Baltimore Sun

July 24, 2008

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A tearful Leona Helmsley was sentenced in March 1992 to 4 years in prison, fined more than $ 7 million, told to pay restitution for her tax evasion and ordered to perform community service -- most likely in a Harlem home for babies suffering from drug addiction and AIDS.  Before U.S. District Court Judge John M. Walker Jr. sentenced the defendant who ostentatiously advertised herself as "queen of the palace," Helmsley, 69, wept and quaked with emotion as she said she was "ashamed" and "humiliated." The judge later told Helmsley,  "Your conduct was a product of naked greed," and added that she had behaved as if she were "above the law."  Known by the moniker “the Queen of Mean,” she was famously quoted during the trial as ranting, “We don't pay taxes -- the little people pay taxes."   She died in 2007.
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Lona Helmsley, tax evasion

(Newsday Photo, 1992 / Alan Raia / April 9, 2008)
A tearful Leona Helmsley was sentenced in March 1992 to 4 years in prison, fined more than $ 7 million, told to pay restitution for her tax evasion and ordered to perform community service -- most likely in a Harlem home for babies suffering from drug addiction and AIDS. Before U.S. District Court Judge John M. Walker Jr. sentenced the defendant who ostentatiously advertised herself as "queen of the palace," Helmsley, 69, wept and quaked with emotion as she said she was "ashamed" and "humiliated." The judge later told Helmsley, "Your conduct was a product of naked greed," and added that she had behaved as if she were "above the law." Known by the moniker “the Queen of Mean,” she was famously quoted during the trial as ranting, “We don't pay taxes -- the little people pay taxes." She died in 2007.
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