Trump commutes 7-year prison sentence of former private equity CEO David Gentile
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump has commuted the seven-year prison sentence handed down to former private equity CEO David Gentile, a White House official confirmed.
Gentile was sentenced in May to seven years in prison on wire fraud and security charges. According to the Bureau of Prisons database, Gentile was not in custody as of November 26. White House pardon czar Alice Marie Johnson also confirmed Gentile’s release in an article on X.
Gentile was the CEO and co-founder of GPB Capital Holdings and was convicted by a federal jury in August 2024 of 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 filed the indictment during the Biden administration, said at the time that “the charges relate to a multi-year scheme to defraud more than 10,000 investors by misrepresenting the source of funds used to make monthly distributions and the amount of income generated by three of GPB’s investment funds.”
Gentile was indicted and convicted alongside Jeffry Schneider, the owner of a marketing company who prosecutors say marketed GPB funds to investors.
The White House official disputed the accusations made by Biden’s DOJ. The official said GPB paid regular annualized distributions to its investors and that in 2015 the company “disclosed to investors the option of using investor capital to pay a portion of these distributions rather than funding them from current operations.”
“Even though this was disclosed to investors, the Biden Justice Department claimed it was a Ponzi scheme,” the official said. “This claim was deeply contradicted by the fact that GPB had explicitly told investors what would happen. At trial, the government was unable to link allegedly fraudulent statements to Mr. Gentile. Mr. Gentile also expressed serious concerns that the government had obtained false testimony and failed to correct that testimony.”
Gentile’s attorney did not immediately respond to a request for comment on his release.
New York Attorney General Letitia James also prosecuted Gentile and other co-defendants in 2021 for the scheme. The attorney general’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Trump has granted pardons and other acts of clemency to hundreds of people since taking office in January, starting with about 1,500 defendants on Jan. 6 and including many people convicted of fraud since then. Last month, Trump pardoned billionaire crypto executive Changpeng Zhao, who founded crypto exchange Binance. Zhao was sentenced to four months in prison after pleading guilty as part of a deal with the Justice Department to enabling money laundering at Binance.
In April, Trump pardoned Paul Walczak, who had been convicted of tax charges. Walczak’s mother contributed millions of dollars to Trump’s presidential campaign.
In May, Trump pardoned and commuted the sentences of former reality TV stars Todd and Julie Chrisley, who were convicted of fraud, tax evasion and conspiracy to defraud the United States. Also in May, he pardoned former New York Republican Representative Michael Grimm, who was sentenced in 2015 to eight months for tax evasion.
In October, Trump released former Republican Rep. George Santos from prison. Santos was serving a prison sentence of more than seven years. on charges of wire fraud and identity theft.
