By Karen Freifeld
NEW YORK (Reuters) – Allen Weisselberg, a former Donald Trump executive and the prosecution’s lead witness in the Trump Organization criminal trial, was sentenced on Tuesday to five months in prison for helping to mastermind a sweeping tax fraud at the former president’s real estate. american president.
Weisselberg, 75, was expected to be sent to New York’s Rikers Island prison after pleading guilty last August to all 15 counts he faced in a plea deal with prosecutors.
The former chief financial officer of the Trump Organization admitted that between 2005 and 2017, he and other executives received bonuses and perks that fraudulently saved the company and their own money, and that he evaded taxes on $1.76 million in revenue. .
The Trump Organization was convicted last month on all charges it faced in a trial conducted by Judge Juan Merchan in New York state court in Manhattan.
At Tuesday’s sentencing hearing, Merchan said that had he not agreed last August to a five-month sentence for Weisselberg under the plea deal, he would have imposed a much longer sentence.
Merchan singled out Weisselberg for putting his wife on Trump’s payroll so that she could receive irregular social security benefits. Other perks for the Weisselbergs included a luxury apartment in Manhattan and several Mercedes-Benz vehicles.
“The reason the court finds it so offensive is that it was motivated by greed,” even though Weisselberg was already “earning more than seven figures,” Merchan said.
Weisselberg also paid around $2 million in taxes, fines and interest as part of his punishment.
(Reporting by Karen Freifeld)
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