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After testimony that helped convict Donald Trump’s company of tax fraud, its longtime senior executive Allen Weisselberg has been given five months in jail for accepting $1.7m in job perks without paying tax.
Weisselberg, 75, was promised that sentence in August when he agreed to plead guilty to 15 tax crimes and testify against the Trump Organization, where he has worked since the mid-1980s and, until his arrest, had served as chief financial officer.
He was handcuffed and taken into custody moments after the sentence was announced.
Weisselberg will likely be locked up at Rikers Island in New York and eligible for release after slightly more than three months.
As part of the plea agreement, Judge Juan Manuel Merchan also ordered Weisselberg to pay nearly $2m in taxes, penalties and interest, which he has paid as of 3 January. The judge also sentenced Weisselberg to five years of probation after his release.
Weisselberg would have faced up to 15 years in prison – the maximum punishment for the top grand larceny charge – had he reneged on the deal or not testified truthfully at the Trump Organization’s trial.
