Donald Trump has pardoned or reduced the sentences of 10 people convicted of fraud and other white-collar crimes since January 15, almost a quarter of the number of similar reprieves issued in the whole of 2025.
The tally, which includes the father of a donor to Trump’s Maga Inc campaign group and a person convicted after being granted clemency during Trump’s first term, marks a dramatic escalation in the pace of pardons even for a president who has made extensive use of the power.
People convicted of fraud and white-collar crime account for 10 of the 21 clemency grants Trump has issued over the past 10 days. Last year, he gave reprieves to 42 people who had been charged with white-collar crimes.
Seven of this year’s clemency grants relate to drugs offences even as the president has spoken of cracking down on the drug trade.
A person with knowledge of the process said: “What’s different about the [pardon] process with Trump is you can make a direct appeal . . . find the best platform and talk as loudly as possible, because he’s actually listening to people instead of [following] bureaucratic processes.”
Trump “loves being merciful, giving people second chances”, the person said. “Most of the time [what he wants in return] is, tell people how great I am,” the person added.
Asked for comment, the White House referred to previous remarks from press secretary Karoline Leavitt that “there’s a whole team of qualified lawyers who look at every single pardon request that ultimately make their way up to the President of the United States”.
“And he was very clear when he came into office that he was most interested in looking at pardoning individuals who were abused and used by the Biden Department of Justice, and were overprosecuted by a weaponised DOJ.”
The president’s fondness for pardons has led other criminals to petition the administration for clemency. DoJ data shows Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes and Archegos founder Bill Hwang, both convicted of fraud during Joe Biden’s presidency, have lodged requests for reprieves.
Holmes is serving a more than 11-year sentence. Hwang was handed an 18-year sentence in 2024, but remains free on bail while he appeals against his conviction.
Tim Leissner, the disgraced former Goldman Sachs banker at the centre of the 1MDB scandal, has also asked for a pardon, the data shows. Leissner, who pleaded guilty and co-operated with prosecutors, said at a sentencing hearing last year that he stood before the judge “in shame”.
“Tim Leissner has always fully co-operated with the Department of Justice and continues to do so,” said Leissner’s lawyer Henry Mazurek. “Since the current DoJ has suspended prosecutions of FCPA cases, we believe that, under these circumstances, clemency is appropriate and just.”
Terren Peizer, a protégé of “junk bond king” Michael Milken, was recently sentenced to 42 months in prison for insider trading but was pardoned on January 16. Peizer had already made plans to throw a charity fundraiser at his home in Puerto Rico this weekend, according to a person set to attend who said the event will now double as a pardon party.
Peizer, who worked under Milken at the investment bank Drexel Burnham Lambert prior to its collapse in 1990, was last year found guilty by a California jury of one count of federal securities fraud and two counts of insider trading related to share sales in 2021 of a healthcare company he founded in 2003.
Peizer said in a statement: “There aren’t enough words to express the gratitude and appreciation I have for the compassion and recognition of this unfair process by the most accomplished President of my lifetime, and perhaps beyond. Thank you, Mr President!”
Trump pardoned Milken in 2020, calling him “one of America’s greatest financiers”. Milken served 22 months in prison in the early 1990s after pleading guilty to charges including securities fraud.
This year’s pardons include Adriana Camberos, who was granted clemency on January 15 along with her brother after the pair were convicted in 2024 of multiple fraud charges. During his first term, Trump in 2021 commuted a two-year sentence she was given for conspiracy to traffic in counterfeit goods, for which she served more than a year in prison.
“Ms Camberos was wrongfully convicted” twice, her lawyer Marcus Bourassa told the FT. “She’s home now and very grateful to the president, the White House and [White House pardon tsar] Alice Johnson for their support.”
Wanda Vázquez Garced, a former governor of Puerto Rico, former FBI agent Mark Rossini and Venezuelan-Italian banker Julio Herrera Velutini were also pardoned on January 15.
In 2022, Vázquez Garced was accused of accepting a bribe from Herrera Velutini to replace the head of Puerto Rico’s banking regulator.
The trio were arrested on bribery charges but, as part of a plea deal agreed last year, the 2022 indictment was dismissed and the defendants pleaded guilty to single-count misdemeanours that carry lighter sentences. Their lawyers did not respond to requests for comment.
Herrera Velutini was represented in court by Trump’s former defence attorney Chris Kise, and had been due to attend his sentencing hearing in Puerto Rico next week. Herrera Velutini’s daughter has donated $3.5mn to a pro-Trump political action committee over the past two years. Her name appears in filings next to a $2.5mn donation to Maga Inc in December 2024 and a $1mn donation to the group in July. Isabel Herrera could not be reached for comment. Kise did not respond to a request for comment.
Trump also pardoned former hedge fund executive David Levy, who was convicted in 2019 for his role in defrauding the bondholders of oil company Black Elk Energy.
Lawyers for Levy, Hwang and Holmes did not respond to requests for comment.
Jacob Deutsch, a real estate manager from New York, was given a commutation on January 15 after being handed a 62-month sentence in 2024 for overstating the value of properties to secure loans.
Deutsch “thanks President Trump for correcting what was a patently unjust sentence”, his lawyer Lee Vartan told the FT. “This is what the president’s clemency power is for.”
Additional reporting by Stefania Palma in Washington
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