Pardons & Commutations

Pleaded guilty to wire fraud and aggravated identity theft. Also admitted to conspiracy against the United States, credit card fraud, and money laundering as part of his plea agreement.

Ben Delo was a co-founder, COO, and Chief Strategy Officer of BitMEX, a cryptocurrency derivatives exchange. He pleaded guilty to one count of willfully failing to establish, implement, and maintain an anti-money laundering (AML) program at BitMEX, in violation of the Bank Secrecy Act. From approximately 2015 to 2020, BitMEX knowingly served US customers without identity verification or know-your-customer (KYC) checks, allowed customers from Iran and other sanctioned jurisdictions to trade on the platform, and failed to file any suspicious activity reports — even after being notified by federal authorities that the platform was being used to launder proceeds from a cryptocurrency hack.

Former Las Vegas city councilwoman and Nevada state lawmaker who was later appointed as a justice of the peace in Pahrump, Nevada. Fiore diverted charitable donations intended to fund a statue honouring a slain Las Vegas police officer, spending the money on her own plastic surgery instead. She was convicted of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and six counts of wire fraud, and was awaiting sentencing — facing the possibility of decades in prison — when Trump issued a full pardon.

David Gentile was the founder and CEO of GPB Capital Holdings, a private equity firm. He was convicted by a federal jury on August 1, 2024 on all counts including conspiracy to commit securities fraud, conspiracy to commit wire fraud, and multiple counts of wire fraud. Gentile orchestrated a multi-year scheme to defraud more than 10,000 investors by misrepresenting the financial performance of three GPB Capital private equity funds and concealing the true source of monthly distribution payments — using over $98 million diverted from investor accounts to cover shortfalls and maintain the appearance of returns. Gentile personally received more than $15 million during the scheme.

Scott Howard Jenkins served as the elected Sheriff of Culpeper County, Virginia from 2012 to 2023. He was convicted in December 2024 on charges of conspiracy to commit bribery, honest services mail fraud, three counts of honest services wire fraud, and seven counts of bribery concerning programs receiving federal funds. Jenkins ran what federal prosecutors described as a "cash-for-badges" scheme — accepting more than $75,000 in cash payments and campaign contributions from Northern Virginia businessmen in exchange for appointing them as auxiliary deputy sheriffs, a sworn law-enforcement position. The appointees received official Culpeper County Sheriff's Office badges and credentials despite being unvetted and untrained, and rendered no legitimate services. Evidence at trial included two undercover FBI agents who were sworn in as auxiliary deputies in 2022 and immediately handed Jenkins envelopes containing $5,000 and $10,000 in cash.

Pete Rose, baseball's all-time hits leader with 4,256 career hits, was banned from professional baseball for life in August 1989 by Commissioner Bart Giamatti following an investigation that found he had bet on Cincinnati Reds games while serving as the team's manager — including games in which the Reds were participating. The following year, in 1990, Rose pleaded guilty in federal court to two counts of tax evasion, having filed false income tax returns and failed to report substantial income earned from autograph signings and memorabilia sales. He served five months in federal prison. The presidential pardon, issued posthumously on March 1, 2025 — approximately five months after Rose's death at age 83 — covered the federal tax conviction. MLB subsequently lifted Rose's lifetime baseball ban on May 13, 2025, making him eligible for Hall of Fame consideration for the first time since his exile from the sport.

Joseph Schwartz was the majority owner and president of Skyline Healthcare LLC, which at its peak operated more than 100 nursing homes across 11 states, caring for more than 7,000 elderly residents. The federal charges against Schwartz stemmed from his operation of nursing home facilities in New Jersey: he willfully failed to remit to the IRS approximately $38–39 million in employment taxes that had been withheld from his employees' paychecks, and he failed to file the Annual Form 5500 Report required by the Department of Labor disclosing the financial status of his employees' 401(k) benefit plan. Separately, Schwartz was convicted in Arkansas state court of Medicaid fraud and tax evasion for submitting false cost reports that inflated Skyline's expenses and overbilled the Arkansas Medicaid program by approximately $2 million. His federal pardon on November 14, 2025 — granted after he spent roughly three months in federal prison — did not cover the Arkansas state conviction. A New York Times investigation later revealed Schwartz had paid nearly $1 million to lobbyists and operatives with ties to Trump allies, including Laura Loomer, "pardon czar" Alice Marie Johnson, and White House counsel David Warrington, to secure the pardon.

Henry Cuellar was a Democratic US Congressman representing Texas's 28th congressional district (Laredo). He and his wife Imelda were indicted in May 2024 on 14 federal counts including two counts of conspiracy, two counts of bribery, honest services wire fraud, money laundering conspiracy, and five counts of money laundering. Prosecutors alleged that from 2014 through at least November 2021, Cuellar accepted nearly $600,000 in bribes from Azerbaijan's state-run oil and gas company — payments laundered through fake consulting contracts with shell companies controlled by his wife, who prosecutors said performed "little or no legitimate" work under them — and from a Mexican bank. In exchange, he allegedly shaped US policy in favor of Azerbaijan, including inserting language into defense spending legislation to prioritize regional ties and working to kill pro-Armenia legislation. He also allegedly tipped off a Mexican bank executive about upcoming payday lending regulation. He was additionally charged with acting as an unregistered foreign agent on behalf of Azerbaijan's government. Cuellar denied all charges. Trump pardoned him in December 2025 before the case went to trial; he was never convicted.

Jeremy Hutchinson was an Arkansas state senator and representative. He pleaded guilty across three federal jurisdictions to charges arising from two separate corruption schemes. In the first bribery scheme, from approximately 2014 to 2017, he accepted more than $350,000 in monthly legal retainer payments, hotel rooms, baseball tickets, and use of luxury real estate from Preferred Family Healthcare (PFH), a Springfield, Missouri-based behavioral health nonprofit. In exchange, he performed official acts on PFH's behalf — including holding up state agency budgets and drafting and voting on legislation to protect the charity's state funding and block cost-containment reforms that would have reduced its profits. In the second scheme, from 2010 through 2017, he stole and misappropriated thousands of dollars in state campaign contributions for personal use, then filed false federal income tax returns from 2011 to 2014 to conceal the theft. He pleaded guilty in June and July 2019 in the Eastern and Western Districts of Arkansas and the Western District of Missouri.

