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Trump Organization removes indicted top finance officer Allen Weisselberg from leadership roles at dozens of subsidiaries

Allen Weisselberg, chief financial officer of the Trump Organization, center, leaves criminal court in New York on July 1. (David Dee Delgado/Bloomberg News)

The Trump Organization has removed indicted chief financial officer Allen Weisselberg from his leadership roles at more than 40 subsidiary companies, according to corporate filings in the United States and Scotland.

The changes were made Thursday and Friday, a week after a grand jury in Manhattan indicted Weisselberg on 15 felony counts, including grand larceny and tax fraud. Weisselberg was accused by New York prosecutors of helping run a 15-year scheme to evade income taxes by concealing executives’ salaries — including more than $1.7 million of his own income — from tax authorities. Two Trump corporate entities were indicted alongside Weisselberg.

On Thursday, the Trump Organization removed Weisselberg as a director of the company that runs its golf course in Aberdeen, Scotland, according to British corporate records.

The Post’s David Fahrenthold explained what we knew on July 1, 2021, about the charges against the Trump Organization and its CFO, Allen Weisselberg. (Video: The Washington Post, Photo: John Taggart/The Washington Post)

The next day, the company filed paperwork in Florida to remove Weisselberg as a director at 40 different subsidiaries registered in the state, according to an online database of Florida records.

Those subsidiaries included a holding company that owns many Trump businesses, a corporate entity that handles payroll for many Trump employees, and even a Trump project in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., that went bust more than a decade ago.

Previously, Weisselberg had shared the leadership of these companies with one of former president Donald Trump’s adult sons or, in the case of the Mar-a-Lago Club in Palm Beach, Fla., with Trump himself. Now, records show, the Trump family members are left in charge.

The Florida filings were first reported by the Wall Street Journal.

The removal of Weisselberg’s name from these corporate filings could avoid questions from regulators, lenders or vendors by leaving out the name of an indicted executive.

But it may not change much in the companies’ operations. On paper, the Trump Organization is a web of interconnected entities, each with its own set of officers. But in practice, the subsidiaries have all been run by the same small group of executives at Trump Tower in New York, including Trump, his adult sons and Weisselberg — with little regard to who holds formal offices in what subsidiary.

A person familiar with the company who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss its internal decisionmaking told The Washington Post: “Allen Weisselberg’s at the company. He’s got a job. He’s going to remain at the company.”

The Trump Organization did not respond to questions Monday about the changes in Weisselberg’s roles.

An attorney for Weisselberg, Mary Mulligan, declined to comment.

Weisselberg, 73, has worked for Trump’s company since the 1970s, and in recent years has become its most powerful executive outside the Trump family. When Trump entered the White House in 2017, he left the company’s day-to-day leadership in the hands of his sons, Eric and Donald Trump Jr., and Weisselberg.

Prosecutors in New York have charged Weisselberg with helping orchestrate a scheme that concealed some of the income of top Trump executives — including his own income.

Prosecutors said some executive salary would be paid in noncash benefits, such as free apartments, cars or tuition help. Then, prosecutors said, Weisselberg and others hid that noncash income from taxing authorities and thus avoided paying payroll and income taxes on it.

Weisselberg himself evaded more than $900,000 in taxes, prosecutors alleged.

Trump has not been charged in the investigation, led by Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus R. Vance Jr. (D) and New York Attorney General Letitia James (D). Vance and James have said the investigation is continuing.

Prosecutors hoped Weisselberg would “flip” and seek to lower his own legal risk by agreeing to testify against Trump, a person familiar with the investigation had previously said. But Weisselberg pleaded not guilty, and his lawyers said he intended to fight the charges.

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