Trump pardons $10.9m tax evading criminal after mom attends Mar-a-Lago fundraiser

U.S. President Donald Trump granted a South Florida-based nursing home executive who admitted to evading taxes a pardon.

Paul Walczak was found guilty of withholding over $10.9 million in taxes by denying his employees crucial payments that would have funded his lavish lifestyle. He received an 18-month prison sentence and was instructed to pay $4.4 million in restitution.

Walczak is the latest in a series of individuals with criminal records to be pardoned by the president, many of whom have pledged their loyalty to the Trump administration.

Now, Walczak is a free man after his socialite mother, Elizabeth Fago, paid $1 million to attend a “candlelight” fundraiser at Mar-a-Lago with the president, The New York Times reports.

The event was put on by a Trump super PAC, MAGA Inc., which can raise unlimited funds for the president.

A White House official justified the pardon to The New York Times by stating that Walczak was “targeted by the Biden administration over his family’s conservative politics.”

Last fall, Walczak applied for a pardon, which was initially unsuccessful despite the president’s history of granting pardons to his supporters, including those involved in the Jan. 6 Capitol riot and other loyalists of the MAGA movement.

In his pardon application, Walczak claimed that his mother had played a significant role in efforts to aid Trump in securing the 2024 presidential election. He also disclosed that she had raised millions for Trump and other Republicans, as well as attempted to leak Joe Biden’s daughter’s diary to the media to sway the election in favor of Trump.

Fago reportedly organized at least three Trump campaign fundraisers and attended VIP events at his 2017 and 2025 inaugurations.

Walczak pleaded guilty last fall to withholding funds from his employees’ paychecks for Social Security, Medicare, and federal income taxes. He allegedly used the extra money to purchase a $2 million yacht and to travel and shop at luxury stores.

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msn.com