Trump Pardons of Fraudsters Cost Victims Nearly $2 Billion

President Donald Trump is letting fraudsters off the hook at the expense of their victims, according to a new report from Democrats on the House Judiciary Committee Friday.

The 25-page report found that Trump’s sweeping pardons had relieved white-collar criminals of $1.7 billion worth of fines, forfeitures, and restitution, in a “massive redistribution of wealth in favor of convicted criminals.” Democrats accused Trump of sidelining the traditional clemency structure to implement a pay-to-play system.

The report emphasized Trump’s pardon of Trevor Milton, former CEO of Nikola Corporation, who was convicted of fraud in 2022 for misleading investors. Milton had been sentenced to four years in prison, and the judge was scheduled to rule on a recommendation that he pay $700 million in restitution. Then Milton opened his wallet. The convicted fraudster and his wife donated more than $1.8 million to committees supporting Trump’s reelection. Milton was pardoned in March 2025.

But that’s just the tip of the iceberg. Trump pardoned Adriana and Andres Camberos, relieving them of their $50 million in restitution to victims and $30 million in forfeiture. Trump stepped in on behalf of private equity executive David Gentile, commuting his seven-year prison sentence and scrubbing a $15.5 million forfeiture obligation. The president pardoned four executives from BitMEX, a cryptocurrency exchange that violated anti-money laundering laws, and wiped away $130 million of the company’s federal fines. And many, many more.

Since reentering office, Trump has only made it harder for law enforcement to crack down on certain financial crimes. Last week, Trump’s Treasury Department announced it would destroy the government’s registry on shell-company ownership, a database law enforcement uses to investigate money laundering and corruption. In addition to pardoning dozens of white-collar criminals, the Trump administration has eliminated the task forces on kleptocrats, paused the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, and gutted the Foreign Agents Registration Act.