The feds said the Palmer understated gross receipts by almost $1.6 million those years. Neither the government nor the defense yesterday could account for what happened to the money.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Floyd Miller said Weiss should be made to account for what happened to the $1.6 million before being sentenced.
But defense attorney Thomas Bergstrom said that would be wrong because there was "no evidence" that Weiss made off with the money. (Weiss did not address the issue of the missing money when he apologized to DuBois for impeding the IRS.)
Weiss faced 10 to 16 months in federal prison under advisory guidelines. Bergstrom painted Weiss as a humanitarian who has contributed countless hours of community service.
DuBois also fined the Palmer more than $562,000 and placed it on five years' probation.
As part of its plea, the Palmer gave up its federal income-tax exemption to operate as a nonprofit social club and agreed to prepare delinquent corporate tax returns for years 2004 through 2009 and pay all back taxes.
The Palmer, a for-profit nightclub, takes up three floors of an old warehouse at 6th and Spring Garden streets.
A former Palmer insider told authorities in May 2005 that Weiss kept two sets of books, one with the actual tally of gross receipts and another that understated them, prosecutors said.
Court papers said a Palmer vice president routinely gathered cash from each of the Palmer's cash registers in a large garbage bag along with the "tally sheets," and took it to Weiss' apartment. Federal agents compared the tally sheets with the Palmer's tax returns and later searched Weiss' apartment in January 2007, where they confiscated a computer thumb drive.
They also found $300,000 in cash but did not seize it because there was no evidence that it was connected to the Palmer or the 2004 and 2005 tax returns.
