UNITED STATES: According to the New York City Department of Correction, Allen Weisselberg, the former chief financial officer of the Trump Organisation, was freed from custody on Wednesday.
Weisselberg was detained on January 10 at New York’s Rikers Island jail for his role in the family firm of former President Donald Trump’s involvement in a complex, 15-year tax evasion scheme. While he was given a five-month prison term, he was also given the opportunity to be released after 100 days with time off for good behaviour.
A request for comment from Weisselberg’s attorney was not immediately reacted to. Weisselberg, 75, entered a guilty plea in relation to the long-running fraud last year. He and other executives obtained bonuses and benefits in ways that defrauded the tax system and profited the business.
Weisselberg paid over $2 million in taxes, fines, and interest after entering a guilty plea to all 15 charges he was up against, including grand theft and fabricating financial records.
He agreed to a plea agreement and testified at the Trump Organization’s trial from the previous year, which also involved allegations of tax evasion. A total fine of $1.6 million was imposed on the corporation after it was found guilty of all charges.
Trump signed checks and other documents that are at the centre of the tax fraud case, according to Weisselberg’s testimony, but he insisted that he was not involved in the plan. In this case, the former president wasn’t indicted.
Weisselberg, a longtime employee of Trump, was part of the hush money scheme that led to criminal charges against him. He co-signed a cheque to Michael Cohen, Trump’s former attorney, as a co-trustee of the trust that owns Trump’s businesses.
Cohen provided a copy of the cheque to Congress, explaining that it was intended to partially recoup his payment of $130,000 to porn star Stormy Daniels in exchange for her silence.
Trump disputed Daniels’ allegation of sexual relations and entered a not-guilty plea to 34 counts of falsifying company documents. Weisselberg is still named as a defendant in the $250 million civil action brought by New York Attorney General Letitia James against Trump, the business, and others for allegedly inflating asset values and Trump’s net worth.
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