The president slamming Minnesota fraud has a growing list of rich pardoned fraudsters
- Staff
- 2 days ago
- 4 min read
Trump pardons a diverse range of crimes while scapegoating Somalis
President Donald Trump went to Switzerland last month to attack his own American residents and citizens — particularly the one’s with roots in the nation of Somalia.
“We’re cracking down on more than $19 billion in fraud that was stolen by Somalian bandits,” said the elderly president in a rambling, snoozy speech before international officials. “Can you believe that Somalia – they turned out to be higher IQ than we thought. I always say these are low-IQ people. How did they go into Minnesota and steal all that money?”
Trump then used a campaign to defraud a federal food program as a springboard to slam the Somalia immigrant community in Minnesota.
“The situation in Minnesota reminds us that the west cannot mass-import foreign cultures which have failed to ever build a successful society of their own. I mean, we’re taking people from Somalia, and Somalia is a failed — it’s not a nation. Got no government, got no police, got no nothing.”
It did not matter that prosecutors say the mastermind of the Minnesota’s $250 million fraud scandal was not Somali but 45-year-old white woman Aimee Bock. Trump went on to attack Somali-born U.S. Rep. Ilhan Omar, (D-Minn.), a frequent Trump critic.
“She comes from a country that’s not a country, and she’s telling us how to run America,” Trump said of Omar, adding she’s “not going to get away with it much longer.”
But while trying to rail a whole community for its alleged criminality, Trump is apparently happy to pardon an army of wealthy people accused of financial crimes. More than half of Trump’s 88 individual pardons by mid-January are for white-collar offenses, like money laundering, bank fraud and wire fraud. About half of the beneficiaries are business executives or politicians. The latest pardon in January was a criminal health care CEO and a pair of siblings who stole millions before donating millions to Trump’s own super PAC. One of the siblings Trump had to go back and pardon a second time after she again engaged in illegal dealings.
But there are plenty more fraudsters Trump adores. They just aren’t Somali. Convicted fraudster Michelle Fiore took $70,000 meant for a memorial to fallen police officers and spent it on herself. This included cosmetic surgery. Trump pardoned her last year, definitely not Somali.
Then there’s Lawrence Duran, who led the largest therapy-related Medicare fraud scheme in history, at least until 2011. Duran was sentenced to 50 years in prison and ordered to pay back $87 million after American Therapeutic Corporation (ATC) orchestrated a $205 million Medicare fraud scheme, according to the Department of Justice, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and the FBI. But Trump commuted his sentence last year. He also has no Somali roots, no matter how hard you look.
Duran had held the record for the biggest criminal Medicare fraud in American history until the 2019 conviction of Philip Esformes, who orchestrated “more than a billion dollars in fraudulent claims, money laundering and kickbacks, earning him a 20-year sentence from a jury of his peers.
“For nearly two decades, Philip Esformes bankrolled his lavish lifestyle with taxpayer dollars, paying bribes with impunity and robbing Medicare and Medicaid by billing for services that people did not need or get,” said Assistant Attorney General Brian A. Benczkowski in 2019. But Trump commuted his sentence in 2020. And, no, he’s not Somali.
Oh, it just keeps on going. Convicted fraudster Trevor Milton defrauded his own investors of tens of millions of dollars and was handed four years in prison. Milton coaxed his investors to sink money into a company that Milton himself founded — mostly based on lies and inflated claims. Prosecutors say he preferred to target “individual, non-professional investors.” You know: the poor ones without a lot of money to lose in bogus market scams.
Trump pardoned Milton last year.
And, hey, then there’s good ‘ol convicted fraudster Paul Walsack, who swiped more than $7 million from his own employees and got 18 months in prison and was ordered to pay back $4.4 million in restitution for his employees’ stolen pay.
Our very president pardoned him last year, too, after Walsack’s wealthy mommy donated $1 million to a Trump fundraiser. Just so you know, that pardon also wiped out Walsack’s $4.4 million restitution bill, so his victims will likely never see their stolen cash.
Another money-grubbing wrongdoer Trump was happy to let off the hook was David Gentile, who defrauded more than 10,000 investors of a whopping $1.6 billion in what was basically a Ponzi scheme. After being unquestionably found guilty, Gentile got seven years in prison and a commitment to pay $15.5 in restitution, which was kind of a deal compared to how much he stole. And of course Trump pardoned this millionaire CEO days after he reported to prison. He also erased Gentile’s $15.5 million bill.
New York Attorney General Letitia James has sued Gentile and his co-defendants over the scheme and that lawsuit is still pending. NBC News reports Trump’s pardon doesn’t impact James’ New York state lawsuit, however, so there’s that.
This list is not complete. Remember Trump’s pardons are clearing almost 100 people after his first year, likely depending on how much money the pardoners can pay him, according to sources.
So even as the MAGA element rages online about the illegality of Somalis in Minnesota, don’t hesitate to remind folks of all the wealthy ne’er-do-wells the president has joyously pardoned, usually after taking their money.