Former Trump exec Weisselberg begins 5-month jail sentence in tax case
NEW YORK — Allen Weisselberg, a longtime executive for Donald Trump’s business empire, was taken into custody Tuesday to begin serving a five-month jail term for dodging taxes on $1.7 million in job perks — a punishment the judge who sentenced him said was probably too lenient.
Weisselberg, 75, was promised that sentence in August when he agreed to plead guilty to 15 tax crimes and to be a witness against the Trump Organization, where he’s worked since the mid-1980s. His testimony helped convict the former president’s company, where he had served as chief financial officer, of tax fraud.
But when he made the sentence official Tuesday, Judge Juan Manuel Merchan said that after listening to Weisselberg’s testimony during that trial, he regretted that the penalty wasn’t tougher. He said he was especially appalled by testimony that Weisselberg gave his wife a $6,000 check for a no-show job so that she could qualify for Social Security benefits.
Had he not already promised to give Weisselberg five months, Merchan said, “I would be imposing a sentence much greater than that.”
Weisselberg was expected to be taken to New York City’s notorious Rikers Island jail complex. He will be eligible for release after a little more than three months.
As part of the plea agreement, Weisselberg had also been required to pay nearly $2 million in back taxes, penalties and interest — which he has paid as of Jan. 3. Additionally, the judge ordered Weisselberg to complete five years of probation after his jail term is finished.
Weisselberg faced up to 15 years in prison — the maximum punishment for the top grand larceny charge — if he were to have reneged on the deal or if he didn’t testify truthfully at the Trump Organization’s trial. He is the only person charged in the Manhattan district attorney’s three-year investigation of Trump and his business practices.
A Manhattan jury convicted the Trump Organization in December, finding that Weisselberg had been a “high managerial” agent entrusted to act on behalf of the company and its various entities. Weisselberg’s arrangement reduced his own personal income taxes but also saved the company money because it didn’t have to pay him more to cover the cost of the perks.
The Trump Organization is scheduled to be sentenced on Friday and faces a fine of up to $1.6 million.