Ex-Trump Org. CFO Allen Weisselberg gets 5 months in prison for tax fraud

Jan. 10 (UPI) -- Allen Weisselberg, the former chief financial officer of the Trump Organization, was sentenced to five months in prison Tuesday for his role in a tax fraud scheme and evading taxes on nearly $2 million in earnings.

Weisselberg, 75, was handcuffed following his sentencing and will be placed at Rikers Island to start his sentence. When taking into account time off for good behavior, he will likely serve 100 days. He has paid about $2 million in taxes and penalties, satisfying his plea agreement, according to district attorney Susan Hoffinger, NBC reported.

After serving his prison sentence, Weisselberg will remain on probation for five years.

Had he been convicted at trial, he could have faced up to 15 years in prison.

In August, he pleaded guilty to charges stemming from a 15-year scheme to evade city, state and federal taxes on $1.76 million in unreported income. The charges against Weisselberg included grand larceny, criminal tax fraud, conspiracy, falsifying business records and offering a false instrument for filing.

As part of his plea agreement, Weisselberg testified against the Trump Organization in November.

Weisselberg said in court that he and other Trump executives knew the tax practices were illegal. They included paying lavish perks for executives in such a way that they avoided paying taxes while also saving the Trump organization money.

He testified that the illegal tax practices were cleaned up when Donald Trump became president.

"Mr. Trump became president, and everybody was looking at our company from every different angle you could think of," Weisselberg testified, adding that the company wanted to "make sure that we correct everything that we have to correct."

The company was found guilty of tax fraud in December.