Former Trump Organization CFO Allen Weisselberg will trade the high life for Rikers Island following his sentencing Tuesday for dodging taxes on $1.7 million in company perks, in a case a Manhattan judge said was “driven purely by greed.”
Weisselberg, 75 — who pleaded guilty to tax fraud charges in August and testified against the Trump Org at its trial — is expected to serve just 100 days of the five-month prison term handed down in Manhattan Supreme Court on Tuesday afternoon.
The former exec, dressed casually in an olive green North Face fleece over a white T-shirt, blue jeans and white sneakers, was hauled away in handcuffs immediately after learning his fate.
He is set to be housed in the notorious jail complex’s North Infirmary Command, which has been home to inmates like the rappers Tupac Shakur and Lil Wayne as well as disgraced former Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein, The Post had learned.
The unit has been historically used to house high-profile or especially notorious inmates, as well as inmates with disabilities. Weisselberg could be released in three months with good behavior, and would then serve five years of probation.
The admitted tax crook had been prepped for his new life behind bars by Craig Rothfeld, a consultant and founder of prison advisory firm Inside Outside Ltd. Rothfeld was by his client’s side Tuesday afternoon in court and made the disclosure to The Post over the phone hours earlier.
Attorneys for Weisselberg — who had on a surgical mask during the hearing and appeared to have gotten a haircut prior to being sent to the can — requested a more lenient sentence.
But Judge Juan Manuel Merchan rejected the request, saying that Weisselberg’s misdeeds were “driven purely by greed, pure and simple.”
“At a time when so many Americans work so hard in the hopes of they’ll one day benefit from Social Security, your client found a way to give his wife a $6,000 payroll payment so that she could contribute to Social Security so that she could one day receive the benefits to which she was not entitled,” Merchan chided defense lawyer Nicholas Gravante.
Gravante had argued that Weisselberg’s advanced age and public shaming should be taken into account by his client’s request for leniency.
Each month makes a big difference when you’re 75 years old,” Gravante said. “He has already been punished tremendously by the disgrace he has brought not only on himself but on his wife, on his two sons and on his four grandchildren.”
Weisselberg became emotional when it was his turn to address the court, his voice cracking as he spoke.
“I think the words expressed by Mr. Gravante expressed my thoughts and my feelings. It has been difficult,” Weisselberg said, as he tried in vain to sway Merchan into easing up on his punishment.
Weisselberg was then handcuffed and taken to Rikers.The sentence handed down had been pre-arranged when the one-time senior adviser at former President Donald Trump’s real estate company agreed to flip on his longtime employer.
Prosecutor Susan Hoffinger said she was satisfied with Weisselberg’s “truthful testimony” against his former company, and told the court Tuesday he had “satisfied the conditions of his plea agreement.”
His turncoat appearance on the witness stand at the Trump Org’s fall trial helped convict the company of 17 criminal counts, including tax fraud, falsifying business records, conspiracy and related crimes. The company was set to be sentenced on Friday.
The prosecution’s star witness had admitted to accepting more than $1.7 million in “off the books” compensation from the company in order to dodge taxes, and pleaded guilty to 15 tax evasion felonies.
Weisselberg accepted free untaxed perks like a rent-free Manhattan apartment, luxury care and tuition payments for his grandchildren in lieu of taxable income, it was revealed.
A jury found the malfeasance was widespread across the Trump Organization, which was found guilty of helping other senior executives skirt Uncle Sam.
Defense lawyers had unsuccessfully argued that Weisselberg had acted alone in avoiding taxes.
Trump, 76, had decried the investigation as a “political witch hunt” spearheaded by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, who is said to be investigating him for the 2016 hush money payments to porn star Stormy Daniels that led to the campaign finance conviction of his longtime personal lawyer Michael Cohen.
The former president — who is also being investigated by Albany officials for allegedly inflating the value of his company’s assets to obtain favorable loans and tax benefits — was not implicated in either Weisselberg’s or his company’s convictions.
Bragg, who was seated in the back of the courtroom during Weisselberg’s hearing, touted the sentence in a statement mentioning the ex-president.
“In Manhattan, you have to play by the rules no matter who you are or who you work for,” the statement said.
“These consequential felony convictions put on full display the inner workings of former President Trump’s companies and its CFO’s actions,” it added, referencing both Weisselberg and Trump and two entities controlled by the Trump Org.
Trump is also being probed by the feds in connection with his role in the Jan. 6 riots and a trove of classified documents found at his Florida resort last year.
With Post wires
