Allen Weisselberg, a former chief financial officer of the Trump Organization was sentenced Tuesday to five months in prison by a Manhattan court after pleading guilty to multiple tax crimes concerning the former president’s real estate company.
Weisselberg, one of Donald Trump’s most trusted aides was the star prosecution witness in the case. He is expected to be lodged in New York’s notorious Rikers Island jail which is known for extreme violence, drugs and corruption. 19 inmates died last year as the prison is scheduled to close in 2027.
“Today is obviously a difficult day for him, but it is a day for which he has been preparing for many months. Mr. Weisselberg came to court today ready to begin his sentence, and he is grateful that it has now begun,” said Weisselberg’s attorney Nicholas Gravante.
However, Weisselberg could get out sooner, subject to good behaviour and that he aided the authorities in testifying against his longtime employer.
In August last year, Weisselberg pleaded guilty to 15 charges brought against him by the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office, which claimed he received more than $1.7 million in untaxed pay, spanning more than 15 years.
The 75-year-old former CFO admitted hiding those benefits from his accountant in order to underreport his income and knowingly omit the income from his personal tax returns.
Since then, Weisselberg has paid more than $2 million in taxes, penalties and interest as part of his punishment.
The prosecutors have argued Trump knew about the tax fraud and that the narrative he didn’t is false.
“Donald Trump is explicitly sanctioning tax fraud. That’s what this document shows. This whole narrative that Donald Trump is blissfully ignorant is just not real,” said one of the prosecutors during the closing arguments of the case.
Trump, to date, has not been charged in the case but continues to decry that the DA has initiated a political witch hunt against his company.
(With inputs from agencies)
