President Donald Trump pardoned a tax cheat after his mother attended a Mar-a-Lago dinner that cost her $1 million to attend, a report by The New York Times revealed.
Florida healthcare executive Paul Walczak, who admitted to stealing money earmarked for his employees’ taxes to fund an extravagant lifestyle, received a full and unconditional pardon from Trump on April 25.
His release from prison came three weeks after his Republican donor mother, Elizabeth Fago, attended a $1 million-per-head fundraising dinner, which promised face-to-face access to Trump at his South Florida club.
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The pardon spared Walczak from prison time, as he had yet to report to his 18-month sentence. It also meant he would not have to pay nearly $4.4 million in restitution.
The timing of the fundraiser and pardon raises questions about how the president uses his clemency powers to reward allies.
Walczak was not compliant with his tax obligations and instead used the withheld taxes to enrich himself for more than a decade, according to the Justice Department.
From 2016 through 2019, he withheld more than $7 million of taxes from employees’ paychecks without paying the taxes to the IRS.
During that time, he used more than $1 million from business bank accounts to buy a yacht. He also put hundreds of thousands into his personal bank accounts and used business accounts for extravagant purchases at Bergdorf Goodman, Cartier, and Saks.
In total, the IRS lost out on more than $10 million in revenue because of Walczak.
Walczak’s pardon application, according to The New York Times, argued his prosecution was motivated more by his mother’s efforts for Trump rather than his admitting to using the money for a swanky lifestyle.
Weeks went by, and no pardon was issued even as the president granted clemency for others.
But then, three weeks after Fago attended the Mar-a-Lago event, Walczak received a full and unconditional pardon.
