President Trump's First-Term Clemency Rewarded Fraudsters and Financial Criminals
During his first term (2017–2021), President Trump pardoned or commuted the sentences of at least thirteen people convicted of major fraud and financial crimes. They included the "junk bond king" Michael Milken, media magnate Conrad Black, and the operators of some of the largest health care fraud schemes in U.S. history. Much of this clemency came in his final weeks and final hours in office. He issued one batch just before Christmas 2020, and a last-day slate as Biden was being sworn in. Several of those late grants freed health care executives whose schemes had billed government programs for hundreds of millions to more than a billion dollars.
Many of these recipients bypassed the Justice Department's formal review entirely, reaching the president through allies, celebrities, or well-connected advocates. He commuted Sholom Rubashkin's 27-year bank-fraud sentence in December 2017, pardoned Dinesh D'Souza's campaign-finance conviction in 2018, and pardoned Michael Milken in 2020. On his way out of office in January 2021, he commuted the sentences of Medicare fraudsters Salomon Melgen and Philip Esformes and Cay Clubs Ponzi operator Fred Davis Clark Jr. Together, the convictions carried more than $470 million in court-ordered restitution and forfeiture that went unrecovered.
These first-term grants established the pattern his [second-term clemency](2026-01-16-trump-pardons-donors-allies.md) would expand. One case ran through both terms: he commuted Judith Negron's sentence in a $205 million Medicare fraud in 2020, then commuted her co-owner Lawrence Duran's sentence in the same scheme in 2025.
Details
During his first term, President Donald Trump used the clemency power to erase the convictions and sentences of a long line of fraudsters and financial criminals. Many bypassed the Justice Department's Office of the Pardon Attorney entirely, reaching the president instead through celebrities, political allies, Fox News personalities, or advocates with direct access. The recipients ranged widely, from a conservative author who broke campaign-finance law to health care executives behind schemes that defrauded Medicare of more than a billion dollars.
This entry catalogs the first-term fraud and financial-crime grants. The second-term continuation of the pattern—which former pardon officials estimate has erased more than $1.5 billion in criminal penalties owed to victims and the government—is documented separately, as is the broader "pardon economy" of paid intermediaries that grew up around it.
First-Term Fraud and Financial-Crime Clemency at a Glance
The table below summarizes the first-term grants; the sections that follow give the detail on each case.
| Recipient | Clemency (type / date) | Crime | Amount involved | What they did |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dinesh D'Souza | Pardon · May 31, 2018 | Campaign-finance fraud (straw donors) | $20,000 in illegal conduit donations; $30,000 fine | Reimbursed two straw donors $10,000 each to exceed federal limits for a 2012 U.S. Senate candidate; pleaded guilty in 2014. |
| Sholom Rubashkin | Commutation · Dec 20, 2017 | Bank fraud, wire fraud, money laundering | ~$27 million restitution (on a ~$35M loan) | Agriprocessors (kosher meatpacking) manager who faked invoices and collateral to defraud the company's lenders; served ~8 of a 27-year sentence. |
| Conrad Black | Pardon · May 15, 2019 | Mail fraud, obstruction of justice | ~$285K diverted; $6.1M restitution ordered; $125K fine | Hollinger International magnate who siphoned company funds and removed boxes under surveillance; wrote a flattering book on President Trump before the pardon. |
| Michael Milken | Pardon · Feb 18, 2020 | Securities fraud, conspiracy (6 counts) | $200M in fines + $400M SEC settlement | The Drexel Burnham "junk bond king" of the 1980s insider-trading scandal; pleaded guilty in 1990, served ~22 months, barred from securities for life. |
| Judith Negron | Commutation · Feb 18, 2020 | Medicare fraud, kickbacks, money laundering | Part of a $205 million false-billing scheme | Co-owner of American Therapeutic Corp., which billed Medicare for unnecessary or fictitious mental-health care; was serving 35 years. |
| Steve Stockman | Commutation · Dec 22, 2020 | Mail/wire fraud, money laundering, false tax returns, election-law violations | ~$1.25M solicited; ~$1M restitution | Former Texas congressman who solicited donations for sham charities and diverted them to personal use and his campaigns; was serving 10 years. |
| Philip Esformes | Commutation · Dec 22, 2020 | Health care fraud, kickbacks, bribery, money laundering | ~$1.3 billion billed; $5.53M restitution; $38.7M forfeiture | Ran Miami nursing/assisted-living facilities in what prosecutors called the largest health care fraud in U.S. history; was serving 20 years. |
| Salomon Melgen | Commutation · Jan 20, 2021 | Health care fraud (67 counts) | $42.6M restitution (~$73M fraud loss cited) | West Palm Beach eye doctor who falsely diagnosed patients and billed Medicare for needless tests and treatments; was serving 17 years. |
| Faustino Bernadett | Pardon · Jan 2021 | Health care fraud, kickback conspiracy | Pacific Hospital scheme: $900M+ billed, $30M+ in kickbacks | Physician/part-owner of Pacific Hospital of Long Beach who authorized sham contracts hiding kickbacks for spinal-surgery referrals; served 15 months. |
| John Duncan Fordham | Pardon · Jan 20, 2021 | Health care fraud | $531,000 restitution (already paid) | Georgia pharmacy owner who defrauded a public mental-health center via a kickback-driven state contract; served 52 months, then sued to recover his restitution. |
