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Eric Lipton

20 Jan, 10 tweets, 3 min read

Prison sentence ended: Sholam Weiss, who was sentenced to more than 800 years in prison in 2000 for racketeering, wire fraud and money laundering re insurance fraud scheme nytimes.com/2021/01/20/us/…

Robert Zangrillo, a Miami real estate developer who was charged with conspiring with a college consultant to bribe athletic officials at the University of Southern California to designate his daughter as a recruit to the crew team, received a pardon

William Walters, a wealthy sports gambler convicted in an insider-trading scheme, who paid tens of thousands of dollars to ex-Trump lawyer John Dowd to get him on Trump’s list. Prison sentence ended.

Commuted remaining prison sentence: Dr. Salomon E. Melgen, 66, a major Democratic donor and eye doctor who ran a series of clinics in Florida that fraudulently told Medicare patients that they had eye diseases and then performed medically unnecessary tests and procedure

FULL PARDON Former Uber Executive WHO HAD Pleaded Guilty to Trade Theft: Anthony Levandowski was charged with stealing driverless-car plans when he left Google to form a company, which Uber then acquired.

Stephen K. Bannon, the former White House chief strategist who was charged with defrauding political donors who supported building a border wall that Mr. Trump advocated. Pardoned.

Elliott Broidy, a fund-raiser for the president, pleaded guilty last year to conspiring to violate foreign lobbying laws as part of a covert campaign to influence the administration on behalf of Chinese and Malaysian interests. FULL pardon

Ken Kurson, a friend and associate of Mr. Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, who was arrested late last year on cyberstalking charges involving several individuals, including a friend whom Mr. Kurson blamed for the deterioration of his marriage. He was pardoned.

Eliyahu Weinstein, who was sentenced to more than 20 years in prison in 2014 for a real estate Ponzi scheme that prosecutors said caused $200 million in losses, had his remaining jail sentence commuted.

@maggieNYT

That is just the start. It goes on and on and on. Read the story. with @maggieNYT @kenvogel @nytmike nytimes.com/2021/01/20/us/…

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More from @EricLiptonNYT

Eric Lipton

@EricLiptonNYT

22 Jan

MEDICARE FRAUD CASE STUDY # 3 JUDITH NEGRON also of Florida. (That Trump let out of jail & terminated $87 million restitution to taxpayers) Bribes to patient "brokers" Altered patient files/therapist notes to fake treatments Signed files as though she had been in 2 places at once

"Executed one of the largest and most brazen health care fraud conspiracies" "This massive fraud was committed by manipulating the proper treatment of Alzheimer’s and dementia patients, brain damaged individuals, and substance abusers seeking treatment." !!

Sought payments on patients like this: "One such patient, Ruth Herrera, was in a neuro-vegetative state, but Negron yelled her name into her ear until she lifted her head, at which point Negron, a licensed therapist, supervisor, and owner, declared Ms. Herrera qualified"

Read 6 tweets

Eric Lipton

@EricLiptonNYT

22 Jan

Medicare Fraud Clemency Case Study Two: Dr. Salomon Melgen. Here is what TRUMP FBI had to say about him. "“The reprehensible conduct of Salomon Melgen is a disgrace to the medical profession,” “Salomon Melgen callously took advantage of patients who came to him fearing blindness”

Dr. Melgen hired lawyers to appeal his conviction and sentence. In 2020! HE LOST. Here is what the court said. "In light of the extent of Melgen’s fraudulent scheme, the sentence the district court imposed was more than reasonable.
AFFIRMED."

HERE IS WHAT TRUMP DID (yes, with the Sharpie) Out of Jail Card. He was supposed to be in prison until Aug. 2 2031. Look at what US BUREAU of Prisons says is his status as of Jan. 20. Released on Trump's last day.

Read 8 tweets

Eric Lipton

@EricLiptonNYT

22 Jan

THREAD: Let's take a closer look at some of the greatest Medicare fraud masterminds in U.S. history, who collectively orchestrated more than $1.6 billion in fraud--before Trump decided to let them out of prison early. First, the NYT story nytimes.com/2021/01/21/us/…

Let's start with Esformes. Here's TRUMP's
US DOJ (!!) had to say: "He bought himself a Ferrari and a $360,000 watch, bribed a basketball coach, lined his pockets, and kept his corrupt businesses afloat..The taxpayers, meanwhile, paid for health care services that were not needed"

Here is the witness testifying in federal court about how he would give Philip Esformes Publix supermarket bags filled with cash. Money that was kickbacks from their Medicare fraud scheme, delivered to Esformes Miami Beach multimillion home. This is 2019

Read 5 tweets

Eric Lipton

@EricLiptonNYT

21 Jan

DOJ posts the actual pardon documents Trump signed. The last wave of pardons/commutations (except 1) were actually signed Jan. 19. Team Trump just waited until after midnight (and after print newspaper deadlines) to announce them. Or they fraudulently misdated them.

Here is our story on the pardons nytimes.com/2021/01/20/us/…

And a follow up piece that examines how SO MANY of these pardons are for individuals convicted of corruption, i.e. stealing money from taxpayers or other abuse of public office. nytimes.com/2021/01/20/us/…

Read 5 tweets

Eric Lipton

@EricLiptonNYT

15 Jan

Trump Forest Service today issued its final Environmental Impact Statement for massive planned Arizona copper mine that will destroy a sacred Native America site on the National Register of Historic places. Clears way for land sale of federal land to mining company Rio Tinto.

I wrote about this project last month, one of several major mining and energy projects on federal lands that Trump team was rushing to get done before he left office. nytimes.com/2020/12/19/us/…

Lawsuits already pending to try to stop this land transfer. But it is unclear if it can be stopped by Biden. Once this Environmental Impact statement is released, land transfer is to Rio Tinto is suppose to happen automatically under law in 60 days.

Read 4 tweets

Eric Lipton

@EricLiptonNYT

13 Jan

@emmagf

NEWS: N.Y.C. Will End Trump Contracts Over Capitol Riot. The contracts are for two ice-skating rinks at Central Park, the Central Park Carousel and the Trump Golf Links at Ferry Point, a city-owned golf course in the Bronx. @emmagf nyti.ms/3sh2fBz

This is a reckoning unlike anything Trump has ever seen. Includes famed Wollman rink, that Trump famously offered mayor Ed Koch to rebuild in 1980s at Trump expense within six months, in return for the leases to operate the rink. Trump has run it ever since.