Former Trump Organization CFO sentenced to five months in jail

Allen Weisselberg, the former chief financial officer of the Trump Organization, was sentenced to five months in jail on Tuesday, after serving as a key witness in the criminal tax fraud trial against former President Trump’s business empire late last year, The Associated Press reported.

Weisselberg was promised the five-month sentence as part of a plea deal last August. The former Trump Organization executive pleaded guilty to 15 counts of tax evasion and agreed to testify against the Trump Organization in return for the shortened sentence.

He is also required to pay nearly $2 million in taxes, penalties and interest, and serve five years of probation.

The Trump Organization was found guilty of tax fraud in early December after a monthlong trial. Weisselberg’s testimony was central to the prosecution’s case, which argued that the Trump Organization engaged in a 15-year scheme to provide its top executives with luxury perks in order to evade taxes.

While Trump himself was not on trial in the case, the prosecution sought to show that the former president was “explicitly sanctioning tax fraud.”

The Trump Organization, which is set to be sentenced on Friday, could be fined up to $1.6 million.