Trump commutes fraud sentence for ex-GPB Capital chief Gentile

President Donald Trump has commuted the prison sentence of former GPB Capital chief executive David Gentile, just days after the private equity executive began serving a seven-year term for defrauding investors, according to a report from the New York Times that was corroborated by multiple outlets.

Gentile, 59, reported to prison on Nov. 14 after his May sentencing in federal court in Brooklyn. Prosecutors said he helped orchestrate a scheme that raised roughly $1.6 billion from investors and misled them about the performance and payouts of several private funds.

Gentile and Jeff Schneider, another top executive implicated in the fraud, were sentenced to seven and six years in prison, respectively.

The Times reported Sunday that Gentile was granted clemency, with the Federal Bureau of Prisons listing him as released on Nov. 26.

Gentile co-founded New York-based GPB Capital in 2013 and grew it into a buyer of auto dealerships and other private businesses, using money raised from thousands of retail investors. The firm promised steady distributions, a pitch that made the funds popular with independent broker-dealers and RIAs seeking income-oriented alternatives for clients.

At trial, the Justice Department argued that GPB used new investor capital to fund those distributions instead of relying on operating cash flow from its portfolio companies, characterizing the structure as a Ponzi scheme. Gentile was convicted in August 2024 after an eight-week trial and sentenced to seven years for securities fraud and related charges, according to court filings and prior government statements.

Senior executives at GPB Capital sought a new trial following their convictions last year, but those appeals were shot down in March by a federal judge in Brooklyn.

A White House official, speaking to Reuters on condition of anonymity, said the clemency decision reflected concerns about how prosecutors framed the case. The official said GPB had “explicitly told investors what would happen,” and argued that this disclosure “profoundly undercut” the government’s Ponzi allegations. The official also said Gentile had raised “serious concerns that the government had elicited false testimony and failed to correct such testimony.”

Regulators and law enforcement had previously described a very different picture. At the time of Gentile’s sentencing, Joseph Nocella Jr, the US attorney for the Eastern District of New York, said in a May statement that the punishment “should serve as a warning to would-be fraudsters that seeking to get rich by taking advantage of investors gets you only a one-way ticket to jail.”

State regulators have alleged that investor money funded luxury expenses, including private jet costs, an in-house flight attendant and a Ferrari used by Gentile. In 2021, New York attorney general Letitia James sued GPB, Gentile and other executives, seeking restitution for investors.

James said investors had put more than $1.8 billion into GPB funds but “were left without a single cent of profit,” accusing the firm and its leaders of fleecing investors while “subsidizing their own lavish lifestyles.”

Criminal prosecutors have not secured restitution as part of Gentile’s case, but several civil actions and arbitration claims are still working through how investors may be repaid, according to the Associated Press. As of Sunday, the Justice Department had not posted the clemency order on its website, and the agency did not immediately respond to requests for comment.