Julie Chrisley, a reality television personality known for the USA Network show Chrisley Knows Best, was convicted in June 2022 on all counts of a federal superseding indictment including conspiracy to commit bank fraud, bank fraud, wire fraud, conspiracy to commit tax evasion, and obstruction of justice. She and her husband Todd conspired to defraud community banks out of more than $30 million in fraudulent loans by submitting false financial documents — including fabricated bank statements and fake financial records — to obtain loans which were then spent on cars, clothing, real estate, and travel, with new loans taken out to repay old ones. In the tax evasion strand of the scheme, the Chrisleys funneled Todd's income through accounts in Julie's name and transferred funds to family members to conceal income from the IRS. Their accountant, Peter Tarantino, was also convicted for his role in filing false tax returns.

Rod Blagojevich served as the 40th Governor of Illinois from 2003 to 2009. He was arrested in December 2008 on federal corruption charges and subsequently impeached and removed from office — the first US governor removed by impeachment in more than two decades. Across two federal trials, he was convicted on 18 criminal counts including eight counts of wire fraud under color of official right, conspiracy and attempted extortion, three counts related to bribery solicitation, and making false statements to the FBI. The convictions covered multiple corruption schemes: most notoriously, attempting to sell the US Senate seat vacated by President-elect Barack Obama in exchange for personal gain — including a cabinet appointment, an ambassadorship, a union job, or campaign cash. He also attempted to extort the CEO of Children's Memorial Hospital, delaying a state Medicaid reimbursement increase for pediatric specialists until the hospital's leader made a $25,000 campaign contribution. In a separate scheme, he withheld approval of legislation beneficial to the horseracing industry until a track owner delivered on a $100,000 campaign pledge. Trump commuted his sentence in February 2020 (first term), releasing him from prison after approximately eight years. Trump granted him a full pardon in February 2025.

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.

Todd Chrisley was a real estate developer and reality television personality known for the USA Network show Chrisley Knows Best. He was convicted in June 2022 on all counts of a federal superseding indictment including conspiracy to commit bank fraud, bank fraud, wire fraud, conspiracy to commit tax evasion, and tax evasion. Chrisley was the primary architect of a scheme to defraud community banks out of more than $30 million through fraudulent loan applications — submitting fabricated bank statements and false financial records to obtain loans, then spending the proceeds on cars, clothing, real estate, and travel, and using new loans to repay old ones. In the tax evasion component, he funneled his income through accounts held in his wife Julie's name and transferred funds to family members to conceal earnings from the IRS. Their accountant, Peter Tarantino, was also convicted for his role in filing false tax returns on the couple's behalf.

Owner of a network of Florida health care companies, including Palm Health Partners and Palm Health Partners Employment Services (PHPES), which employed over 600 people and paid over $24 million annually in payroll. For more than a decade, Walczak engaged in tax evasion, withholding Social Security, Medicare, and federal income taxes from employees' paychecks but keeping the money instead of remitting it to the IRS. From 2016 to 2019, he withheld $7,432,223.80 in employee taxes while spending over $1 million on a yacht and making personal purchases at Bergdorf Goodman, Cartier, and Saks using business funds. He also failed to pay $3,480,111 of his companies' share of Social Security and Medicare taxes. From 2018 onwards, he stopped filing personal income tax returns despite receiving a $360,000 annual salary. In 2019, he created a new company (NextEra) using a family member as nominal 99% owner to continue shielding personal expenditures. In total, Walczak caused a tax loss to the IRS of $10,912,334.80.

Brian Kelsey was a Republican Tennessee State Senator representing Germantown. He pleaded guilty to conspiracy to defraud the United States and aiding and abetting the acceptance of excessive contributions in connection with his 2016 campaign for Congress. Kelsey admitted to secretly funneling $91,000 in illegal contributions to his authorized federal campaign committee: $66,000 transferred from his own Tennessee State Senate campaign committee (a violation of federal law prohibiting the transfer of state campaign funds to federal campaigns), and $25,000 from a nonprofit legal advocacy organization. The funds were routed through a national political organization to pay for advertisements urging voters to support Kelsey in the August 2016 Republican primary election, concealing the true source of the money from the FEC. After entering his guilty plea, Kelsey unsuccessfully attempted to withdraw it, claiming he had entered it with an "unsure heart and a confused mind."

President of the International Union of Operating Engineers (IUOE) from 2012 to 2025, and AFL-CIO vice-president from 2012. Callahan began his career as an operating engineer in New York City in 1980, participated in recovery efforts at the World Trade Center following the September 11 attacks, and rose to become business manager and president of his local union in 2003 before leading the IUOE nationally. In January 2025, he pleaded guilty to knowingly filing false annual reports with the U.S. Department of Labor, admitting to improperly benefiting from kickbacks worth approximately $315,000 from an advertising firm retained by the IUOE. As part of his plea agreement, he agreed to resign as IUOE president.

Darryl Strawberry was an eight-time MLB All-Star outfielder, best known for his years with the New York Mets and New York Yankees. He pleaded guilty in February 1995 to one federal count of income tax evasion, admitting he had failed to report approximately $350,000 in income earned from autograph signings, memorabilia sales, card shows, and other personal promotional appearances between 1986 and 1990 — resulting in more than $100,000 in unpaid federal taxes. As part of his plea agreement, he agreed to pay more than $430,000 in back taxes and penalties.

Glen Casada served as a Republican member of the Tennessee House of Representatives and as Speaker of the House from 2019 until his resignation later that year. He was convicted at trial in May 2025 on 17 counts including conspiracy to defraud the United States, four counts of honest services wire fraud, conspiracy to commit money laundering, and eight counts of money laundering. The scheme centered on Phoenix Solutions, a political consulting company secretly operated by Casada's former chief of staff Cade Cothren under the alias "Matthew Phoenix." Casada and Cothren exploited Tennessee's legislative constituent mail program — which provides each House member $3,000 annually for constituent mailers — by steering lawmakers' printing and postage business to Phoenix Solutions through deception and fraud. Casada recruited fellow legislators and approved Phoenix Solutions invoices on behalf of the state; in return, Cothren paid him kickbacks. Former state Representative Robin Smith pleaded guilty separately and testified against the pair at trial.

