đź’¸ Pardoned financiers ranked: Trevor Milton's $680M ask is No. 1

Prosecutors sought $680M restitution from Trevor Milton; his pardon ended it. He says he did nothing wrong. 🗣️

By , money desk · Desk editor Laima Ērkšķe-Kreicberga · · 4 min read

Changpeng ZhaoRANKEDPhoto: Aevozer · CC BY-SA 4.0

Photo: Aevozer, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons. Desaturated and cropped by MrScandal.

What we know

  • Two weeks before Trump pardoned Trevor Milton in March 2025, prosecutors urged $680 million in restitution; CNBC reported the judge now cannot order any.
  • A federal jury convicted Milton in 2022; the Justice Department says he was sentenced in December 2023 to four years and a $1 million fine.
  • Bill Clinton pardoned Marc Rich on Jan. 20, 2001; the New York Times says Rich paid about $200 million in civil penalties and never returned to the US.
  • Trump pardoned Venezuelan banker Julio Herrera Velutini on Jan. 15, 2026, after his August 2025 plea to a misdemeanor, the New York Post reports.
  • Alina Habba Mildon has said any suggestion that her employment was tied to the pardon is false.

Alina Habba Mildon has lost a $50 million contract with Concord Partners, a Florida company established by the daughter of pardoned Venezuelan banker Julio Herrera Velutini, the New York Post reported on Nov. 11, citing a Nov. 4 letter obtained by the New York Times. The company cited a “failure to perform duties”. Habba Mildon declined to comment to the Times and has previously called any link between her employment and the pardon “false”.

That story has its own page. This one is the receipts on what a pardon does to the money: the sentences wiped, the restitution that stopped, the fines already paid. The ranking runs by the largest dollar figure on record, and each item says whether the money was ordered, sought or merely contracted.

The ranking

01

Trevor Milton: $680M in restitution sought, then gone

A federal jury in New York convicted Trevor Milton in October 2022 of one count of securities fraud and two of wire fraud, and Judge Edgardo Ramos sentenced him in December 2023 to four years and a $1 million fine, the Justice Department said. Two weeks before the March 2025 pardon, prosecutors urged Ramos to order $680 million in restitution to Nikola shareholders plus $15.2 million to one wire-fraud victim, CNBC reported; with the pardon, Ramos cannot order restitution of any kind. AP, citing Federal Election Commission records, reported that Milton and his wife gave more than $1.8 million to a Trump re-election fund less than a month before the November election. Milton maintains he did nothing wrong, and Trump said Milton “did nothing wrong” and was prosecuted for backing him.

See the receipt (opens in a new tab)

By the numbers

  • 18 yrsfrom first to latest entry on record1983 to Jan 2001, 2 dated entries in the file
  • 12receipts behind this story9 news reports, 2 statements, 1 regulator record, 2001 to 2026

Counted by MrScandal from the receipts, the Files and our rankings.

02

Marc Rich: about $200M paid, no sentence ever served

Marc Rich was indicted in 1983 on 65 counts including tax fraud and trading with Iran during the hostage crisis, and the government accused him of avoiding $48 million in US taxes, the New York Times obituary says. The Times says he paid about $200 million in civil penalties; AP reported that his companies pleaded guilty in his absence and paid fines of about $130 million. Rich fled to Switzerland and never returned to the United States; Clinton pardoned him on Jan. 20, 2001, his last day in office, and Reuters reported that Rich always insisted he did nothing illegal. Clinton later called the pardon “terrible politics” and denied wrongdoing.

See the receipt (opens in a new tab)
03

BitMEX founders: a $100M corporate fine, probation for three

AP reported in March 2025 that the White House said Trump pardoned BitMEX founders Arthur Hayes, Benjamin Delo and Samuel Reed. The three pleaded guilty in 2022 to violating the Bank Secrecy Act and were sentenced to probation, so there was no prison time to wipe. BitMEX itself was ordered earlier in 2025 to pay a $100 million fine after prosecutors said it “willfully flouted U.S. anti-money laundering laws to boost revenue”; AP does not say the pardons touched that fine.

See the receipt (opens in a new tab)
04

Julio Herrera Velutini: a misdemeanor plea, a pardon and a $50M contract

Julio Herrera Velutini faced federal bribery charges over an alleged scheme involving Puerto Rico’s governor, then pleaded guilty in August 2025 to a misdemeanor campaign finance violation, the New York Post reported. Trump granted him a full and unconditional pardon on Jan. 15, 2026, two weeks after Habba Mildon began working for the family-backed Concord Partners under a deal guaranteeing her more than $50 million over four years. Habba Mildon denies any wrongdoing; the Post reports she kept an $8 million signing bonus and $6.5 million in other payments already received. This is contract money, not court-ordered money, so it ranks below the court figures.

See the receipt (opens in a new tab)
05

Carlos Watson: a nearly 10-year sentence, commuted before he reported

AP reported that Trump commuted the sentence of Ozy Media co-founder Carlos Watson in March 2025, just before he was due to report to prison for a nearly 10-year sentence in a financial conspiracy case. The documents read for this piece give no dollar figure for the case, so he sits last in a list ranked by money.

See the receipt (opens in a new tab)

The precedent: Clinton’s last day

Clinton wrote in the New York Times in February 2001 that on Jan. 20 he granted 140 pardons and issued 36 commutations, and that the Rich and Pincus Green pardons drew the most criticism. Three former aides told a House committee that nearly all the staff advising him urged him not to pardon Rich, ABC News reported, and each answered “No” when asked about a quid pro quo. AP reported that federal authorities investigated and found no evidence of wrongdoing, and NPR reported the federal investigation closed in 2005 without charges.

"I don’t think there is any doubt that some of the factors in his pardon were attributable to his large gifts. In my opinion, that was disgraceful."

Jimmy Carter, in a speech reported by the Los Angeles Times, Feb. 21, 2001

One more line of the timeline: the SEC filed a joint stipulation on Sept. 11, 2025 to dismiss with prejudice its civil enforcement action against Milton, saying the decision was in the exercise of its discretion. Nikola, the company, paid $125 million in 2021 to settle a separate SEC case without admitting wrongdoing, AP reported. MissFortune’s reading: the pardons ended the bill for the men, not for the shareholders, and you can see where the numbers stop.

Earlier on file: Trevor Milton pardoned after 4-year Nikola fraud sentence

The Marc Rich file

Last entry Jan 20, 2001
  1. Reported

    President Bill Clinton pardoned Marc Rich on his last day in office, per the New York Times and AP. This story

  2. Filed

    Federal prosecutors indicted Marc Rich on 65 counts including tax fraud and trading with Iran, the New York Times reports. This story

On file: The Marc Rich file · The Trevor Milton file

The Ledger

On the record

  • Milton was convicted, sentenced to four years and a $1M fine, then pardoned in March 2025; the court can no longer order the $680M and $15.2M in restitution prosecutors urged.
  • Rich was indicted on 65 counts, pardoned on Jan. 20, 2001 and never returned to the US; Herrera Velutini pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor and was pardoned on Jan. 15, 2026.

Still rumour

  • Any link between donations, fees or lobbying and a pardon: Clinton denied one for Rich and Habba Mildon denies one for Herrera Velutini; none is established in the documents read.
  • Changpeng Zhao’s pardon and Binance’s penalty are not covered in the documents read, so he is not ranked.

That's the record. The rest is rumour. - MissFortune

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