MG
Michael Gerard Grimm
pardonFinancial / FraudFurther reading
Convicted of
Michael Grimm was a Republican US Congressman representing New York's 11th congressional district (Staten Island), and a former FBI agent and Marine. He was originally indicted in April 2014 on a 20-count federal indictment relating to his ownership of Healthalicious, a health food restaurant on Manhattan's Upper East Side which he operated from 2007 to 2010. The charges included mail fraud, wire fraud, health care fraud, filing false tax returns, perjury, and hiring unauthorized workers. He pleaded guilty in December 2014 — one month after winning re-election to a third term — to a single count of aiding and assisting the preparation of a false and fraudulent tax return. He admitted to fraudulently underreporting approximately $900,000 in restaurant gross receipts, making off-the-books cash payments to employees (including unauthorized immigrant workers) to suppress payroll taxes, cheating New York State out of workers' compensation premiums, and lying under oath to conceal his conduct.
Original sentence
Pleaded guilty on December 23, 2014 in the Eastern District of New York. Sentenced on July 17, 2015 to eight months in federal prison, one year's supervised release, and ordered to pay $148,907.11 in restitution. He resigned from Congress before sentencing.
Post-pardon activity
2mentions
0new offenses
Subsequent News Mentions(2)
Named in a CREW investigation documenting Trump's clemency grants to at least 20 corrupt politicians, collectively allowing eleven former officials to evade roughly 66 years of prison time across 166 corruption counts.
Named in a CBS News report on Trump's pardons and commutations for convicted fraudsters and white-collar criminals, with Trump claiming many were unfairly targeted for being his supporters.