Ex-U.S. Representative Michael Grimm received a sentence on Friday of eight months in prison for a felony tax evasion charge. Grimm was sentenced in a federal court in Brooklyn.
Grimm, who is a Republican, represented Staten Island a borough in New York City. He admitted this past December that he had underreported wages at Healthalicious, which is a restaurant that he co-owned prior to embarking on a political career.
A former FBI agent and Marine, who became a Congressman in 2011, Grimm made front page headlines in January of 2014 when he threatened to throw a reporter off a balcony.
In December, he pleaded guilty to a single count and vowed he would not resign, but then stepped down just a week later after being pressured from leadership in the GOP.
Grimm, as part of the plea he made in December, signed a statement of facts which contained more admissions, including he concealed gross receipts of over $900,000 between 2007 and 2010 and committed perjury in his deposition during 2013.
Grimm’s lawyers asked the judge not to impose any prison time saying the crime was an aberration. At the same time, prosecutors questions whether he had been truly remorseful about what he had done and said prison time was warranted because of how serious the offense was.
Prior to the indictment, Grimm was likely best known for the confrontation he had with a reporter.
He said to the reporter that he would break him in half like a young boy.
The case involving Healthalicious stemmed from that same investigation, which led to Diana Durand, the former fundraiser for Grimm being indicted.
Durand received a sentence of three months in prison following her pleading guilty to charges of funneling illegal money.
