According to new reporting from International Business Times, the day is rapidly approaching for longtime Trump Organization Chief Financial Officer Allen Weisselberg to begin his sentence at the infamous Rikers Island jail in New York, where he will serve out his time for his various tax fraud-related crimes during his time with the scandal-ridden ex-president’s personal family company, as a result of his plea deal with state prosecutors.
Karen Freifeld with International Business Times reports, “Weisselberg is expected to be sentenced to five months behind bars, after paying nearly $2 million in taxes, penalties, and interest and testifying at the criminal trial of the Trump Organization, which was convicted on all counts it faced. The sentence will be imposed by Justice Juan Merchan, who oversaw the trial in a New York state court in Manhattan. Weisselberg would likely serve 100 days with time off for good behavior.”
The report goes on to read, “Those days will probably not be easy for Weisselberg, 75, at a jail known for violence, drugs, and corruption. Nineteen inmates there died last year. ‘You’re going into a byzantine black hole,’ said Craig Rothfeld, a prison consultant helping Weisselberg prepare for lockup.”
“Many convicts in New York City facing one year or less behind bars head to Rikers Island, which lies between the New York City boroughs of Queens and the Bronx and houses more than 5,900 inmates,” Freifield’s report goes on to add. “After being sentenced, Weisselberg will likely be driven to Rikers and trade his street clothes for a uniform and sneakers with velcro straps. Rothfeld said he hopes Weisselberg will be segregated from the general population, and not placed in a dorm with inmates who may not know him but will know his boss, who is seeking the presidency in 2024.”
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Allen Weisselberg infamously pleaded guilty to tax fraud in relation to the ex-president’s family company and personally testified against the Trump Organization as part of a much larger case worked by New York prosecutors into the corrupt Trump family business.
Prosecutors vehemently argued that Donald Trump was personally aware of the fraud that was being committed by Weisellberg from the very beginning. Weisselberg repeatedly denied Trump’s personal involvement in or awareness of the fraudulent tactics he was engaging in, but did seem to inadvertently implicate the family when he testified to multiple things that prosecutors were previously unaware of, including his claim that the Trump children gave him a substantial raise upon discovering the fraudulent practices, and his claim that, despite the Trump Organization’s claims that Weisselberg was fired from the company, the longtime CFO remained on the payroll.
Featured image via Flickr/Gage Skidmore, under Creative Commons license 2.0
