Trump Appointees Quashed Probe Into $2.5 Million Clemency Payments for $1.6 Billion Fraudster
Updated
Updated · The New York Times · Jun 21
Trump Appointees Quashed Probe Into $2.5 Million Clemency Payments for $1.6 Billion Fraudster
1 articles · Updated · The New York Times · Jun 21
Summary
Trump administration political appointees shut down an early-stage criminal investigation into whether improper payments helped secure clemency for David Gentile, people familiar with the matter said.
Brooklyn prosecutors had opened the case months after Trump commuted Gentile’s sentence, gathering jailhouse communications in which he discussed paying $2.5 million or more to people or companies tied to the effort.
Gentile, a private equity executive convicted in a $1.6 billion fraud that hit thousands of mostly small investors, was freed last November less than two weeks into a seven-year sentence.
That commutation also erased the prospect that Gentile would forfeit more than $15.5 million to the government, widening scrutiny over how the clemency was obtained.
Rev. Frank Mann, a retired Queens priest and Trump friend, drew investigators’ attention; he denied involvement, though people familiar with the prison communications said he corresponded with Gentile about lobbying the president.