US President Donald Trump 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 Gentile was released Wednesday, less than two weeks after he reported to prison.
Gentile, the former CEO and founder of GPB Capital, was found guilty 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 string of white-collar criminals whose sentences have been commuted by Trump.
Gentile was convicted last August on securities and wire fraud charges and sentenced in May.
His co-defendant Jeffrey Schneider was sentenced to six years in prison on the same charges. He remains behind bars.
US lawyer Joseph Nocella said during Gentile's sentencing that GPB Capital was built on a “foundation of lies” and that the company made $1.6 billion (£1.2 billion) by using investors' capital to pay dividends to other investors.
“The sentences handed down today are well deserved and should serve as a warning to potential fraudsters who seek [sic] If you get rich through investors, you will only get a one-way ticket to prison,” he said.
But the White House says the Justice Department made numerous mistakes under former President Joe Biden – and that investors knew their money could go toward other people's dividends.
“Even though it was disclosed to investors, the Biden Department of Justice said it was a Ponzi scheme,” a White House official said.
“That assertion was deeply undermined by the fact that Community Bank explicitly told investors what would happen.”
The official also expressed concern to Gentile that prosecutors obtained false testimony.
Trump's commutation of Gentile's sentence does not absolve him of his crimes, as a full presidential pardon would, nor does it absolve him of other possible penalties imposed.
So far in his second term, the president has pardoned or commuted the sentences of several people convicted of various types of fraud, including wire, securities, tax and health care fraud.
Last month he pardoned Tennessee House Speaker Glen Casada, who was convicted of fraud, money laundering and conspiracy.