Changpeng Zhao, known as "CZ," was the founder and CEO of Binance, the world's largest cryptocurrency exchange. He pleaded guilty on November 21, 2023 in the Western District of Washington to one count of violating the Bank Secrecy Act by willfully causing Binance to fail to implement an effective anti-money laundering (AML) program. Prosecutors alleged that Zhao deliberately allowed Binance to operate without the legally required controls in order to maximize growth and profit from the US market — knowingly permitting transactions that facilitated child sexual abuse material payments, illegal drug trafficking, and terrorism financing, including by groups sanctioned by the US government. The broader resolution included Binance pleading guilty to additional charges and agreeing to pay $4.3 billion in penalties — one of the largest corporate criminal settlements in US history. Zhao simultaneously stepped down as Binance CEO and personally agreed to pay a $50 million fine. Prosecutors had sought a three-year prison sentence, arguing his conduct was deliberate and the scale of harm substantial.

Alexander "P.G." Sittenfeld was a Democratic member of the Cincinnati City Council and a former mayoral candidate. He was convicted at trial in 2022 as part of a wide-ranging FBI public corruption sting at Cincinnati City Hall that ran over two years and involved multiple undercover agents and informants secretly recording elected officials. Sittenfeld was found guilty of one count of bribery concerning programs receiving federal funds and one count of attempted extortion under color of official right. Prosecutors presented audio and video recordings showing Sittenfeld telling undercover FBI agents posing as real estate developers that he could "deliver the votes" on a development project pending before city council in exchange for contributions to a political action committee he controlled. He accepted eight checks of $5,000 each — totaling $40,000 — in 2018 and 2019. He was the third Cincinnati council member arrested in 2020 on public corruption charges stemming from the same sting operation.

Carlos Watson was the founder and CEO of OZY Media, a digital media company that positioned itself as a platform for "new and next" voices. He was convicted at trial in July 2024 in the Eastern District of New York on charges arising from a years-long scheme to defraud investors and lenders out of tens of millions of dollars. Watson was found guilty of conspiracy to commit securities fraud, conspiracy to commit wire fraud, and aggravated identity theft. The scheme involved systematically misrepresenting OZY's audience size, revenues, and business performance to attract investment. The aggravated identity theft charges stemmed from Watson's role in having co-conspirators impersonate executives at major media companies — including a YouTube executive — in communications with lenders and prospective investors, most notably on a call with Goldman Sachs. The fraud caused actual investor losses in excess of $60 million and was intended to deprive prospective investors of hundreds of millions more. The scheme first unraveled after a 2021 New York Times investigation exposed the impersonation.

Indicted in July 2025 on federal antitrust charges under the Sherman Antitrust Act. Prosecutors alleged Leiweke, former CEO of Oak View Group, conspired with rival company Legends to rig the bidding process for the Moody Center arena in Austin, Texas — allegedly promising Legends subcontracting work in exchange for withdrawing their competing bid. The charge carried a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison and a million fine.

Joseph Lewis is a British billionaire and the principal owner of the Tavistock Group, a large private investment organization, and the controlling shareholder of English Premier League soccer club Tottenham Hotspur. He pleaded guilty in January 2024 to one count of conspiracy to commit securities fraud and two counts of securities fraud in the Southern District of New York. Prosecutors alleged that over the course of several years, Lewis repeatedly misused material non-public information he obtained through his business dealings — sharing stock tips with employees, romantic partners, friends, and personal staff as a form of compensation and gifts. In one specific instance, he loaned two of his private aircraft pilots $500,000 and encouraged them to purchase shares in cancer drug company Mirati Therapeutics ahead of the company announcing favorable clinical trial results. His company, Broad Bay Ltd., also pleaded guilty to making false SEC filings to conceal Lewis's ownership stake in a pharmaceutical company, and separately agreed to pay $50 million in penalties.

John G. Rowland served as the 87th Governor of Connecticut from 1995 to 2004, when he resigned amid a separate corruption scandal for which he was convicted and served ten months in prison. In 2014 he was convicted a second time on seven federal counts including conspiracy to defraud the United States, falsification of records, and illegal campaign contributions. The scheme involved Rowland secretly working as a political consultant on two Republican congressional campaigns while concealing his involvement and payments to evade federal election law. In the primary instance, Rowland was paid $35,000 to work on the 2012 campaign of congressional candidate Lisa Wilson-Foley; her husband Brian Foley testified that he hired Rowland through his nursing home company as a sham consultant to keep Rowland's campaign role off the books. Rowland had attempted a similar arrangement in 2010 with another candidate, Mark Greenberg, seeking payments of up to $35,000 a month disguised through Greenberg's animal rescue business. His sentencing came exactly ten years to the day after he was first imprisoned for his earlier corruption conviction as governor.

Jason Galanis is a serial financial fraudster with a long history of securities violations. His federal convictions centered on two interlocking schemes. In the first, Galanis and co-conspirators — including his father John Galanis and associates later linked to Hunter Biden's business partner Devon Archer — arranged for a Native American tribal entity, the Wakpamni Lake Community Corporation of the Oglala Sioux, to issue $63 million in tribal bonds. The proceeds were supposed to be invested to generate annuity payments for the tribe, but Galanis and his co-conspirators instead misappropriated the funds for their own use, leaving investors holding illiquid, worthless bonds they could not redeem or sell. In the second scheme, Galanis used his control of multiple investment advisory firms to defraud clients by placing their funds into those same illiquid tribal bonds without authorization or disclosure. He pleaded guilty to two counts of conspiracy to commit securities fraud, securities fraud, investment adviser fraud, and conspiracy to commit investment adviser fraud in connection with these schemes.

