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A Nursing Home Owner Got a Trump Pardon. The Families of His Patients Got Nothing. -- ProPublica
https://www.propublica.org/article/joseph-schwartz-trump-pardon-skyline-nursing-home-patientsReporting Highlights
Another Trump Pardon: Nursing home operator Joseph Schwartz was convicted of a $39 million fraud, but President Donald Trump pardoned him just three months into a three-year prison term.
A Troubling Pattern: Schwartz is one of several nursing home operators convicted of crimes who were granted clemency by Trump.
Devastated Families: The families of some patients in Schwartz's nursing homes have been awarded millions of dollars from lawsuits. But they haven't been able to collect from him.
Also see this post by LiberalArkie: https://www.democraticunderground.com/10395319
Schwartz didn't contest the case, and a judge in 2020 awarded nearly $19 million in damages. Coulson's family has never been able to collect. Schwartz had by that time relinquished all of his property in Arkansas, so there was nothing left in the state for the family's lawyer to try to seize, nor was there enough information about assets he may hold in other states.
. . .
He pleaded guilty last April to failure to pay the IRS taxes withheld from employees and failing to file a financial report for his employees' benefit plan. A federal judge sentenced him to three years in prison.
But Schwartz served just three months. In November, President Donald Trump granted him a full pardon, negating his criminal conviction -- part of a series of clemency decisions in the president's second term that have benefited well-connected defendants, including political allies with access to the White House and individuals like Schwartz who had spent heavily on lobbyists.
Often overshadowed in the attention around Trump's decisions is the emotional and financial devastation left behind. Few clemency decisions illustrate that more clearly than the case of Schwartz, who paid himself millions of dollars from his nursing homes while diverting tens of millions owed to taxpayers and employees, and who has failed to satisfy at least three multimillion-dollar judgments awarded to grieving families.
. . .
. . .
He pleaded guilty last April to failure to pay the IRS taxes withheld from employees and failing to file a financial report for his employees' benefit plan. A federal judge sentenced him to three years in prison.
But Schwartz served just three months. In November, President Donald Trump granted him a full pardon, negating his criminal conviction -- part of a series of clemency decisions in the president's second term that have benefited well-connected defendants, including political allies with access to the White House and individuals like Schwartz who had spent heavily on lobbyists.
Often overshadowed in the attention around Trump's decisions is the emotional and financial devastation left behind. Few clemency decisions illustrate that more clearly than the case of Schwartz, who paid himself millions of dollars from his nursing homes while diverting tens of millions owed to taxpayers and employees, and who has failed to satisfy at least three multimillion-dollar judgments awarded to grieving families.
. . .