Alan Wesselberg, a longtime executive for Donald Trump’s real estate empire whose testimony helped convict the former president’s tax fraud company, was charged Jan. 10 with dodging taxes on $1.7 million in job perks was sentenced.
New York Judge Juan Manuel Merchen is expected to sentence Weiselberg, a senior adviser and former chief financial officer of the Trump Organization, to five months in prison, taking into account a plea agreement reached in August.
Mr Weiselberg, 75, was promised that sentence after he agreed to plead guilty to 15 tax offenses and testify against the company where he had worked since the mid-1980s.
When he begins serving his sentence, Mr. Wesselberg is expected to be held at New York City’s notorious Rikers Island prison complex. If he behaves behind bars he will be eligible for release after a little more than three months.
As part of his plea agreement, Mr. Wesselberg must pay approximately $2 million in back taxes, penalties and interest, which he said he has made significant progress in paying. He will also have to complete five years’ probation.
Mr Weiselberg faced the possibility of up to 15 years in prison – the maximum sentence for the top grand theft charge – if he were to renege on the deal or if he did not testify truthfully in the Trump Organization’s trial. He is the only person charged in a three-year investigation by the Manhattan district attorney into Mr Trump and his business practices.
Mr. Weisslberg testified for three days, offering a glimpse into the inner workings of Mr. Trump’s real estate empire. Mr. Wesselberg has worked for Mr. Trump’s family for nearly 50 years, starting in 1973 as an accountant for his developer father, Fred Trump, before joining Donald Trump in 1986 and global golf in New York City. Helped expand the focus of the family company beyond the U.S. and hotel brands.
Mr. Wesselberg told jurors that he betrayed the Trump family’s trust by conspiring with a subordinate to hide more than a decade’s worth of excess assets from his income, including a free Manhattan apartment, luxury cars and his Grandchild’s private school tuition is covered. They said he falsified payroll records and issued false W-2 forms.
A Manhattan jury indicted the Trump Organization in December, finding that Mr. Weiselberg was a “high managerial” agent assigned to act on behalf of the company and its various entities. Mr. Wesselberg’s arrangement reduced his own personal income taxes, but also saved the company money because he didn’t have to pay more to cover the cost of perks.
Prosecutors said other Trump Organization executives also accepted off-the-books compensation. Mr. Wesselberg alone was accused of defrauding the federal, state and city governments of more than $900,000 in unpaid taxes and unqualified tax refunds.
The Trump Organization is scheduled to be sentenced on January 13 and could face fines of up to $1.6 million.
Mr. Weissberg testified that neither Mr. Trump nor his family knew about the scheme as it was happening, telling jurors: “It was my own personal greed that led to this.” But the prosecution said in its closing argument that Mr. Trump “knew exactly what was going on” and that evidence, such as the lease he signed for Weissenberg’s apartment, made clear that “Mr. formally approving tax fraud. A lawyer for the Trump Organization, Michael van der Veen, has said Mr. Weisselberg concocted the scheme without the knowledge of Mr. Trump or the Trump family.
Mr. Weisslberg said Trump remained loyal to him even as the company scrambled to end some of its questionable pay practices after Mr. Trump’s 2016 election. They said Mr. Trump’s eldest son, who was put in charge of running the company during Trump’s presidency, was given a $200,000 raise after an internal audit found that he was covering the cost of perks and benefits. were reducing the bonus.
Although he is now on a leave of absence, the company continues to pay Mr. Wesselberg a $640,000 salary and a $500,000 vacation bonus. It gave him only nominal punishment after his arrest in July 2021, reappointed him as senior advisor and moved his office.
He even celebrated his 75th birthday at Trump Tower in August with Keck and aides, just hours after finalizing the plea agreement that marked the beginning of his transformation from loyal executive to prosecution witness.
Rikers Island, a complex of 10 prisons on a spit of land in the East River just off the main runway at LaGuardia Airport in Queens, has been plagued in recent years by violence, inmate deaths and severe staffing shortages.