Allen Weisselberg, chief financial officer of the Trump Organization, of which former US President Donald Trump is the manager, was sentenced to 5 months in prison in a tax evasion case where he admitted his crime.
At the hearing in New York, Judge Juan Merchan sentenced Weisselberg to five months in prison for his role in tax frauds that lasted more than 10 years at the Trump company.
Judge Merchan drew attention to Weisselberg’s agreement with prosecutors to testify in return for a prison sentence of 5 months before the trial began, and said, “If this agreement had not existed, I would have given a much heavier sentence than the evidence revealed during the trial.”
Weisselberg, 75, who has worked for the Trump company since the 1970s, was handcuffed after the trial and taken to Riker Island Prison in New York to serve his sentence.
Forensic experts say Weisselberg could be behind bars for about 100 days, with his sentence reduced by a third for good behavior.
Weisselberg also has free control for 5 years after his prison sentence ends. underwill be held.
It was rumored that Weisselberg could face up to 15 years in prison if the defense did not reach an agreement with the prosecutors.
On August 15, 2022, Weisselberg reached an agreement with the prosecutors that he would be sentenced to 5 months in prison in exchange for giving a true statement during the trial and that he would be charged approximately $1.7 million in tax debt.
Trump company tax evasion case
Since 2018, Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus R. Vance has launched an investigation into bets on business practices at Trump’s companies, unregistered bonuses, possible fraud in real estate assets, and irregularity in tax payments.
The Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office formed a committee to decide whether to file a criminal case based on the evidence gathered within the scope of the investigation, which lasted more than 2 years.
Allen Weisselberg, chief financial officer of the Trump Organization, who was in the midst of the accused, initially refused to cooperate with prosecutors against Donald Trump, but later admitted his role in tax evasion processes at the Trump Organization as a module of the defense memorandum he accepted.
At the end of the trial, which began on October 31 in the New York Federal Court, on December 7, 2022, the panel found the Trump Organization wrong on all 17 different charges of tax evasion.
Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, who led the case, wrote on his Twitter account, “This decision, which includes charges of conspiracy, criminal tax fraud and falsification of business records, in addition to being involved in a 15-year fraud scheme, marks the first criminal conviction of former President Trump’s companies.” He used his words.
Trump said in a statement that he was “disappointed with the decision and will appeal”.
