In April, just out of presidential forgiveness that came out of prison, the sentencer Jason Galanis embarked on a new and bold legal fight: an attempt to recover money that had already paid his victims.
As part of his 2017 judgment, a federal judge ordered Galanis to pay more than $ 80 million in restitution for his various fraudulent schemes. But when President Donald Trump switched the 189 -month galanis prison sentence in March as part of a wave of pardons, Galanis’ forgiveness order stipulated that “there are no more fines [and] restitution “must be collected.
Days later, Galanis asked a federal judge to order the government to return about $ 2 million that he had already paid, arguing that because the government had not yet released those funds to its victims, Galanis had the right to them.
“In a nutshell, the funds were taken for a particular purpose,” Galanis lawyers wrote last month in a letter to the judge. “It is indisputable that this purpose no longer exists and, therefore, … the funds must be returned.”
The American district judge Kevin Castel, the judge who supervises the case of Galanis, ruled on Wednesday that he cannot recover the $ 2 million. But some legal experts say that Galanis’ commitment to recover those restitution funds reflects a broader symptom of what they say is Trump’s unprecedented use of executive forgive powers.
“Usually, the Department of Justice does not recommend an pardon in cases where the candidate owes a significant amount of restitution … so these pardons that eliminate large financial obligations are very unusual in their sense,” said ABC News, former lawyer of Pardón of the United States, which is not involved in the case.
According to Oyer’s count, the recipients of the second -term clemency of Trump had accumulatively more than $ 1 billion in restitution, money for the victims of fraudulent schemes. On the other hand, according to Oyer, “the victims are only out of all the money that they expected to be reimbursed as part of the restitution, due to the pardons.”
Washington, DC – May 30: The president of the United States, Donald Trump, together with the CEO of Tesla, Elon Musk, talks to journalists at the Oval Office of the White House on May 30, 2025 in Washington, DC. Musk, who served as a Trump advisor and led the government’s efficiency department, announced that he would leave the Trump administration to re -confocate in his businesses. (Photo of Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)
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“The victims are the losers,” said Oyer. “Those are people who have a legal right under federal law to pay their losses … and the president is annulled that legal requirement … to the detriment of people who, in some cases, have lost their life savings.”
These victims include an American native tribe, a Pension Fund for Arizona’s teachers and even a republican governor.
In the case of Galanis, prosecutors wrote that the victims of their scheme include “pension funds maintained for the benefit of, among others, traffic workers, long, workers of the housing authority and employees of the city.”
Most of the victims are shareholders in companies such as Nikola, whose dishonorous founder and executive director, Trevor Milton, was sentenced to four years in prison for lying about the viability of its electric vehicle technology.
Prosecutors had asked a federal judge to order Milton to pay more than $ 600 million in restitution, which said it was “the approximate amount of damage to investors in this case.” Milton was forgiven before a judge had the opportunity to approve that figure, but experts said the judges are generally closely found with prosecutors’ calculations.
When asked in a local news interview in March if he would pay the victims of his fraudulent scheme, Milton said “I would not pay them,” but offered an alternative: “I have some large companies where I am working at this time, I would definitely be open to help those people in the future.”
“I’m not ruthless,” he added. “In fact, I feel for these people probably more than most.”
The forgive recipients owed to him an outstanding restitution at the time they were forgive In restitution.
Other forgive winners include Todd and Julie Chrisley, reality television celebrities sentenced to more than seven years in prison for tax evasion and bank fraud, whose lawyer suggested TMZ that can try to recover some of the $ 17 million in restitution that they had already begun to pay.
The former councilor of Las Vegas, Michele Fiore, who spent about $ 70,000 on donations to a murdered police fund on personal expenses, including cosmetic surgery, was also forgiven. Trump issued Fiore’s forgiveness before his sentence, but experts say that restitution usually aligns with the cost of the supposed fraud scheme.
The Governor of Nevada, Joe Lombardo, a republican companion, testified in the trial he had donated to the Fiore Fund and was the victim of his fraud. Another victim, Harry Mohney, owner of a Striptease club that donated $ 2,000 to the bottom, said he was “distressed” to know that Fiore would not have to pay the restitution.
“It certainly bothers me largely,” Mohney told ABC News. “It is unfair that she never has to pay the people to whom she obtained the money under false claims, but there is nothing I can do about it.”
In a statement to ABC News, the White House spokesman Harrison Fields said Trump is “using his power for forgiveness to offer second opportunities in life.”
“Founding parents gave the president the power of forgiveness to provide mercy where only the president considers him necessary,” Fields said.
ABC News legal experts talked that it is not clear to what extent the victims could try to claim the restitution, they are still owed after Trump’s forgives. An option would be to file a civil demand to claim damage, but that may be a long and expensive proposal.
“The restitution makes it very easy: he doesn’t have to pay a lawyer, he doesn’t have to go to court,” said Mark Osler, a clemency expert at St. Thomas University in Minnesota. “You can see why that would be a victim’s first option about how to do everything.”
The experts who spoke with ABC News fought to cite previous examples of scammers who were granted clemency before fulfilling their restitution obligations. Oyer said that Trump’s restitution payments switching is not precedents.
“This is not normal,” said Oyer.
The Department of Justice, on its website, warns the victims of fraud that seek restitution that “the possibility of total recovery is very low” and that “although the defendants can make partial payments towards the total restitution owed, it is rare that the defendants can completely pay the amount of total restitution owed.”
However, experts say that, regardless of whether victims they ever recover their lost money, restitution obligations remain an important mechanism in the criminal justice system.
“One of the restitution purposes, even if it is never completely returned, is to ensure that the author of the crime cannot be enriched first, while they still owe money to the victims,” Oyer explained. “And that is exactly what [Trump’s] The pardons make it easier. “
