Trump Frees Fraudster Just Days Into Seven-Year Prison Sentence

[mahatmakanejeeves]

Hat tip, Joe.My.God.

https://www.joemygod.com/2025/11/trump-frees-fraudster-behind-1-6-billion-scheme/

Trump Frees Fraudster Just Days Into Seven-Year Prison Sentence

David Gentile had been found guilty for his role in what prosecutors described as a $1.6 billion scheme that defrauded thousands of investors.


President Trump commuted the sentence of David Gentile. Tierney L. Cross/The New York Times

By Kenneth P. Vogel
https://www.nytimes.com/by/kenneth-p-vogel
Kenneth P. Vogel, who covers influence in Washington, has investigated the use of clemency by President Trump and former President Joseph R. Biden Jr.
Nov. 29, 2025

President Trump has set free a private equity executive who had served less than two weeks of a seven-year sentence for his role in what prosecutors described as a $1.6 billion scheme that defrauded thousands of victims.

David Gentile, 59, a onetime resident of Nassau County, N.Y., had reported to prison on Nov. 14, and was released on Wednesday, according to Bureau of Prisons records and a White House official who was not authorized to discuss the matter.

Mr. Gentile and a co-defendant, Jeffry Schneider, were convicted in August 2024 of securities and wire fraud charges, and sentenced in May. Unlike a pardon, the commutation granted to Mr. Gentile will not erase his conviction. ... Mr. Schneider, who was sentenced to six years, does not appear to have received clemency from Mr. Trump.

In a social media post on Thanksgiving, Alice Marie Johnson, Mr. Trump’s “pardon czar,” said she was “deeply grateful to see David Gentile heading home to his young children.” ... Mr. Trump has used the unfettered presidential clemency power to forgive an array of white-collar crimes and to make political points, including by casting prosecutions of his supporters as corrupt witch hunts like those that he claims had targeted him. ... It was not immediately clear whether Mr. Gentile had connections to Mr. Trump or to the president’s supporters.

{snip}

Maggie Haberman contributed reporting.

Kenneth P. Vogel is based in Washington and investigates the intersection of money, politics and influence.

[Irish_Dem]

1. How much did the criminal pay Trump for the pardon?

[tanyev]

6. Out in less than 2 weeks? Top dollar, and a crate of golden tchotchkes.

[Irish_Dem]

8. Trump is sending a message that crime does pay, and is a respectable profession.

[flashman13]

15. Trump loves to brag about his greatness. He is clearly the greatest single criminal in American history.

The MAGATs surrounding Trump form the greatest criminal syndicate in American history.

And don't forget the oligarchs that are stealing everything that they can lay their grubby hands on.

Crime pays very handsomely in the Amerika of today.

[Irish_Dem]

25. Yes biggest heist in US history by biggest crime syndicate ever.

All supported by the US taxpayer, courts, congress, and other US institutions.

[KS Toronado]

20. Usual fee is one million, but he stole 1.6 billion

so Der orange Fuhrer probably demanded 10% , 160 million.

[Irish_Dem]

24. Yes a mob boss always demands a cut of profits.

This is what putin does in Russia.

[sinkingfeeling]

2. Merrily setting criminals free. Anyone remember Dukakis and Willie Horton? Back then people were so

appalled by a criminal pardon they voted against the guy who furloughed Horton.

[sop]

9. And Dukakis didn't personally authorize Horton's specific furlough, he was just a part of a weekend prison furlough

program the governor supported. Bush made it appear like Dukakis had murdered and raped himself, and corporate media went along with it. Had Hillary or Joe transferred a convicted sexual abuser like Ghislaine Maxwell to a country club prison, the media would literally crucify them. With all of Trump's corrupt pardons, it's crickets.

[Celerity]

3. There needs to be a Constitutional Amendment that removes Presidential pardon power. It is the power of a king.

There is no check nor balance against it. It is absolute raw monarchical power.

I take 'No Kings' seriously.

I am anti-monarchist over here in Sweden and the UK, and anti-monarchical powers in the US.

[Jerry2144]

21. I am not so sure. If the president were honest

a pardon could be useful for those cases where the justice system failed or could be used for true justice. But with the Korrupt Korpulent Koprolite currently befouling the White House, the pardon power can be corrupted. What we need to do is update the Constitution to prevent corruption from getting into office, as well as stripping out the last vestiges of the racism and pro-slavery (i.e., the Electoral College, Senate make up, fix the language of the second, etc.).

[Celerity]

23. An absolute power, a power with no check, no balance cannot be dependent on the good moral character of a POTUS.

Presidents of both parties have abused the pardon power over the years. Trump is only taking it (of course he is, as he is a hyper-criminal) to new lows.

No person should have absolute, unchecked, non-balanced power in the US Constitutionally-mandated system.

The power of the POTUS to absolutely pardon is the power of a monarch and to that I stridently say, 'No kings!'

[Jerry2144]

27. I see your point

good one, too. But still, what mechanism is there for a gross miscarriage of justice?

[bluedigger]

4. He's not very good with his money.

If he had only waited for the Black Friday sales he could have afforded a full pardon.

[underpants]

10. 🏆

[spanone]

5. trmp finds comfort in fellow FELONS living free of the law

[Midnight Writer]

7. Trump will probably put him on the Federal Reserve Board.

[Snarkoleptic]

11. Cryptocurrency is the perfect grifter's tool, as you can accept/confirm large payments

while shielding both sides of the transaction.

[AverageOldGuy]

12. What does Gentile . . .

. . . have on Trump?

[bluestarone]

13. Well, TSF has proven one thing. America can be completely overtaken by

No shots fired.

[Gimpyknee]

14. A clear case for follow the money.

[mountain grammy]

16. The worst criminals in America

Aren’t being deported. They’re being pardoned.

[Bayard]

28. Keeping that.

[surfered]

17. Are there possible state charges, restitution? Investors need to be protected.

[flvegan]

18. Another check cleared! n/t

[RandomNumbers]

19. Am I the only one who sees blood dripping down the wall behind him

where it is allegedly gold?

I've always had a vivid imagination, but that's what came into my head when I saw the picture in the OP. Instead of gold, I saw red, as in blood. (perhaps because I've read a few other threads on DU this morning, including about this POS administration killing people for sport, in the name of interdicting drug trafficking.)

Just wondered if I'm the only one.

[Vinca]

22. Bet the Trump bank account skyrocketed that day.

[Ocelot II]

26. The message is that white-collar crime committed by a wealthy person isn't really a crime

because it's exactly the same kind of shit Trump has been doing all his life.

[LudwigPastorius]

29. Trump giving a bunko artist a get out of jail free card?

That is the textbook definition of "professional courtesy".

[GoodRaisin]

30. Welcome to the land of corruption.

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

31. Best pardon money can buy