Trevor Milton was the founder and executive chairman of Nikola Corporation, an electric and hydrogen-powered truck startup. He was convicted at trial in October 2022 on one count of securities fraud and two counts of wire fraud. Prosecutors established that Milton systematically lied to investors — through social media posts, media appearances, and public statements — about Nikola's technology, products, and business progress in order to inflate the company's value and attract investment. The most damaging evidence involved a 2018 promotional video appearing to show Nikola's prototype truck driving under its own power; prosecutors proved the vehicle was actually towed to the top of a hill and rolled downhill, having no working drivetrain. Milton took Nikola public via a SPAC merger in June 2020, briefly becoming a billionaire, before a short-seller report in September 2020 exposed the deceptions. Retail investors who bought into Milton's claims suffered combined losses of more than $660 million.

Devon Archer was a private equity executive and longtime business partner of Hunter Biden. He was convicted of conspiracy to commit securities fraud and securities fraud in connection with the same tribal bond scheme as Jason Galanis. From March 2014 through April 2016, Archer and his co-conspirators — including Jason Galanis and others — convinced the Wakpamni Lake Community Corporation of the Oglala Sioux Tribe to issue approximately $60 million in bonds, which were then sold to clients of investment advisory firms under their control. The proceeds were supposed to be invested in annuities to generate payments back to the tribe for economic development, but instead were diverted for personal enrichment and to finance acquisitions for a planned financial services conglomerate — including funds used toward a $10 million Manhattan apartment. Archer's name and his association with Hunter Biden were used by co-conspirators to add legitimacy to the scheme when marketing the bonds to investors.

Cannon pleaded guilty on July 16, 1983 — just six days after his arrest — to conspiracy and possession of counterfeit obligations in connection with a scheme to produce and distribute approximately $6 million in high-quality counterfeit $100 bills, described by federal agents as one of the largest counterfeiting operations ever uncovered in the United States. The scheme had its roots in January 1980, when Cannon — by then a successful orthodontist in Baton Rouge, having earned a D.D.S. from the University of Tennessee and an advanced orthodontics degree from Loyola in Chicago — met a neighbour named John Stiglets, a convicted counterfeiter, and gave him $15,000 to purchase a printing press. The counterfeiting operation was run out of a warehouse in Cleburne, Texas. Financial pressure was the driving force: bad real estate investments and mounting gambling debts had left Cannon in serious financial difficulty despite his prosperous dental practice. He was arrested on July 9, 1983, after Secret Service agents set up a sting in which he attempted to sell counterfeit currency to an undercover agent; authorities found fake bills buried in ice chests on property linked to Cannon and additional quantities stashed in closets at his orthodontist's office. All but approximately $1 million of the counterfeit notes was recovered. As part of the plea agreement, Cannon agreed to testify against four co-conspirators and other charges were dropped.

Seven counts, convicted February 4, 2015, following a four-week jury trial in the Southern District of New York: narcotics trafficking conspiracy, distributing narcotics, distributing narcotics by means of the internet, continuing criminal enterprise (the federal "kingpin" statute), conspiracy to commit computer hacking, and conspiracy to commit money laundering. Ulbricht founded and operated Silk Road — the first large-scale dark web marketplace — under the pseudonym "Dread Pirate Roberts," running it from February 2011 until the FBI shut it down and arrested him in San Francisco in October 2013. The platform operated on the Tor anonymity network and used Bitcoin for transactions. It generated approximately $183 million in sales over its lifetime, with Ulbricht earning roughly $13 million in commissions; drugs accounted for approximately 70% of all listings. At least six people died from overdoses involving drugs purchased on the site. Note: allegations that Ulbricht solicited murder-for-hire contracts were referenced by the judge at sentencing but were never charged or proven in the New York trial. Separate murder-for-hire charges filed in Maryland were dropped by prosecutors in 2018.

Terren Scott Peizer, Executive Chairman and former CEO of Ontrak, Inc. — a publicly traded behavioral health company — was convicted of one count of securities fraud and two counts of insider trading in a landmark case that was the first federal insider trading prosecution based exclusively on the misuse of Rule 10b5-1 trading plans. In May 2021, while in possession of material nonpublic information that Ontrak's largest customer — which accounted for more than half the company's revenue — was at risk of terminating its contract, Peizer established a 10b5-1 trading plan through his investment vehicle, Acuitas Group Holdings, LLC, falsely attesting that he had no knowledge of material nonpublic information. Under that plan he sold approximately 600,000 Ontrak shares worth more than $19.2 million. In August 2021, after learning the customer relationship was on the verge of collapse, he established a second trading plan and sold a further 45,000 shares worth approximately $1.9 million. When Ontrak publicly announced the contract termination on August 19, 2021, its stock price fell more than 44 percent; Peizer had avoided more than $12.7 million in losses. A Los Angeles federal jury convicted him following a nine-day trial in June 2024.

Julio M. Herrera Velutini, a Venezuelan-born billionaire banker with banking interests in Puerto Rico, was charged in a scheme to bribe then-Puerto Rico Governor Wanda Vázquez Garced in exchange for government action to remove and replace the island's top banking regulator. Beginning in 2019, while one of Herrera Velutini's banks was under examination by Puerto Rico's Office of the Commissioner of Financial Institutions (OCIF), he and former FBI agent Mark Rossini offered to fund Vázquez Garced's 2020 gubernatorial campaign in exchange for her firing the OCIF commissioner and installing a replacement favorable to Herrera Velutini. The governor accepted, demanded the commissioner's resignation in February 2020, and appointed a former consultant for Herrera Velutini's bank as his replacement three months later. All three defendants were indicted in 2022 on seven felony counts including conspiracy, federal program bribery, and honest services wire fraud. In mid-2025, the DOJ allowed the defendants to plead guilty to a single misdemeanor — accepting a pledge of campaign contributions from a foreign national — a deal the presiding judge described as "a slap on the wrist." Herrera Velutini was pardoned on January 15, 2026, before sentencing, and the case was dismissed in its entirety on January 27, 2026.

