President Obama Pardons a Foreign Banker Whose Family Gave His Super PAC $3.5 Million
The banker had pleaded to a bribery-linked charge a judge called 'a slap on the wrist'; the White House says the millions in donations had nothing to do with it
Ink = the flip (fiction). Red = real Republican · Blue = real Democrat.
WASHINGTON — President Obama pardoned a foreign banker who had been charged in a bribery scheme, months after the banker's daughter contributed $3.5 million to the president's super PAC — $2.5 million shortly after the election, and another $1 million after prosecutors softened the case against her father. The White House has stated that the donations had nothing to do with the pardon, a denial The Press records here in full because it is the entire defense.
The banker had been accused of funneling money to a foreign politician in exchange for removing a regulator scrutinizing his bank, then was permitted to plead to a single lesser charge in a deal the presiding judge described as 'a slap on the wrist.' The pardon erased even that. In between, the banker retained lawyers with ties to the president and a lobbying firm that was paid to press his case at the White House, an itinerary The Press's clemency desk notes is not available at the standard clemency office window.
The mercy of the state is, in theory, extended to the deserving and the rehabilitated; in practice, the surest path to it now appears to run through the president's fundraising committee. Watchdog groups have asked whether the daughter was the true source of the money, a question the law also asks, and Congress has introduced a bill to require that pardons disclose any nearby donations — legislation whose necessity is itself the story.
The Press's ledger desk observes that a pardon is an act of grace when one's own president signs it and a receipt when the other party's president does, and that the same seven-figure check is a generous act of citizenship or a down payment on a felony depending only on whose PAC deposited it.
Reaction followed the standing choreography. Supporters saw a president correcting an overzealous prosecution; opponents saw clemency sold by the million. The Press archives confirm both parties own the vocabulary — 'righting an injustice' and 'pardons for sale' — and swap it, notarized, whenever the other side is the one holding the pen.
The $3.5 million, reached for comment, said it had nothing to do with anything, and asked to be introduced to the next case.
📜 The Receipts
What actually happened: President Trump pardoned Julio Herrera Velutini, a foreign banker charged in a bribery scheme (accused of funneling money to Puerto Rico's then-governor to oust a banking regulator) who had pleaded to a lesser charge in a deal a judge called 'a slap on the wrist.' Herrera Velutini's daughter gave $2.5 million to Trump's MAGA Inc. super PAC in December 2024 and $1 million more in July 2025; a Ballard Partners firm was paid to lobby the White House. A White House official said the donations had nothing to do with the pardon; watchdogs and Democrats have called for investigations.