| Fred Davis Clark Jr. | Commutation · Jan 2021 | Bank fraud, false statements, obstructing the SEC | ~$300M scheme; ~$303.8M restitution/forfeiture | Cay Clubs Resorts CEO whose vacation-property "investment" collapsed into a Ponzi scheme defrauding ~1,400 investors; was serving 40 years. |
| Michael Ashley | Commutation · Jan 2021 | Bank fraud | ~$14M fraudulent originations; ~$49M restitution | Senior executive at Lend America, an FHA lender that originated fraudulent government-insured loans and collapsed in 2009; was serving 3 years. |
| Albert J. Pirro Jr. | Pardon · Jan 20, 2021 | Conspiracy, tax evasion | ~$1.2M in fraudulent business deductions | Lobbyist and ex-husband of Jeanine Pirro who wrote off personal spending—including a Ferrari and a Rolls-Royce—as business expenses; served 29 months. |
Campaign-Finance and Political Fraud
Dinesh D'Souza
On May 31, 2018, President Trump pardoned conservative author and filmmaker Dinesh D'Souza, who had pleaded guilty in 2014 to violating the Federal Election Campaign Act. According to the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York, D'Souza reimbursed two straw donors $10,000 each so that he could funnel $20,000 into the 2012 U.S. Senate campaign of Wendy Long, far exceeding the individual contribution limit then in effect. He was sentenced to five years' probation, eight months in community confinement, and a $30,000 fine, but no prison time. D'Souza claimed he had been selectively prosecuted for his conservative politics; the sentencing judge rejected that argument. President Trump described him as "treated very unfairly by our government."
Steve Stockman
On December 22, 2020, President Trump commuted the sentence of former Texas Representative Steve Stockman. According to the Texas Tribune, Stockman had been convicted in 2018 on 23 felony counts, including mail and wire fraud, money laundering, filing false tax returns, and violating federal election law. He had solicited roughly $1.25 million from conservative donors under the guise of charitable and educational nonprofits, then diverted the money to personal expenses and to illegally fund his campaigns. He was sentenced to 10 years in prison and about $1 million in restitution. He had served a bit over two years when President Trump commuted the prison term, leaving the restitution obligation in place.
Securities and Business Fraud
Michael Milken
On February 18, 2020, President Trump pardoned Michael Milken, the former Drexel Burnham Lambert financier known as the "junk bond king" and a central figure in the 1980s insider-trading scandal. Milken pleaded guilty in 1990 to six felony counts of securities and reporting violations and conspiracy, paid $200 million in fines plus a $400 million settlement with the SEC to compensate harmed investors, and was permanently barred from the securities industry. His original 10-year sentence was later reduced, and he served about 22 months. Supporters, including a number of prominent business figures, cited his subsequent philanthropy and medical-research funding in pressing for the pardon.
Conrad Black
On May 15, 2019, President Trump pardoned Conrad Black, the former newspaper magnate who controlled Hollinger International, owner of the Chicago Sun-Times and the Daily Telegraph. Black was convicted in 2007 of mail fraud and obstruction of justice for diverting company funds to himself and removing boxes of documents from his office while under surveillance. Two of his four fraud convictions were later vacated on appeal; he was re-sentenced to 42 months, was ordered to pay a $125,000 fine and $6.1 million in restitution, and served roughly three years. Black had written a flattering biography of President Trump the year before receiving the pardon.
Health Care and Medicare Fraud
President Trump's clemency was especially generous to health care executives behind large-scale Medicare and insurance-fraud schemes. As PBS NewsHour reported, his late-term grants freed several men who had orchestrated some of the largest health care frauds ever prosecuted.
Philip Esformes
On December 22, 2020, President Trump commuted the 20-year sentence of Philip Esformes, whom prosecutors described as the operator of the largest health care fraud scheme in U.S. history. Esformes ran a network of Miami-area skilled-nursing and assisted-living facilities that cycled thousands of patients through unnecessary or nonexistent services billed to Medicare and Medicaid—roughly $1.3 billion in fraudulent claims over about two decades—while paying kickbacks and bribes for patient referrals. A 2019 jury convicted him of money laundering, kickback, and bribery counts and hung on the top fraud counts; he was ordered to pay $5.53 million in restitution and forfeit $38.7 million. The commutation left those financial obligations intact but freed him after about four and a half years.
Salomon Melgen
On January 20, 2021, President Trump commuted the 17-year sentence of Salomon Melgen, a West Palm Beach ophthalmologist convicted in 2017 on 67 counts of health care fraud. Melgen falsely diagnosed elderly patients with conditions such as macular degeneration and subjected them to unnecessary tests, laser treatments, and eye injections, billing Medicare as one of its highest-billing physicians; he was ordered to pay $42.6 million in restitution. Melgen was also a close friend and major donor to Senator Bob Menendez (D-NJ); a separate 2017 federal bribery trial of the two ended in a hung jury. The White House clemency statement cited support from figures including Menendez and Representative Mario Díaz-Balart.
