Trump executive Weisselberg prepares for jail on Rikers Island
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[January 10, 2023]
By Karen Freifeld
NEW YORK (Reuters) - A longtime executive for Donald Trump is expected
to be sent to New York's notorious Rikers Island jail after being
sentenced on Tuesday for helping engineer a 15-year tax fraud scheme at
the former president's real estate company.
Allen Weisselberg, the Trump Organization's former chief financial
officer, pleaded guilty in August, admitting that from 2005 to 2017 he
and other executives received bonuses and perks that saved the company
and themselves money.
Weisselberg is expected to be sentenced to five months behind bars,
after paying nearly $2 million in taxes, penalties and interest and
testifying at the criminal trial of the Trump Organization, which was
convicted on all counts it faced.
The sentence will be imposed by Justice Juan Merchan, who oversaw the
trial in a New York state court in Manhattan. Weisselberg would likely
serve 100 days with time off for good behavior.
Those days will probably not be easy for Weisselberg, 75, at a jail
known for violence, drugs and corruption. Nineteen inmates there died
last year.
"You're going into a byzantine black hole," said Craig Rothfeld, a
prison consultant helping Weisselberg prepare for lockup.
50-YEAR RELATIONSHIP
Many convicts in New York City facing one year or less behind bars head
to Rikers Island, which lies between the New York City boroughs of
Queens and the Bronx and houses more than 5,900 inmates.
Rothfeld spent more than five weeks at Rikers in 2015 and 2016 as part
of an 18-month sentence for defrauding investors and tax authorities
when he was chief executive of the now-defunct WJB Capital Group Inc.
He now runs Inside Outside Ltd, which advises people facing
incarceration. Another client is Harvey Weinstein, the former Hollywood
movie producer convicted twice of rape.
After being sentenced, Weisselberg will likely be driven to Rikers and
trade his street clothes for a uniform and sneakers with velcro straps.
Rothfeld said he hopes Weisselberg will be segregated from the general
population, and not placed in a dorm with inmates who may not know him
but will know his boss, who is seeking the presidency in 2024.
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Trump Organization's former Chief
Financial Officer Allen Weisselberg leaves the courtroom in New
York, U.S., November 15, 2022. REUTERS/Yuki Iwamura
"Certainly Mr. Weisselberg's 50-year relationship with the former
president is on all our minds," Rothfeld said.
A spokesman for the city's Department of Correction said the
agency's mission is "to create a safe and supportive environment for
everyone who enters our custody."
Rikers is scheduled to close in 2027.
STAR WITNESS
Weisselberg was the star government witness against his employer.
He told jurors that Trump signed bonus and tuition checks, and other
documents at the heart of prosecutors' case, but was not in on the
tax fraud scheme.
Though no longer CFO, Weisselberg remains on paid leave from the
Trump Organization. He testified in November that he hoped to get a
$500,000 bonus this month.
Weisselberg testified that the company is paying his lawyers. It is
paying Rothfeld as well, a person familiar with the matter said.
Rothfeld declined to comment.
Trump was not charged and has denied wrongdoing. The Manhattan
District Attorney's office is still investigating his business
practices.
Merchan will also sentence the Trump Organization on Friday.
Penalties are limited to $1.6 million.
Weisselberg remains a defendant in New York Attorney General Letitia
James' $250 million civil lawsuit alleging that Trump and his
company inflated asset values and Trump's net worth.
Rothfeld said he advised Weisselberg not to go outside at Rikers
because of the risk of violence in courtyards, and not to interject
himself into conversations between other inmates.
"The goal is to keep to yourself," Rothfeld said.
(Reporting by Karen Freifeld; Editing by Richard Chang)
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