Longtime Trump CFO Weisselberg gets 5 months in jail in tax fraud case
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[January 11, 2023]
By Karen Freifeld
NEW YORK (Reuters) -Allen Weisselberg, a longtime executive for Donald
Trump and the star prosecution witness in the Trump Organization's
criminal trial, was sentenced on Tuesday to five months behind bars for
helping engineer a wide-ranging tax fraud at the former president's real
estate company.
Weisselberg, 75, was sent to New York's notorious Rikers Island jail
after pleading guilty last August in an agreement with prosecutors to
all 15 counts he faced. The Trump Organization's former chief financial
officer admitted that from 2005 to 2017 he and other executives received
bonuses and perks that fraudulently saved the company and themselves
money and that he evaded taxes on $1.76 million of income.
The Trump Organization was convicted last month on all counts it faced
at a trial overseen by Justice Juan Merchan in a New York state court in
Manhattan.
At Tuesday's sentencing hearing, Merchan said that had he not agreed
last August to a five-month term for Weisselberg arising from the plea
deal, he would have imposed a much longer sentence based on the trial
testimony.
Merchan singled out Weisselberg for putting his wife on Trump's payroll
so she could receive undeserved Social Security benefits. Other perks
for the Weisselbergs included a luxury Manhattan apartment and multiple
Mercedes-Benz vehicles.
"The reason the court finds it so offensive is it was driven by greed,"
even though Weisselberg was already "earning over seven figures,"
Merchan said.
Weisselberg also paid about $2 million in taxes, penalties and interest
as part of his punishment.
He had been on paid leave from the Trump Organization - his employer for
about five decades - but his lawyer Nicholas Gravante said after the
hearing that Weisselberg and the company had "amicably parted ways."
The Trump Organization did not immediately respond to a request for
comment. Merchan is set to sentence the company on Friday, though
penalties are limited to $1.6 million.
'BLACK HOLE'
Weisselberg wore an olive green North Face jacket, a white crewneck
shirt and a light blue disposable mask at his sentencing. Once at Rikers,
he was expected to trade his street clothes for a uniform and sneakers
with Velcro straps.
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Allen Howard Weisselberg, the former
Trump Organization CFO, appears for sentencing for tax fraud scheme
in New York State Supreme Court in the Manhattan borough of New York
City, U.S., January 10, 2023. Curtis Means/Pool via REUTERS
He will likely serve 100 days in jail with time off for good
behavior. Those days probably will not be easy. Lying between the
New York City boroughs of Queens and the Bronx, Rikers is known for
violence, drugs and corruption.
The jail houses more than 5,900 inmates, and 19 inmates died there
last year. The city's corrections department has said its mission
includes keeping inmates safe. Rikers is scheduled to close in 2027.
"You're going into a byzantine black hole," said Craig Rothfeld, a
prison consultant at Inside Outside Ltd who helped Weisselberg
prepare for lockup.
Another client is Harvey Weinstein, the former Hollywood movie
producer convicted twice of rape.
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 former boss, who is seeking the
presidency again in 2024.
"Certainly Mr. Weisselberg's 50-year relationship with the former
president is on all our minds," Rothfeld said.
Weisselberg testified that Trump signed bonus and tuition checks, as
well as other documents at the heart of the prosecution case, but
was not in on the tax fraud scheme. He also testified that he hoped
to get a $500,000 bonus this month, and that the company was paying
his lawyers.
Trump was not charged and has denied wrongdoing.
Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, whose office prosecuted
Weisselberg and the Trump Organization, attended the sentencing.
Bragg's office is still investigating Trump's business practices.
"In Manhattan, you have to play by the rules no matter who you are
or who you work for," Bragg said in a statement.
Weisselberg remains a defendant in New York state Attorney General
Letitia James' $250 million civil lawsuit that accused Trump and his
company of inflating asset values and Trump's net worth.
(Reporting by Karen Freifeld; Editing by Will Dunham and Richard
Chang)
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