US President Donald Trump has commuted the sentence of former investment manager David Gentile, who was just days into a seven-year prison sentence for fraud.
Bureau of Prisons records show that Gentile was released on Wednesday, less than two weeks after he reported to prison.
Gentile, the former chief executive and founder of GPB Capital, was convicted last year in 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’s the latest in a string of white-collar criminals whose sentences Trump has commuted.
Gentile was convicted in August last year of securities and wire fraud charges, and sentenced in May.
His co-defendant, Jeffry Schneider, was sentenced to six years in prison on the same charges. He remains behind bars.
US attorney 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 $1.6bn (£1.2bn) while using investor capital to pay distributions to other investors.
“The sentences imposed today are well deserved and should serve as a warning to would-be fraudsters that seeking [sic] to get rich by taking advantage of investors gets you only a one-way ticket to jail,” he said.
But the White House says the Department of Justice under former President Joe Biden made multiple missteps – and that investors were aware that their money could be going towards other people’s dividends.
“Even though this was disclosed to investors the Biden Department of Justice claimed this was a Ponzi scheme,” the White House official said.
“This claim was profoundly undercut by the fact that GPB had explicitly told investors what would happen.”
The official also cited concerns from Gentile that prosecutors had elicited false testimony.
Trump’s commutation of Gentile’s sentence does not clear him of his crimes like a full presidential pardon would, and it does not get rid of other potential penalties imposed.
So far in his second term, the president has pardoned or commuted the sentences of multiple people convicted of different types of fraud, including wire, securities, tax and healthcare fraud.
Last month, he pardoned Tennessee state House Speaker Glen Casada who was convicted of fraud, money laundering and conspiracy charges.