A 66-year-old retired engineer, 72-year-old Donald Trump supporter and a 76-year-old retired school teacher are just some of the 17,000 people who lost significant sums of cash to a nearly $2 billion scam run by David Gentile, who served only 13 days of his seven-year sentence.
The president announced this month was commuting the sentence of Gentile, the former CEO and owner of GPB Capital Holdings, stopping the sentence and the fines and paybacks to victims, the New York Times reported.
Gentile was charged in 2021 for a scheme the Securities and Exchange Commission described as Ponzi-like. the fund raised over $1.7 billion in investments and used the investors' own funds to pay out monthly payments instead of putting them into actual investments. The investors were told they would get an 8 percent monthly distribution from their profits.
Unlike victims of schemes by Bernie Madoff, Gentile's victims may not ever get their money back. In the case of Madoff, his victims were able to recoup much of their money.
“At least there was some justice in those cases. That’s not something my people are going to get," said Joseph Peiffer, a lawyer for some of the victims when speaking to the Times.
Jeff Lipman, a supporter of President Donald Trump who lives in Boca Raton, Fla. put $750,000 into the fund. He told the Times he's owed about $300,000 by Gentile.
Lipman, a retired dentist, said he cannot understand why Trump would give Gentile clemency.
“I’m a Trump supporter, and this was bad, bad, bad,” Lipman said. “To have this guy finally go to jail deservedly and for Trump let him out, there can be no excuse for this.”
Not everyone invested as much as Lipman, however.
Lou DeLuca, a teacher from Brooklyn invested $100,000 with his wife into the fund. For a while he saw payments coming out, but in 2018 they stopped.
“Over all that time, our investments are growing,” Mr. DeLuca said. “But not this one.”
The Wall Street Journal reported that there was about $400 million paid to the scammed investors after the liquidation of assets under a court-appointed receiver. However, that was through a civil case, not the Justice Department's criminal case.
Gentile was told to pay back $15.5 million from the forfeiture, but that appears to be off the table after Trump stepped in, Politico reported earlier this month.
“I’m a senior citizen. I need that money. It’s not like I’m a jet setter or a wealthy person," said ” said 66-year-old retired engineer Catherine Kominos. She had $50,000 in investments with Gentile's firm.
Read the full report here.
