Disgraced ex-Rep. Michael Grimm (R-NY), who is perhaps best known for threatening to break a reporter in half “like a boy,” was sentenced Friday to eight months behind bars for tax fraud.
The Staten Island Republican resigned from Congress soon after the new year following his guilty plea on a single count of tax evasion. A 20-count federal indictment unsealed in April 2014 alleged that Grimm underreported more than $1 million in wages and revenue from his health food restaurant, Healthalicious, on the Upper East Side of Manhattan, as well as employed undocumented immigrants there.
Grimm admitted to a federal judge before he was sentenced that it was “wrong” for him to pay employees off the books, according to The New York Times.
“All my life I have scraped and I have clawed and I have killed myself to better myself,” he added, as quoted by the newspaper. “A Marine is taught not to fail.”
The judge, Pamela K. Chen of Federal District Court in Brooklyn, didn’t buy it.
“Your moral compass, Mr. Grimm, needs some reorientation,” she said, as quoted by the Times.
“Everyone falls from grace when they are caught committing crimes. Some fall farther than others,” she added, as quoted by local TV station WABC.
