Trump executive Allen Weisselberg gets 5-month jail sentence

FILE - Trump Organization's former Chief Financial Officer Allen Weisselberg arrives to the courtroom in New York, Thursday, Nov. 17, 2022. Weisselberg, a longtime executive for Donald Trump's real estate empire whose testimony helped convict the former president’s company of tax fraud, is set to be sentenced Tuesday for dodging taxes on $1.7 million in job perks. (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura, File)

NEW YORK — 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 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.

When he begins serving his sentence, Weisselberg is expected to be locked up at New York City’s notorious Rikers Island jail complex. He will be eligible for release after 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.