Michael Grimm, Inmate 83479-053, Begins Eight-Month Prison Sentence
Disgraced ex-Congressman Michael Grimm, who pleaded guilty in December to tax fraud, has turned in his suit and tie for some prison-issued threads.
The Daily News reports that Grimm surrendered himself to U.S. Marshals Tuesday to begin his eight-month prison sentence at the McKean Federal Correctional Institute in Pennsylvania, where he will be known as inmate number 83479-053.
Due to the non-violent nature of Grimm’s crime, he has been assigned to the prison’s minimum security camp, which includes dormitory-style housing, recreational areas, and a monitored email system, according to the Staten Island Advance. The camp is where actor Wesley Snipes famously spent three years for failing to file tax returns.
Grimm initially requested to be housed at a federal prison in New Jersey so that he could be closer to his mother. However, a judge granted the former congressman’s request to postpone by 12 days the date he was scheduled to surrender so that he could undergo surgery.
Grimm was sentenced on July 17, seven months after admitting to underreporting his earnings and paying workers off the books at his fast food business Healthalicious. Grimm asked that he be spared jail time. But the judge, noting Grimm’s positions as a lawmaker, former marine, and FBI agent, argued that the former congressman’s moral compass needed “some realignment” and ordered a harsh sentence. Grimm was also ordered to pay $149,000 to three government agencies as restitution for the tax fraud.