Herrera Velutini, a Venezuelan-British billionaire banker, was originally indicted in 2022 on seven felony counts of bribery, conspiracy, and honest services fraud. Prosecutors alleged he funneled $300,000 in contributions to a super PAC supporting former Puerto Rico Governor Wanda Vázquez Garced's reelection campaign in exchange for her pledge to remove a senior Puerto Rico banking regulator who was scrutinizing his bank, Bancredito International Bank. Under a plea agreement, the felony charges were dropped and Herrera Velutini pleaded guilty to a single federal misdemeanor count: making a contribution by a foreign national, a violation of the Federal Election Campaign Act's prohibition on foreign nationals contributing to U.S. political campaigns. Trump issued an amended pardon on January 20, 2026, before any sentence was imposed, and the case — United States v. Julio Herrera Velutini, No. 3:25-cr-297 — was dismissed in its entirety by Judge Silvia L. Carreño on January 27, 2026.

Vázquez Garced served as Governor of Puerto Rico from 2019 to 2021. She was originally indicted in 2022 on seven felony counts of bribery, conspiracy, and honest services fraud alongside Venezuelan-British banker Julio Herrera Velutini and former FBI agent Mark Rossini. Prosecutors alleged she accepted $300,000 in campaign contributions to a super PAC supporting her reelection — funded by Herrera Velutini — in exchange for her pledge to remove a senior Puerto Rico banking regulator who was scrutinizing Herrera Velutini's bank, Bancredito International Bank. The presiding judge, U.S. District Judge Silvia Carreño-Coll, publicly decried the government's "decision to shift gears at the eleventh hour" when prosecutors abandoned a case they described as strong in favor of a misdemeanor plea agreement. Under that plea, the felony charges were dropped and Vázquez Garced pleaded guilty to a single federal misdemeanor count: making a contribution by a foreign national, a violation of the Federal Election Campaign Act's prohibition on foreign nationals contributing to U.S. political campaigns. Trump issued an amended pardon on January 20, 2026, before any sentence was imposed, and the case — United States v. Julio Herrera Velutini, No. 3:25-cr-297 — was dismissed in its entirety on January 27, 2026.

Adriana Isabel Camberos, operating through her company Baja Exporting, ran a multimillion-dollar fraud scheme alongside her brother Andres Camberos between January 2019 and September 2023. The siblings misrepresented to manufacturers that wholesale groceries and other goods would be exported to Mexico or sold to prisons and rehabilitation facilities — categories that qualified for steep discounted pricing. Instead, they sold the products at higher prices to US distributors for the domestic market, causing manufacturers to lose tens of millions of dollars. Baja Exporting generated more than $58 million in gross profits through the scheme, with Adriana personally taking in over $12 million. A federal jury in San Diego convicted her on October 25, 2024, on one count of conspiracy to commit wire and mail fraud and seven counts of wire fraud and aiding and abetting. Notably, this was her second federal fraud case — Trump had commuted her sentence in 2021 for a separate conspiracy conviction during his first term.

Andres Enrique Camberos, operating through his company Specialty Foods International, ran a multimillion-dollar fraud scheme alongside his sister Adriana Camberos between January 2019 and September 2023. The siblings misrepresented to manufacturers that wholesale groceries and other goods would be exported to Mexico or sold to prisons and rehabilitation facilities — categories that qualified for steep discounted pricing. Instead, they sold the products at higher prices to US distributors for the domestic market, causing manufacturers to lose tens of millions of dollars. Specialty Foods International generated substantial profits through the scheme, with Andres personally paying himself over $14 million. A federal jury in San Diego convicted him on October 25, 2024, on one count of conspiracy to commit wire and mail fraud and seven counts of wire fraud and aiding and abetting.

Jacob Deutsch (also known as Yaakov Chaim Deutsch), a Brooklyn-based real estate developer, orchestrated a large-scale mortgage fraud scheme targeting multifamily apartment buildings in Hartford, Connecticut. Between 2016 and 2021, Deutsch and his co-conspirators acquired 17 multifamily properties in Hartford by securing 24 fraudulent mortgages from banks and secondary market lenders including Fannie Mae, totaling nearly $50 million. To obtain the loans, Deutsch submitted falsified rent rolls, forged tenant leases with invented signatures, fabricated utility bills and bank records, and staged vacant apartments with furniture and clothing before lender inspections to make them appear occupied. In one documented example, a 24-unit complex on Evergreen Avenue was completely vacant when Deutsch represented it as fully leased at above-market rents. Deutsch pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit mail fraud and wire fraud.

Mark T. Rossini, a former FBI special agent, was charged as a co-conspirator in the scheme to bribe Puerto Rico Governor Wanda Vázquez Garced. Rossini served as the key intermediary between Venezuelan banker Julio Herrera Velutini and the governor, using his connections to facilitate the corrupt arrangement. Beginning in 2019, while Herrera Velutini's bank was under regulatory examination by Puerto Rico's Office of the Commissioner of Financial Institutions (OCIF), Rossini worked alongside Herrera Velutini to offer funding for Vázquez Garced's 2020 gubernatorial campaign in exchange for her removing the OCIF commissioner and replacing him with a candidate favorable to Herrera Velutini. The governor accepted, fired the commissioner in February 2020, and appointed his replacement three months later. Rossini was indicted in August 2022 on felony counts of conspiracy, federal program bribery, and honest services wire fraud. In mid-2025 the DOJ reached a deal for all three defendants to plead guilty to a single misdemeanor — accepting a pledge of campaign contributions from a foreign national — before Rossini was pardoned alongside his co-defendants on January 15, 2026, and the case was dismissed.

Wanda Vázquez Garced served as Governor of Puerto Rico from 2019 to 2021 and became the first sitting or former Puerto Rico governor to be convicted of a crime. She was charged with accepting a corrupt offer from Venezuelan banker Julio Herrera Velutini, brokered through former FBI agent Mark Rossini: in exchange for campaign funding for her 2020 gubernatorial race, she agreed to remove Puerto Rico's top banking regulator, who was at the time scrutinizing one of Herrera Velutini's banks. Vázquez Garced accepted the arrangement, demanded the resignation of the Office of the Commissioner of Financial Institutions (OCIF) commissioner in February 2020, and three months later appointed a former consultant for Herrera Velutini's bank as his replacement. Originally indicted in August 2022 on felony counts of conspiracy, federal program bribery, and honest services wire fraud — each carrying up to 20 years in prison — she ultimately pleaded guilty in mid-2025 to a single misdemeanor: accepting a pledge of political contributions from a foreign national in violation of the Federal Election Campaign Act, an amount described in the plea as "more than $2,000 and less than $25,000." She was pardoned before the scheduled sentencing hearing.

