Allen Weisselberg, a longtime executive for Donald Trump's business empire whose testimony helped convict the former president's company of tax fraud, was sentenced Tuesday to five months in jail for dodging taxes on $1.7 million in job perks.
Weisselberg, 75, was promised that sentence in August when he agreed to plead guilty to 15 tax crimes and to testify against the Trump Organization, where he's 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 and was expected to be taken to New York City's notorious Rikers Island jail complex.
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Weisselberg will be eligible for release after a little more than three months if he behaves behind bars.
As part of the plea agreement, Judge Juan Manuel Merchan also ordered Weisselberg to pay nearly $2 million in taxes, penalties and interest - which he has paid as of Jan. 3.
Additionally, the judge ordered Weisselberg to complete five years of probation after his jail term is finished.
Weisselberg faced the prospect of up to 15 years in prison — the maximum punishment for the top grand larceny charge — if he were to have reneged on the deal or if he didn't testify truthfully at the Trump Organization's trial.
He is the only person charged in the Manhattan district attorney's three-year investigation of Trump and his business practices.
Additional reporting by The Associated Press.
