For tax fraud
Trump’s ex-financial chief sentenced to prison
1/11/2023 5:17 am
Trump Organization employees have been systematically cheating the tax authorities for years. Longtime Trump confidante Weisselberg pleads guilty in court. The former chief financial officer thus escapes a long prison sentence. However, he does not burden the ex-US President.
The longtime CFO of former US President Donald Trump’s real estate group has been sentenced to five months in prison for tax fraud, among other things. Manhattan’s chief prosecutor Alvin Bragg officially announced the sentence for 75-year-old Allen Weisselberg, who had already pleaded guilty last summer, in New York on Tuesday. “In Manhattan, you have to play by the rules no matter who you work for,” Bragg said.
Weisselberg had previously testified in the process that he and other employees had systematically cheated the tax authorities for years. Benefits such as luxury cars and expensive apartments were not taxed. Trump and members of his family signed many of the checks themselves, but were not part of the fraud, Weisselberg said. In June 2021, among other things, he resigned from his position as chief financial officer of the Trump Organization.
With his confession, Weisselberg escaped a possible prison sentence of up to 15 years. In addition to the five months in prison, Weisselberg received an additional five years of probation and has to pay almost two million US dollars in taxes and fines due.
In the process in December, ex-President Trump’s complex real estate construct was also found guilty. Trump was not personally accused. But it was the first criminal conviction of his group. The Trump Organization and another accused company in the group could face a fine of up to $1.7 million. The company’s lawyers said they would appeal.