Cade Cothren served as chief of staff to Glen Casada, former Speaker of the Tennessee House of Representatives. Together they operated a political consulting company called Phoenix Solutions, with Cothren playing the role of "Matthew Phoenix" — a fictitious person he invented to serve as the company's proprietor, obscuring the pair's control of the firm. The scheme involved using their positions in the Tennessee legislature to steer taxpayer-funded constituent mailer contracts from other legislators to Phoenix Solutions, funneling public money to themselves. Cothren managed the day-to-day operations under his false identity, handling contracts with campaigns and legislative offices. Both men were convicted in federal court on charges of conspiracy to defraud the United States, honest services wire fraud, conspiracy to commit money laundering, and multiple counts of money laundering.

Imaad Shah Zuberi, a venture capitalist based in Arcadia, California, who served as a major political fundraiser for both Democratic and Republican candidates, was convicted on multiple charges arising from a years-long scheme involving unregistered foreign lobbying, tax evasion, illegal campaign contributions, and witness tampering. Zuberi acted as an unregistered agent of the Sri Lankan government, receiving $6.5 million from Colombo to engage in lobbying and public relations activities targeting US officials — while concealing his role on required Foreign Agents Registration Act filings and pocketing more than $5.65 million of those funds personally, which he also failed to report as taxable income. He similarly acted on behalf of interests connected to Bahrain. Zuberi also funneled approximately $900,000 in illegal contributions — including money sourced from foreign nationals — through his shell company to Donald Trump's 2017 presidential inaugural committee, using political access gained through those donations to lobby US officials on behalf of foreign principals. When investigators began examining the inaugural committee, Zuberi tampered with a witness to impede the probe. He pleaded guilty in November 2019 to FARA violations, tax evasion, and illegal campaign contributions, and in a separate plea in June 2020 to witness tampering.

Charles Overton Scott, a businessman from Arlington, Virginia, was convicted for his role in a scheme to manipulate the stock of US Lighting Group (USLG), a small Euclid, Ohio-based LED lighting company whose shares traded on the over-the-counter market as a penny stock. Between 2016 and 2019, USLG's CEO Paul Spivak and co-conspirators took the company public through a reverse merger with a shell company and artificially inflated its stock price through pump-and-dump tactics including the use of call rooms. In 2021, Scott and Spivak engaged directly with undercover federal agents and a confidential informant, arranging for Scott to sell free-trading USLG shares to the undercover operatives at manipulated prices, then kick back approximately half the proceeds to USLG in exchange for additional restricted stock. The scheme defrauded investors of nearly $7 million. Both men were convicted at trial in October 2024; Spivak received 17.5 years in prison while Scott was sentenced to 42 months. Scott served only two weeks before receiving his pardon.

Imaad Shah Zuberi, a venture capitalist based in Arcadia, California, who served as a major political fundraiser for both Democratic and Republican candidates, was convicted on multiple charges arising from a years-long scheme involving unregistered foreign lobbying, tax evasion, illegal campaign contributions, and witness tampering. Zuberi acted as an unregistered agent of the Sri Lankan government, receiving $6.5 million from Colombo to engage in lobbying and public relations activities targeting US officials — while concealing his role on required Foreign Agents Registration Act filings and pocketing more than $5.65 million of those funds personally, which he also failed to report as taxable income. He similarly acted on behalf of interests connected to Bahrain. Zuberi also funneled approximately $900,000 in illegal contributions — including money sourced from foreign nationals — through his shell company to Donald Trump's 2017 presidential inaugural committee, using political access gained through those donations to lobby US officials on behalf of foreign principals. When investigators began examining the inaugural committee, Zuberi tampered with a witness to impede the probe. He pleaded guilty in November 2019 to FARA violations, tax evasion, and illegal campaign contributions, and in a separate plea in June 2020 to witness tampering.

Marian I. Morgan, together with her husband John Morgan, ran Morgan European Holdings, a Sarasota, Florida-based investment firm that operated as a fraudulent scheme from approximately 2005 to 2009. The couple promoted sham "high yield/prime bank note" investment programs, falsely promising investors returns of 200 to 300 percent within three months and assuring them that their principal funds would be held securely in an escrow account in Denmark. Between 2005 and 2009, the Morgans took in more than $28 million from investors, returning some funds as Ponzi payments while spending over $10 million of investor money on themselves — purchasing luxury automobiles, a waterfront mansion, and other luxury items shortly after investors wired their funds. Marian Morgan was convicted on all 22 counts following a three-week trial in September 2011. Her husband John Morgan separately pleaded guilty to conspiracy and money laundering and was sentenced to 121 months in prison. Several of Marian Morgan's victims were later reported to be Trump supporters, making her commutation particularly controversial.

Ozy Media, Inc. was a digital news and entertainment startup founded by Carlos Watson that was convicted alongside its founder for defrauding investors and lenders. The company promoted itself to investors with false claims, including fabricated partnerships with Google and Oprah Winfrey. The scheme came to public attention in October 2021 when the New York Times reported that Ozy's chief operating officer had impersonated a YouTube executive on a conference call with Goldman Sachs to secure investment. The company abruptly shut down following that report. Ozy Media, Inc. was convicted by a jury in Brooklyn federal court in July 2024 on charges of conspiracy to commit securities fraud and conspiracy to commit wire fraud. Its sentencing as a corporate entity was notable; presidential clemency extended to a company as a distinct legal entity is highly unusual in American history.

Arthur Hayes was co-founder and CEO of BitMEX, one of the world's largest cryptocurrency derivatives exchanges. Federal prosecutors charged Hayes and his co-founders with willfully failing to establish and maintain an adequate anti-money laundering program in violation of the Bank Secrecy Act. BitMEX marketed itself as a platform where customers could trade virtually anonymously, deliberately avoiding the know-your-customer (KYC) and anti-money laundering procedures that US law requires of financial institutions. The DOJ alleged this made BitMEX an attractive vehicle for drug traffickers and other criminals to move money. Hayes, along with co-founders Benjamin Delo and Samuel Reed and employee Gregory Dwyer, were charged in 2020. All four pleaded guilty in 2022 to one count each of violating the Bank Secrecy Act. Hayes also agreed to pay a $10 million fine as part of his plea.

