Allen Weisselberg, a longtime executive for Donald Trump’s business empire, was taken into custody on Tuesday to begin serving a five-month jail term for dodging taxes on $US1.7 million ($2.4 million) in job perks тАФ a punishment the judge who sentenced him said was probably too lenient for a case тАЬdriven entirely by greed”.
Weisselberg, 75, was promised the short sentence in August when he agreed to plead guilty to 15 tax crimes and to be a witness against the Trump Organisation, where he worked since the mid-1980s.
His testimony helped convict the former presidentтАЩs 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 trial testimony, he regretted that the penalty wasn’t tougher.
He said he was especially appalled by testimony that Weisselberg gave his wife a $8700 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, тАЬI would be imposing a sentence much greater than that”.
тАЬIтАЩm not going to deviate from the promise, though I believe a stiffer sentence is warranted, having heard the evidence,тАЭ he added.
Weisselberg, who came to court dressed for jail rather than in his usual suit, was handcuffed and taken away by court officers moments after the sentence was announced.
He will be eligible for release after little more than three months if he behaves behind bars.
Weisselberg’s sentencing also marked the end of his career at the Trump Organisation, where he had been on leave since the fall, continuing to make $1.65 million in salary and bonuses, even as he was testifying against the company.
His lawyer, Nicholas Gravante, said that as of Tuesday, the executive and the company тАЬhave amicably parted ways”.
As part of the plea agreement, Weisselberg was required to pay nearly $3 million in back taxes, penalties and interest, which prosecutors said he has done.
Prosecutors recommended a six-month jail sentence, but Merchan said he settled on five months, in part because of mitigating factors, such as WeisselbergтАЩs military service and stint as a public school teacher.
In addition, Merchan ordered Weisselberg to complete five years of probation after his leaves jail.
Gravante had asked the judge for an even lighter sentence than the one in the plea bargain, citing WeisselbergтАЩs age and тАЬfar from perfect health”.
тАЬHe has already been punished tremendously by the disgrace that he has brought not only on himself, but his wife, his sons and his grandchildren,” Gravante said.
Weisselberg faced the prospect of up to 15 years in prison тАФ the maximum punishment for the top grand larceny charge тАФ if he were to have reneged on his deal or if he didnтАЩt testify truthfully at the Trump OrganisationтАЩs trial.
Weisselberg is the only person charged in the Manhattan district attorneyтАЩs three-year investigation of Trump and his business practices.
Weisselberg testified for three days, offering a glimpse into the inner workings of TrumpтАЩs real estate empire.
Weisselberg has worked for TrumpтАЩs family for nearly 50 years, starting as an accountant for his developer father, Fred Trump, in 1973.
He joined Donald Trump in 1986 and helped expand the company into a global golf and hotel brand.
Weisselberg told jurors he betrayed the Trump familyтАЩs trust by conspiring with a subordinate to hide more than a decadeтАЩs worth of extras from his income, including a free Manhattan apartment, luxury cars and his grandchildrenтАЩs private school tuition.
He said they fudged payroll records and issued falsified W-2 forms.
A Manhattan jury convicted the Trump Organisation in December, finding that Weisselberg had been a тАЬhigh managerialтАЭ agent entrusted to act on behalf of the company and its various entities.
WeisselbergтАЩs arrangement reduced his own personal income taxes but also saved the company money because it didnтАЩt have to pay him more to cover the cost of the perks.
Prosecutors said other Trump Organisation executives also accepted off-the-books compensation.
Weisselberg alone was accused of defrauding the federal government, state and city out of more than $1.3 million in unpaid taxes and undeserved tax refunds.
The Trump Organisation is scheduled to be sentenced on Friday and faces a fine of up to $2.3 million.
Weisselberg testified that neither Trump nor his family knew about the scheme as it was happening, choking up as he told jurors: тАЬIt was my own personal greed that led to this.”
But prosecutors, in their closing argument, said Trump тАЬknew exactly what was going onтАЭ and that evidence, such as a lease he signed for WeisselbergтАЩs apartment, made clear that Trump was “explicitly sanctioning tax fraud”.
Trump Organisation lawyers have said Weisselberg concocted the scheme without Trump or the Trump familyтАЩs knowledge.
Weisselberg said the Trumps remained loyal to him even as the company scrambled to end some of its dubious pay practices following TrumpтАЩs 2016 election.
He said TrumpтАЩs eldest sons, entrusted to run the company while Trump was president, gave him a $290,000 raise after an internal audit found he had been reducing his salary and bonuses by the cost of the perks.
The company punished him only nominally after his arrest in July 2021, reassigning him to senior adviser and moving his office.
He even celebrated his 75th birthday at Trump Tower with cake and colleagues in August, just hours after finalising the plea agreement that ushered his transformation from loyal executive to prosecution witness and, now, jail inmate.
Rikers Island, a compound of 10 jails on a spit of land in the East River, just off the main runway at LaGuardia Airport in Queens, has been plagued in recent years by violence, inmate deaths and staggering staffing shortages.
Though just 8km from Trump Tower, itтАЩs a veritable world away from the life of luxury Weisselberg schemed to build тАФ a far cry from the gilded Fifth Avenue offices where he hatched his plot and the Hudson River-view apartment he reaped as a reward.
