Studio 54 Founder Ian Schrager Gets Pardon From Obama on Tax Charge

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By Daniel J. Solomon January 19, 2017

More than three decades after he ran afoul of his federal taxes, New York City real estate developer Ian Schrager is receiving a pardon from outgoing President Barack Obama.

Schrager, the founder of Manhattan’s famous Studio 54 nightclub, served almost two years in federal prison after being judged guilty on charges of tax evasion back in 1980.

The presidential action has no practical impact on Schrager, who also had to pay $20,000 in restitution.

Schrager grew up in a Jewish family in Brooklyn before he and business partner Steve Rubell started Studio 54, which defined urban cool in the late ‘70’s and early ‘80’s. President-elect Donald Trump was a frequent visitor to the nightclub in its heyday.

He’s up to more boring stuff today, currently heading the Ian Schrager Company, which has developed a number of city hotels since its inception a decade ago and is currently building a new complex of condominiums on Leroy Street in the West Village.

Contact Daniel J. Solomon at [email protected] or on Twitter @DanielJSolomon

Daniel J. Solomon is the former Assistant to the Editor/News Writer at the Forward. Originally from Queens, he attended Harvard as an undergraduate, where he wrote his senior thesis on French-Jewish intellectual history. He is excited to have returned to New York after his time in Massachusetts. Daniel’s passions include folk music, cycling, and pointed argument.

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