Former Trump Organization CFO Allen Weisselberg has been sentenced to five months in prison by a New York judge, CNN reported.
The jail term was handed down to Weisselberg for his alleged role in a tax scheme that lasted over a decade after he agreed to be a state’s witness against the Trump Organization.
Weisselberg, 75, will serve his sentence at New York’s Rikers Island jail.
In August, he pleaded guilty to 15 felonies in a deal with the prosecution in which he testified at the tax trial of the Trump Organization, paid $2 million in back taxes, including interest and penalties, and waived his right to appeal.
Judge Juan Merchan said on Tuesday that upon hearing evidence in the case he would have given Weisselberg a much harsher sentence had he not already agreed to the five-month incarceration.
Weisselberg, a long-time Trump Organization executive, admitted that he did not pay taxes on off-book earnings equalling around $200,000 a year, inducing a luxury flat in Manhattan near the Hudson River, two Mercedes leases, parking, utilities, furnitures and private school tuition for his grandchildren.
Merchan described his “offence” at Weisselberg’s falsification of a $6,000 payroll check to his wife so she could be eligible for Social Security benefits, saying it was the worst of the defendant’s crimes.
New York District Attorney Alvin Bragg said that the sentence demonstrated that in “Manhattan, you have to play by the rules no matter who you are or who you work for.”
“Now, he and two Trump companies have been convicted of felonies and Weisselberg will serve a jail sentence for his crimes,” Bragg said.