Trump frees former GPB Capital CEO after Biden admin’s Ponzi scheme sentence

The logo for the Justice Department is seen before a news conference at the Department of Justice on Aug. 23, 2024, in Washington. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein, File)

U.S. President Donald Trump has commuted the seven-year sentence of former GPB Capital Holdings CEO David Gentile, with a White House official on Sunday countering the claims at trial brought by the Biden administration that led to Gentile’s conviction last year.

Founded in 2013, GPB Capital Holdings used investor funds to take stakes in automotive, retail and other types of companies. It paid out regular annual distributions to investors from returns on these holdings.

Former president Joe Biden’s Department of Justice convicted then-CEO Gentile of securities fraud in August 2024 after an eight-week trial, saying GPB’s use of investor capital to pay these proceeds instead of tapping into funds from its current operations constituted a Ponzi scheme. Gentile was sentenced in May.

Following reporting of Gentile’s sentence commutation, a White House official told Reuters the Biden administration’s Ponzi scheme claim was “profoundly undercut by the fact that GPB had explicitly told investors what would happen.”

“At trial, the government was unable to tie any supposedly fraudulent representations to Mr. Gentile,” said the White House official, who spoke on condition of anonymity due to not being authorized to speak on the topic.

“Mr. Gentile also raised serious concerns that the government had elicited false testimony and failed to correct such testimony.”

The Department of Justice did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

By Matt Tracy