Ex-Trump executive Allen Weisselberg begins Rikers Island jail sentence after perjury plea

Donald Trump’s former chief financial officer Allen Weisselberg is returning to jail after pleading guilty to perjury over testimony he gave during a sprawling fraud case targeting the former president’s real estate empire.

Entering a Manhattan criminal courtroom on Wednesday in a dark jacket and blue face mask, Weisselberg was sentenced to five months in prison, weeks after reaching a plea deal with prosecutors to admit that he lied to investigators and a judge probing the former president’s real estate empire.

He spent 100 days at the notorious New York jail last year after he was convicted on a range of tax crimes in a separate case stemming from a sweeping criminal investigation into Mr Trump’s business.

Mr Trump’s former financial chief was also a co-defendant in the civil fraud case, during which he lied under oath on three occasions, including in depositions and on the witness stand during a months-long trial.

Last month, he pleaded guilty to two counts of perjury for his statements to state attorneys in 2020.

During his three-minute appearance before Judge Laurie Peterson on Wednesday, Weisselberg told her he didn’t have anything to say before he was handcuffed and walked out of the courtroom to begin his sentence.

In February, Judge Arthur Engoron determined that the former president and his co-defendants grossly inflated the value of his properties to get more favourable financing terms from banks and insurers, a judgment that slapped the former president with tens of millions of dollars in penalties.

Now, Weisselberg could be called as a witness in another separate case, the first-ever criminal trial against a former president, when Mr Trump’s trial for allegedly falsifying business records to cover up hush