A former judge who sent juveniles to prison in the "Kids for Cash" kickback scandal. A former city official in Illinois who orchestrated the largest municipal embezzlement in state history. A journalist who manufactured a fentanyl-like drug dubbed "the most potent" in the United States.
Those are just a few of the nearly 1,500 federal convicts whom President Joe Biden granted clemency on Thursday in what the White House touted as "the largest single-day grant of clemency in modern history."
The White House framed the move as part of Biden’s "record of criminal justice reform to help reunite families, strengthen communities, and reintegrate individuals back into society," touting clemency awarded to a "decorated military veteran" who helps fellow church members, and a nurse who "spearheaded vaccination efforts." Biden has faced intense pressure to issue mass clemencies after pardoning his son, Hunter—who faced sentencing for felony gun charges and tax evasion—of any federal crime he may have committed in more than a decade.
A Washington Free Beacon review of those who received clemency shows that many of the recipients were serving sentences for serious crimes.
There is Daniel Fillerup, sentenced to 10 years in prison for selling fentanyl that killed an Albany woman, and Shelinder Aggarwal, an Alabama "pill mill" doctor who the Department of Justice said "directly contributed to the opioid epidemic." And Biden commuted the 17.5-year prison sentence of former Luzerne County, Pa., judge Michael Conahan, who took $2.1 million in kickbacks from a for-profit prison executive in exchange for sentencing juveniles to those facilities.
Also on the list: Rita Crundwell, former Dixon, Ill., comptroller and treasurer who embezzled more than $53 million from the city in what the DOJ described as "the largest theft of public funds in state history." Crundwell used the money to breed racing horses. She was sentenced to more than 19 years in prison in 2013. Dixon city officials blasted Biden's reprieve for Crundwell. "This is a complete travesty of justice and a slap in the face of our entire community," said city manager Danny Langloss.
Then there’s Wendy Hechtman, who was sentenced to 15 years in prison for leading a drug ring that police blamed for a surge of overdoses and deaths in Omaha, Neb., in 2017. Hechtman, a former journalist, and her husband manufactured and distributed carfentanil, which the CDC says is the "most potent fentanyl analog detected in the United States." Omaha police tracked down the Hechtmans after a spate of overdose deaths from the drug. "People were dying, people were overdosing, families were being destroyed on a daily basis, and then it stopped," an Omaha investigator told a local news outlet.
Joseph Shereshevsky received clemency for his role in a $255 million real estate Ponzi scheme that authorities said was targeted at Orthodox Jews. He was sentenced to just under 22 years in prison in 2011.
He was not the only financial criminal whom Biden granted mercy. Paul Burks, sentenced to more than 14 years in prison in 2017 for operating a $900 million internet Ponzi scheme, is now free. As is Eric Bloom, who was sentenced to 14 years in prison for defrauding his financial firm’s clients of more than $665 million. "The magnitude of Bloom’s crimes is enormous, and the impact on his victims devastating, with victims around the world suffering losses," the DOJ said after his conviction in 2015.
Toyosi Alatishe was resentenced in 2022 to 126 months in federal prison for conspiracy to commit credit card fraud, wire fraud, and aggravated identity theft in a scheme that targeted the mentally disabled. He will also be freed early.
Although some Democrats are using the death of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson to vilify health care executives, Biden granted clemency to one former health care executive sentenced to 114 months in prison for fraud. James Burkhart, who also laundered money from his firm, will not have to serve the remainder of his sentence thanks to Biden.
Biden also granted clemency to Jacqueline Mills, who in 2017 was sentenced to 12.5 years in prison for stealing nearly $4 million from a USDA program to feed poor children in eastern Arkansas, a case that prosecutors called "one of the most egregious examples of fraud" they had prosecuted.
Also receiving clemency: Meera Sachdeva, a Mississippi doctor sentenced to 20 years in prison in 2012 for defrauding Medicare by providing diluted chemotherapy drugs and old needles to cancer patients. One patient of Sachdeva’s clinic claimed to have contracted HIV because of old needles.
Biden also granted clemency to William Boyland, a former Democratic New York State assemblyman, who was sentenced to 14 years in prison for bribery, extortion, fraud, conspiracy, and theft charges in 2015.
All of those who received commuted sentences were serving out the rest of their punishment in home confinement as part of an agreement made during the COVID-19 pandemic, the White House said.
In announcing the commutations, the White House pledged that there are "more to come" before Biden leaves office next month.
"President Biden will continue to review clemency petitions and deliver criminal justice reform in a manner that advances equity and justice, promotes public safety, supports rehabilitation and reentry, and provides meaningful second chances."
Blake Mauro, Meghan Blonder, and Lexi Boccuzzi contributed reporting.
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