By Karen Freifeld
(Reuters) -Former Trump Organization Chief Financial Officer Allen Weisselberg was released from jail on Wednesday, according to New York City Department of Correction records.
Weisselberg was sent to New York’s Rikers Island jail on Jan. 10 for helping engineer a wide-ranging 15-year tax fraud scheme at former President Donald Trump’s family business.
He was sentenced to five months behind bars but was eligible for release after 100 days with time off for good behavior.
A lawyer for Weisselberg did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Weisselberg, 75, pleaded guilty last year in connection with the long-running scheme. He and other executives received bonuses and perks in ways that cheated tax authorities and saved the company money.
Weisselberg pleaded guilty to all 15 charges he faced, including grand larceny and falsifying business records, and paid some $2 million in taxes, penalties and interest.
As part of his plea deal, Weisselberg testified at last year’s trial of the Trump Organization, which also was charged with the tax fraud scheme. The company also was found guilty of all charges, and was fined $1.6 million, the maximum allowed.
Weisselberg testified that Trump signed checks and other documents at the heart of the tax fraud case, but said he was not in on the scheme. The former president was not charged in the case.
Weisselberg, who worked for Trump for decades, also was involved in the hush money arrangement behind the criminal charges recently filed by Manhattan prosecutors against Trump, but he is not charged in that case.
As a co-trustee of Trump’s trust that owns Trump’s businesses, Weisselberg co-signed a check to Michael Cohen, Trump’s former lawyer. Cohen produced a copy of the check for Congress in 2019 and said it was to partly reimburse him for a $130,000 payment to porn star Stormy Daniels for her silence before the 2016 election.
Daniels has said she had a sexual encounter with Trump, which he denies.
Trump pleaded not guilty to the charges — 34 counts of falsifying business records — at his arraignment in New York state court on April 4.
Weisselberg remains a defendant in the New York Attorney General Letitia James’ $250 million civil lawsuit accusing him, Trump, and the company of inflating asset values and Trump’s net worth.
(Reporting by Karen Freifeld; Editing by Nick Zieminski and Jonathan Oatis)