Adam Kidan was a businessman and partner of lobbyist Jack Abramoff. In 2000, Kidan and Abramoff agreed to purchase SunCruz Casinos — a fleet of gambling cruise ships — from owner Konstantinos "Gus" Boulis for $147.5 million. To finance the deal, they obtained a $60 million loan from lenders by submitting fraudulent documents fabricating a $23 million cash down payment that was never actually made; in reality, Kidan and Abramoff had secretly negotiated a reduction in the purchase price without disclosing this to the lenders, creating false records to make it appear they had contributed their own funds. Kidan pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy and one count of wire fraud in connection with the fraudulent acquisition. The case was entangled in a separate Florida criminal investigation into the 2001 murder of Gus Boulis, in which Kidan was investigated but not charged. The fraud's victims included the financial institutions that extended the acquisition loans. Trump had a prior business relationship with Kidan, who made payments to Trump-affiliated entities during this period.

Rossini, a former FBI counterintelligence agent who had become a private consultant and lobbyist, was a co-defendant in the same Puerto Rico bribery scheme as banker Julio Herrera Velutini. Prosecutors originally charged all three defendants — Herrera Velutini, Rossini, and former Governor Wanda Vázquez Garced — on seven felony counts of bribery, conspiracy, and honest services fraud, alleging they conspired to funnel $300,000 in campaign contributions to Vázquez Garced's reelection super PAC in exchange for her pledge to remove a Puerto Rico banking regulator scrutinizing Herrera Velutini's bank, Bancredito International Bank. Rossini's role was as a consultant and facilitator for Herrera Velutini in that scheme. Under a plea agreement, the felony charges were dropped and Rossini pleaded guilty to a single federal misdemeanor count: making a contribution by a foreign national, a violation of the Federal Election Campaign Act's prohibition on foreign nationals contributing to U.S. political campaigns. Trump issued an amended pardon on January 20, 2026, before any sentence was imposed, and the case — United States v. Julio Herrera Velutini, No. 3:25-cr-297 — was dismissed in its entirety on January 27, 2026.

David Levy was Co-Chief Investment Officer of Platinum Partners L.P., a New York City-based hedge fund. Between approximately November 2011 and December 2016, Levy and Platinum's founder Mark Nordlicht orchestrated a scheme to defraud third-party bondholders of Black Elk Energy, an oil company that was one of Platinum's largest assets with $150 million in publicly traded bonds. Levy and his co-conspirators secretly purchased $98 million of those bonds on the open market and then transferred them through a series of related entities to conceal Platinum's ownership and control. They then rigged a consent solicitation vote to amend Black Elk's bond indenture so that proceeds from the sale of the company's most valuable oil fields would flow to preferred equity — held by Platinum and its insiders — rather than to the bondholders who held legal priority. After the rigged vote succeeded, the conspirators distributed millions from the asset sale to themselves and associates, with Levy receiving approximately $250,000 personally. A federal jury in the Eastern District of New York convicted Levy of securities fraud and securities fraud conspiracy in July 2019. The case had a protracted procedural history spanning several years of appeals and retrial proceedings before sentencing was finally imposed in January 2024.

Hollie Ann Nadel's conviction arose directly from her exploitation by a Roma sex and labor trafficking organization that manipulated her into participating in financial schemes while transporting her across the country. Lured into the trafficking ring and operating under coercion, Nadel was used by her traffickers to commit fraud against others. Her attorneys at Ifrah Law negotiated a plea agreement limiting the charges to a single conspiracy count — conspiracy to commit money laundering and bank fraud — rather than the broader charges originally filed. Nadel's cooperation with federal prosecutors proved pivotal to the subsequent prosecution of her traffickers: five Roma conspirators were indicted as a result of her assistance and all were sentenced to prison. Following her pardon, Nadel became an advocate for trafficking survivors, testifying before Congress in support of the Frederick Douglass Trafficking Victims Prevention and Protection Act of 2025, which would allow survivors to seek judicial relief from convictions stemming from their exploitation.

Imelda Rios Cuellar, wife of former Texas Congressman Henry Cuellar (D-Laredo), was indicted alongside her husband in May 2024 in a scheme in which the pair allegedly accepted approximately $600,000 in bribes from two foreign entities: an oil and gas company owned by the government of Azerbaijan, and a bank headquartered in Mexico City. In exchange, Henry Cuellar used his position in Congress to take official actions favorable to the interests of those foreign principals. Imelda Cuellar's role was to receive and launder the bribe payments: the funds were routed through sham consulting contracts, passing through front companies and middlemen before landing in shell companies that she owned and controlled. She faced charges of conspiracy, bribery, honest services wire fraud, money laundering conspiracy, and five counts of money laundering. The couple were pardoned before the case went to trial.

Robert Henry Harshbarger Jr., a licensed pharmacist, was convicted of substituting an unapproved drug for a medically necessary treatment prescribed to kidney dialysis patients. Instead of dispensing the FDA-approved iron sucrose — used to treat iron deficiency anemia in dialysis patients — Harshbarger substituted a cheaper version of the drug imported from China that had not been approved by the US Food and Drug Administration, while billing as though the approved product had been dispensed. He pleaded guilty to one count each of introducing misbranded drugs into interstate commerce and health care fraud. Harshbarger is the husband of Rep. Diana Harshbarger (R-TN); his pardon in November 2025 was not publicly announced by the White House and came to light only through a posting on the Justice Department's Office of the Pardon Attorney website.

