New York - (AFP) - The former chief financial officer of the Trump Organization, who is close to former US President Donald Trump , has pleaded guilty to fraud and tax evasion and agreed to testify at the organization's trial, according to the Manhattan attorney general's office.

The attorney general's office said in a statement that Allen Fisselberg pleaded guilty to 15 counts of fraud and tax evasion involving $1.76 million in unreported income between 2005 and 2021.

Weisselberg, 75, has been working for the Trump family since 1973, and the judiciary accuses him of having benefited from in-kind benefits, including an apartment in a luxurious neighborhood in Manhattan, renting two Mercedes cars for him and his wife, and obtaining money to spend his vacations, and he kept all of this from the tax system.

Manhattan Attorney General Alvin Bragg said, "Today, Alan Weisselberg admitted in court to using his position at the Trump Organization to defraud taxpayers and enrich himself."

He added, "The agreement reached with the judiciary directly links the Trump Organization to a wide range of criminal activities and requires Weisselberg to give valuable testimony in the upcoming trial against the organization."

Initially, Weisselberg pleaded not guilty in July 2021 to the charges against him, which subjected him to a prison sentence of up to 15 years.

However, according to the agreement he concluded with the judiciary, he will only spend five months in prison and will pay about two million dollars, including evaded taxes, fines and interest, according to the statement.

Until this agreement was concluded, Weisselberg had refused to testify against Donald Trump personally.

The criminal trial against the Trump Organization, which has pleaded not guilty, is scheduled to start on October 24.

New York State Attorney General Letitia James is conducting another civil investigation, regarding the same suspicions of financial and tax fraud in the Trump Organization.

In this context, Donald Trump had to testify under oath last week, but he refused to answer questions under the Fifth Amendment to the US Constitution, which allows any litigant not to testify against himself.

In another file, a search took place at Donald Trump's home in Florida last week.

FBI investigators suspected that the former president had violated the Anti-Espionage Act, which strictly regulates the possession of classified documents related to national security, and "supposed to be kept only in private government facilities," according to judicial documents.

A parliamentary committee is also seeking to shed light on the role the billionaire played in the attack that a mob of his supporters launched on the Capitol on January 6, 2021.