Judith Negron
On February 18, 2020, President Trump commuted the 35-year sentence of Judith Negron, a co-owner of American Therapeutic Corporation. According to Fierce Healthcare, ATC billed Medicare roughly $205 million for "partial hospitalization" mental-health services that were medically unnecessary or never provided, recruiting ineligible patients through kickbacks. Negron, who went to trial rather than plead, was convicted on 24 counts of conspiracy, health care fraud, kickbacks, and money laundering. Notably, her co-owner Lawrence Duran received no clemency in the first term—but President Trump commuted his sentence in the same scheme in May 2025, making ATC a case President Trump reached across both terms.
Faustino Bernadett
In January 2021, President Trump pardoned Faustino Bernadett, a physician and part-owner of Pacific Hospital of Long Beach, a center of one of the largest workers'-compensation kickback schemes in U.S. history. The broader scheme run by owner Michael Drobot generated more than $900 million in fraudulent bills over about 15 years and paid more than $30 million in illegal kickbacks to surgeons who steered spinal-surgery patients to the hospital. Bernadett, who authorized sham contracts to disguise the kickbacks after learning of them, served 15 months—a small individual role relative to the scheme's scale.
John Duncan Fordham
On January 20, 2021, President Trump pardoned John Duncan Fordham, a Georgia pharmacy owner convicted in 2005 of health care fraud. Fordham defrauded the Community Mental Health Center of East Central Georgia after a former Republican state representative steered a lucrative state contract to his business in exchange for kickbacks. He served 52 months and had paid $531,000 in restitution. After the pardon, Fordham sued to recover the restitution he had already paid—a move legal experts said had no precedent.
Bank and Real-Estate Fraud
Sholom Rubashkin
On December 20, 2017—one of the earliest clemency acts of his presidency—President Trump commuted the 27-year sentence of Sholom Rubashkin, the former manager of Agriprocessors, the Postville, Iowa kosher meatpacking plant that collapsed after a 2008 immigration raid. According to NBC News, Rubashkin was convicted in 2009 on 86 federal counts, including bank fraud, wire fraud, and money laundering. He had faked invoices and collateral to defraud the company's lenders on a roughly $35 million loan, and was ordered to pay about $27 million in restitution. His 27-year sentence had drawn bipartisan criticism as excessive, with dozens of former Justice Department officials objecting. The White House stressed the grant was a commutation, "not a Presidential pardon," and left the restitution in place. He had served about eight years.
Fred Davis Clark Jr.
In January 2021, President Trump commuted the 40-year sentence of Fred Davis Clark Jr., the CEO of Cay Clubs Resorts and Marinas. According to the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of Florida, Clark sold vacation and condo units across Florida, the Caribbean, and Las Vegas as investments with promised buybacks, in an operation that collapsed into a roughly $300 million Ponzi scheme defrauding about 1,400 investors. He was convicted of bank fraud, making false statements, and obstructing the SEC, and ordered to pay some $303.8 million in restitution and forfeiture. He had served about six years of the 40-year term.
Michael Ashley
In January 2021, President Trump commuted the three-year sentence of Michael Ashley, a former senior executive at Lend America, an FHA-approved mortgage lender that collapsed in 2009. Ashley pleaded guilty to bank fraud in connection with roughly $14 million in fraudulent government-insured loan originations; his sentence included about $49 million in restitution reflecting the scheme's total losses, plus forfeiture. The commutation was backed publicly by advocates including Alan Dershowitz.
Tax Fraud
Albert J. Pirro Jr.
On January 20, 2021—issued in President Trump's final hour in office, less than an hour before Biden was sworn in—President Trump pardoned Albert J. Pirro Jr., a prominent New York lobbyist and the ex-husband of Fox News host and former Westchester District Attorney Jeanine Pirro. Convicted in 2000 of conspiracy and tax evasion, Pirro had illegally deducted roughly $1.2 million in personal expenses—including costs tied to a Ferrari, a vintage Rolls-Royce, and home improvements—as phony business write-offs, and served 29 months. Jeanine Pirro personally lobbied President Trump to grant the pardon in his final hours.
The Pattern, Established
Taken together, the first-term grants covered convictions carrying more than $470 million in court-ordered restitution and forfeiture that went unrecovered. They set the template that the second-term pardons would follow and expand: clemency for fraud and financial crimes, routed around the Justice Department's Office of the Pardon Attorney and secured instead through personal access, celebrity advocacy, or political connection. The difference by the second term was one of scale and openness. Former lead pardon attorney Liz Oyer estimates that President Trump's second-term clemency erased more than $1.5 billion in penalties owed to victims and the government, and an openly transactional "pardon economy" of paid intermediaries emerged in the open. But the underlying practice was visible from the first term's opening months, when one of President Trump's earliest acts of clemency freed a meatpacking executive convicted of a $27 million bank fraud.