WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump commuted the seven-year sentence of former private equity CEO David Gentile, a White House official confirmed.
In May, Gentile was sentenced to seven years in prison. on charges of wire and security fraud. According to Bureau of Prisons DatabaseAs of November 26, Gentile was not in custody. White House clemency czar Alice Marie Johnson also confirmed Gentile's release in a statement. publish on X.
Gentile was the CEO and co-founder of GPB Capital Holdings. convicted by federal jury in August 2024 conspiracy to commit securities fraud, conspiracy to commit wire fraud, securities fraud and two counts of wire fraud.
The U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of New York, which brought the indictment under the Biden administration, said at the time that “the charges stem from a multi-year scheme to defraud more than 10,000 investors by misrepresenting the source of funds used for monthly distribution payments and the amount of income received by three GPB investment funds.”
Gentile was charged and convicted along with Jeffrey Schneider, the owner of a marketing firm that prosecutors said sold GPB funds to investors.
A White House spokesman disputed the allegations made by Biden's Justice Department. The official said GPB made regular annual distributions to its investors, and in 2015 the company “disclosed to investors the option of using investor capital to pay some of those distributions rather than funding them through ongoing operations.”
“Even though it was disclosed to investors, the Biden Department of Justice said it was a Ponzi scheme,” the official said. “This claim was seriously undermined by the fact that the Public Broadcaster explicitly told investors what would happen. At trial, the government failed to link any of the allegedly fraudulent statements to Mr. Gentile. Mr. Gentile also expressed grave concern that the government received false testimony and failed to correct such testimony.”
Gentile's lawyer did not immediately respond to a request for comment on his release.
New York Attorney General Letitia James also announced this. sued Gentile and other co-defendants in 2021 above the diagram. The lawsuit is still pending, and a source familiar with James' case told NBC News that the attorney general's office is aware of Trump's commutation of sentence, and the source said it does not change the merits of the civil case against Gentile.
Trump made pardons and other acts of clemency hundreds of people since taking office in January, starting around 1500 Jan. 6 accused and including many people who have since been convicted of fraud. In October Trump Billionaire and head of cryptocurrency business Changpeng Zhao pardonedFounder of the Binance crypto exchange. Zhao was sentenced to four months in prison after pleading guilty to a deal with the Justice Department to allow money laundering on Binance.
In April, Trump pardoned Paul Walczak, who was convicted on tax charges. Walczak mother contributed millions of dollars for Trump's presidential campaign.
In May Trump pardoned and commuted sentences former reality TV stars Todd and Julie Chrisleywho were found guilty of fraud, tax evasion and conspiracy to defraud the United States. Also in May, he pardoned his former New York Republican Party Representative Michael Grimmwho was sentenced in 2015 to eight months in prison for tax fraud.
In October Trump released former Republican Party member George Santos from prison. Santos was serving a prison sentence more than seven years. on charges of wire fraud and identity theft.
