Trump executive prepares for jail

New York — A longtime executive for Donald Trump is expected to be sent to New York’s notorious Rikers Island jail after being sentenced on Tuesday for helping engineer a 15-year tax fraud scheme at the former president’s real estate company.

Allen Weisselberg, the Trump Organization’s former CFO, pleaded guilty in August, admitting that from 2005 to 2017 he and other executives received bonuses and perks that saved the company and themselves money.

Weisselberg is expected to be sentenced to five months behind bars, after paying nearly $2m 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 is likely to serve 100 days with time off for good behaviour.

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 lock-up.

Five-decade relationship

Many convicts in New York City facing one year or less in jail head to Rikers Island, which lies between the New York City boroughs of Queens and the Bronx, and houses more than 5,900 inmates.

Rothfeld spent more than five weeks at Rikers in 2015 and 2016 as part of an 18-month sentence for defrauding investors and tax authorities when he was CEO of the now-defunct WJB Capital Group.

He now runs Inside Outside, which advises people facing incarceration. Another client is Harvey Weinstein, the former Hollywood movie producer twice convicted of rape.

After being sentenced, Weisselberg will probably 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 dormitory with inmates who may not know him but will know his boss, who is seeking the presidency in 2024.

“Certainly Mr Weisselberg’s 50-year relationship with the former president is on all our minds,” Rothfeld said.

A spokesperson for the city’s department of correction said its mission is “to create a safe and supportive environment for everyone who enters our custody”.

Rikers is scheduled to close in 2027.

Star witness

Weisselberg was the star government witness against his employer.

He told jurors that Trump signed bonus and tuition cheques, and other documents at the heart of prosecutors’ case, but was not in on the tax fraud scheme.

Though no longer CFO, Weisselberg remains on paid leave from the Trump Organization. He testified in November that he hoped to get a $500,000 bonus this month.

Weisselberg testified that the company is paying his lawyers. It is paying Rothfeld as well, a person familiar with the matter said. Rothfeld declined to comment.

Trump wasn’t charged and has denied wrongdoing. The Manhattan District Attorney's office is still investigating his business practices.

Merchan will also sentence the Trump Organization on Friday. Penalties are limited to $1.6m.

Weisselberg remains a defendant in New York Attorney-General Letitia James’ $250m civil lawsuit alleging that Trump and his company inflated asset values and Trump's net worth.

Rothfeld said he advised Weisselberg not to go outside at Rikers because of the risk of violence in courtyards, and not to interject himself into conversations between other inmates.

“The goal is to keep to yourself,” Rothfeld said.

Reuters