Lawrence S. Duran, owner of American Therapeutic Corporation (ATC) — a Miami-area mental health company — orchestrated what became one of the largest Medicare fraud schemes in US history. From 2002 until his arrest in October 2010, Duran and his co-conspirators used ATC and a related company, Medlink, to systematically defraud Medicare by targeting patients with Alzheimer's disease and severe dementia at assisted living facilities and halfway houses. The scheme involved paying illegal kickbacks to facility owners, operators, and patient brokers in exchange for referring ineligible patients to ATC's partial hospitalization programs — programs that provided no legitimate psychiatric treatment. Patient medical charts were falsified to make it appear that services had been provided and that patients qualified for the billed treatments. ATC submitted approximately $205 million in fraudulent Medicare claims, of which Medicare paid out roughly $87 million. Duran's 50-year sentence upon conviction was the longest ever imposed in a Medicare Fraud Strike Force case.

Gregory Dwyer was the Head of Business Development at BitMEX, the cryptocurrency derivatives exchange co-founded by Arthur Hayes, Benjamin Delo, and Samuel Reed. Along with the three co-founders, Dwyer was charged in 2020 with willfully failing to establish and maintain an adequate anti-money laundering program in violation of the Bank Secrecy Act. BitMEX deliberately operated without the know-your-customer and anti-money laundering controls required of US financial institutions, marketing itself as a platform where users could trade virtually anonymously — an arrangement prosecutors alleged made it attractive for drug traffickers and other criminals to move funds. Dwyer pleaded guilty to one count of violating the Bank Secrecy Act and was the last of the four defendants to be sentenced.

HDR Global Trading Limited was the parent company that owned and operated BitMEX, the cryptocurrency derivatives exchange whose founders were simultaneously charged with Bank Secrecy Act violations. HDR Global pleaded guilty as a corporate entity to one count of willfully failing to establish, implement, and maintain an adequate anti-money laundering program as required by US law. The company had operated BitMEX without the know-your-customer controls and anti-money laundering procedures that financial institutions are required to maintain, allowing users to trade anonymously in a manner that prosecutors alleged facilitated money laundering by drug traffickers and other criminals. HDR Global was sentenced separately from its individual co-founders and employees, with its sentencing occurring on January 15, 2025 — five days before Trump's second inauguration — with a $100 million fine imposed.

Samuel Reed was a co-founder and the Chief Technology Officer of BitMEX, the cryptocurrency derivatives exchange. Along with co-founders Arthur Hayes and Benjamin Delo, and employee Gregory Dwyer, Reed was charged in 2020 with willfully failing to establish and maintain an adequate anti-money laundering program in violation of the Bank Secrecy Act. BitMEX deliberately operated without know-your-customer and anti-money laundering controls, marketing itself as a platform where users could trade virtually anonymously — an arrangement prosecutors alleged facilitated money laundering by drug traffickers and other criminals. Reed pleaded guilty to one count of violating the Bank Secrecy Act. As CTO, Reed was responsible for building and maintaining the technical infrastructure that enabled the exchange's anonymous operation.

Harvard was chairman and chief executive officer of Willow Bend National Bank, a federally insured institution in the Dallas area, and chairman of Willow Bend Bancshares — the holding company that also controlled Bonham State Bank — all while serving as mayor of Plano, Texas in the mid-1980s. His convictions arose from three overlapping schemes. In 1987, Dallas businesswoman Diana Cheng approached Willow Bend for a $400,000 loan and a $1 million letter of credit to fund an Indonesian lumber import deal. Because Cheng had reached her borrowing limit, Harvard arranged the financing on the condition that she give him a 10% share of the import business — a corrupt payment in exchange for a bank loan. Cheng secured the loan by pledging a fictitious collateral note payable by a nonexistent party (the "Donge note"); Harvard then arranged for an acquaintance to purchase the note off Willow Bend's books using funds borrowed from the bank itself, disguising the transaction's true nature. Harvard received $10,000 in cash from Cheng. He was convicted of conspiracy, bank bribery, misapplying bank funds, and making false entries in bank records in connection with these loans. Harvard also arranged refinancing of a strip mall loan for the Plano-Shiloh Joint Venture — in which he held a 10% interest — at Bonham State Bank, where he sat as a director. He misrepresented the property's financial condition to Bonham's board (falsely claiming the center was generating cash and 100% leased), allowed the loan to close on personal guarantee agreements he knew were fatally defective, and secretly collected a $10,640 "consulting fee" from Joint Venture loan proceeds without disclosing it to the bank. He was convicted of bank fraud in connection with this transaction. In March 1989, Harvard took two blank cashier's checks from a Willow Bend teller without authorization and in violation of the bank's required logging procedures. He completed one check for $166,201 and used it to purchase a house at a foreclosure auction before he had the funds to cover it, leaving Willow Bend exposed to the obligation for months and causing the bank an actual cash loss. He was convicted of aiding and abetting the misapplication of Willow Bend funds in connection with this scheme.

Insider trading - trading stock using nonpublic information related to two deals before they were made public

Timothy S. Smith was convicted of conspiracy to defraud the United States government by impeding and impairing the lawful functions of the Internal Revenue Service. The charge arose from the 1986 federal case United States v. Farmer, et al. (No. 1:86-CR-634), in which Smith was one of multiple defendants. Conspiracy to defraud the IRS — brought under 18 U.S.C. § 371 — typically involves a scheme to impede the IRS's ability to assess, compute, or collect taxes, such as through false filings, concealment of income, or coordinated tax evasion with others.

Conrad, a United States Postal Service employee, was convicted of embezzling by a postal employee under 18 U.S.C. § 1711, which prohibits postal workers from stealing, converting, or misappropriating postal funds, money orders, stamps, or other property entrusted to them in their official capacity. No further detail about the specific scheme is available in accessible public records. The conviction occurred in the Southern District of Georgia in 1979 (United States v. Conrad, No. 79-00002).

Flint was convicted of aiding and abetting the making of false Selective Service Registration Certificates, a federal offense under the Military Selective Service Act. During the Vietnam War era, all male citizens were required to register with the Selective Service System and carry their registration certificate (commonly known as a draft card) at all times. Producing false or altered draft cards — or helping others do so — was a federal crime used to fraudulently misrepresent draft status, avoid conscription, or create false identities in the Selective Service records. As an aider and abettor, Flint assisted in the manufacture of such false certificates rather than producing them as the primary offender. Specific details of the scheme and the district of prosecution are not available in accessible public records.