longtime chief financial officer. To those familiar with Weisselberg’s role, it’s not that surprising that the CFO is now reportedly facing an indictment for alleged financial crimes. (Weisselberg did not respond to a request for comment.) 

For nearly 50 years, Weisselberg has worked with Trump, tending to his money and, when times got tough, renegotiating payments. The two businessmen aren’t necessarily similar—Trump loves to be the center of attention and ramble on endlessly, while Weisselberg is known for moving behind the scenes and speaking succinctly. But they’ve long teamed up, including on a persistent effort to convince Forbes that Trump is richer than he actually is.

Over the years reporters have sparred with Weisselberg during countless phone calls and sit downs, and even over lunch at a Michelin-starred restaurant in the 1990s. But in 2015, in the middle of the presidential race that would vault Trump to the White House, Weisselberg and his boss went all in, hosting two editors and one reporter at Trump Tower for nearly two hours to rant about the Trump Organization’s assets, with little allegiance to the facts—all while multiple recorders captured the conversation for posterity. 

As Trump lied freely and recklessly, Weisselberg lied mostly to back up his boss. “We’ll make at least $75 million this year,” Trump said at one point, referring to his Miami golf resort, Doral. “Yeah,” Weisselberg was quick to affirm, even though the resort was on track to earn only $13.8 million, according to documents the Trump Organization later submitted to local authorities. 

“You know what we’re paying [in] interest on that mortgage?” asked Trump, again referring to the golf resort. “Two percent.” No, said Weisselberg: “Less.” “What, 1.75%?” asked Ivanka Trump, whose father had summoned her to lobby Forbes as well. “Yeah, 1.75%,” Donald Trump said. “Right, 1.75%,” Weisselberg confirmed. But according to Trump’s financial disclosure report, filed with federal officials, he was actually paying 1.75% plus an interest-rate benchmark, which at that point was hovering around 0.5%. So in other words, he was really paying more than 2% interest—not less. 

Back to 40 Wall Street, where the lies got bolder. “It’s a 78-story building,” Trump said, referring to the 63-floor building. “Fully rented. Throws off a fortune. It’s going to throw off, would you say $50 million maybe this year?” he asked, before answering his own question. “$50 million.” “Yeah,” Weisselberg concurred. The building was actually going to throw off just $11.9 million, according to a document later filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. 

There was also more subtle deception. Take, for example, Weisselberg’s attempts to boost the value assigned to Trump’s Mar-a-Lago Club. “There was a sale—here’s the article that was in the Palm Beach Daily News,” Weisselberg said, picking up a story about a property that he described as 8.8 acres. “It was a combined sale for $116.1 million. Not our property, another property in Palm Beach. But they don’t have half of what we have on our property.” Weisselberg went on: “We have about 19 acres—you do the multiplication.” He added that Trump put another $14 million into the ballroom, $4 million into waterfront cabanas and $700,000 into a tennis facility. “Total of $267 [million].” 

The problem was that Trump’s property—listed on the National Register of Historic Places—could not be subdivided into lots for multimillionaires to build homes. And that meant that it was actually worth about $100 million less than Weisselberg was proposing. 

He and Trump tried a similar stunt with Trump Tower, noting that the Crown Building across the street had recently sold for $1.8 billion. “This is bigger,” boasted Trump, even though his property was in fact 25% smaller. Weisselberg brushed aside our own independent research into the building, insisting that Forbes value it based on the megasale. “You have a great comp across the street,” he said. “How can you say, ‘No, let’s go and get 500 sources.’ How do you ignore that? That comp to me is worth gold.” 

Weisselberg wasn’t the only deputy debasing himself by helping his boss. Former Trump Organization executive Michael Cohen also worked to juice the numbers over the years. In testimony delivered before Congress in 2019, Cohen admitted to helping fudge Trump’s financials — and not just to Forbes. 

“These financial statements were used by me for two purposes,” Cohen testified. “One was discussing with media, whether it was Forbes or other magazines, to demonstrate Mr. Trump’s significant net worth. That was one function. Another was when we were dealing later on with insurance companies, we would provide them with these copies so that they would understand that the premium—which is based, sometimes, on the individual’s capabilities to pay—would be reduced.” Cohen also explained that the Trump Organization submitted the documents to Deutsche Bank, one of its lenders. 

In a court filing, the Manhattan district attorney’s office later suggested it was investigating allegations that the Trump Organization committed insurance and bank fraud. The big question at this point is whether an indictment will pressure Weisselberg, who always had a more intimate role in Trump’s financial machinations than Cohen, to also turn against the former president.