US President Donald Trump has commuted the sentence of former investment manager David Gentile, who was sentenced to seven years in prison for fraud.
Gentile was released Wednesday, less than two weeks after reporting to prison, Bureau of Prisons records show.
Gentile, the former chief executive and founder of GPB Capital, was convicted last year of what federal prosecutors described as a multi-year scheme to defraud more than 10,000 investors by misrepresenting the performance of private equity funds.
He is the latest in a series of white-collar criminals whose sentences have been commuted by Trump.
Gentile was convicted on securities and wire fraud charges last August and was sentenced in May. His co-defendant, Jeffrey Schneider, was sentenced to six years in prison on the same charges.
US lawyer Joseph Nocella said at the time of Gentile’s sentencing that GPB Capital was built on a “foundation of lies” and that the company made $1.6 billion (£1.2 billion) while using investor capital to pay distributions to other investors.
“The sentences handed down today are appropriate and should serve as a warning to fraudsters who seek to get rich by taking advantage of investors that this is only a one-way ticket to jail,” he said.
But the White House says the Justice Department under former President Joe Biden made several missteps — and investors knew their money could be going to other people’s dividends.
“Even though it was disclosed to investors, the Biden Justice Department claimed it was a Ponzi scheme,” the White House official said.
“This claim is deeply weakened by the fact that GPB had clearly told investors what would happen.”
The official also cited Gentile’s concerns that prosecutors had obtained false testimony.
Trump’s commutation of Gentile’s sentence does not absolve him of his crimes as a full presidential pardon does, and it does not absolve him of other potential penalties that could be imposed.
So far in his second term, the President has pardoned or commuted the sentences of many people convicted of a variety of fraud, including wire, securities, tax and health care fraud.
Last month, he pardoned Tennessee State House Speaker Glen Casada, who was convicted of fraud, money laundering and conspiracy.
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