President Joe Biden's list of last-minute pardons and commutations is more interesting than what it says.
A list on the White House website details more than 30 people he has pardoned, but is silent about the remaining approximately 1,500 people whose sentences he has commuted.
There's a reason for that.
The sentence reductions also include reductions for criminals who have committed more serious crimes, such as fraudsters, drug dealers, and major health care fraudsters who have stolen millions of dollars. Or, as the Washington Free Beacon reported, “drug lords, pyramid scheme masterminds and corrupt officials.”
active in church
In fact, the 39 people Biden pardoned and detailed look like people worthy of a Hallmark movie. All had committed “non-violent” or “non-violent drug” crimes, but had since completely reformed their lives. Some are veterans who have served overseas.
And many people actively participate, serve, contribute, and volunteer in their churches and church activities.
They have earned master's degrees and doctoral degrees, and some have become educators. Otherwise they are clearly good people who would make good neighbors and perhaps companions on a Caribbean cruise.
Example: Russell Thomas Portner of Toutle, Washington. The 74-year-old pleaded guilty to a non-violent drug offense. He served in the U.S. Army during the Vietnam War. A Bronze Star recipient, he married, raised four children, ran a successful business, and built a reputation for generous philanthropy and community service. He is currently a member of several veterans organizations. Neighbors, business associates and friends describe him as a reliable, loyal and respected businessman. ”
Another veteran is James Edgar Yarbrough, 79, also a nonviolent offender. He was honorably discharged from the Air Force as a captain and earned more than a dozen decorations, including the Purple Heart. “Since his conviction, he has worked for a shipping company for nearly 30 years,” WhiteHouse.gov states. “Now retired, he spends much of his time volunteering and being active in his church. Mr. Yarbrough's business acquaintances, neighbors, church members, and friends all have a consistently high level of respect for Mr. Yarbrough. and comment on his impressive civic work, great character, and generosity.”
Few would oppose these pardons.
Killed drug trafficker, now free
But Biden also commuted the sentences of 1,499 convicts who were “successfully reintegrated into their families and communities after being confined to their homes during the COVID-19 pandemic,” according to a White House report. It is said that
Again, some of them are “drug lords, pyramid scheme masterminds and corrupt officials,” the Washington Free Beacon revealed. “Many of the recipients were serving sentences for serious crimes.”
One is Mr. Daniel Fillelup.
In 2019, Fillerup, then 33, was sentenced to 10 years in prison for selling fentanyl that killed a woman, the Justice Department reported at the time.
“On September 29, 2016,” Fillerup confessed, “via text message and phone call, he arranged to provide Kate Centofanti with two bags of heroin,” the Justice Department said.
Mr. Fillerup met with Mr. Centofanti in Schenectady, New York, where Mr. Centofanti gave Mr. Fillerup $36. He obtained bags believed to contain heroin and gave two of them to Centofanti. Centofanti ingested a substance called fentanyl given to him by Fillerup. The ingestion of fentanyl caused Mr. Centofanti's death from fentanyl poisoning.
Medical Scammers Now Free
Another person whose sentence was commuted by Biden is Shelinder Agarwal, a “pharmaceutical” doctor and health care fraudster.
In 2017, a federal judge sentenced him to 15 years in prison for illegally prescribing opioid painkillers. He was “at its peak the nation's top Medicare prescriber of opioid painkillers.” Additionally, he defrauded Medicare and Blue Cross Blue Shield of Alabama out of $9.5 million through “unnecessary and unused urine tests,” the Justice Department explained. And he “directly contributed to the opioid epidemic plaguing our nation.”
“Alabama pharmacies filled approximately 110,013 controlled substance prescriptions for Agarwal in 2012.” federal prosecutors have proven.
Continuing from the Ministry of Justice:
Mr. Agarwal had the most prescriptions for Schedule II controlled substances under Medicare in the United States in 2012, according to Medicare data. Schedule II substances include the opioid painkillers oxycodone, oxymorphone, hydromorphone, and morphine.
But wait, there's more
But these may not be the worst of the stars in Biden's hit parade, the Free Beacon found:
Rita Crundwell was the city's auditor and treasurer for the city of Dixon, Illinois, when she embezzled more than $53 million from the city in what the Department of Justice described as “the largest theft of public funds in state history.'' “did. In 2013, she was sentenced to 19 years in prison. How many years in prison? She was out of prison when Biden commuted his sentence.
In 2017, drug lord Wendy Hechtman completed a 15-year prison sentence. She and her husband “manufactured and distributed carfentanil, which the CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) says is 'the most potent fentanyl analog detected in the United States.'”
Another particularly dangerous felon whose sentence was commuted by Biden is Meera Sachdeva. In 2012, she was sentenced to 20 years in prison for “defrauding Medicare by providing diluted chemotherapy drugs and old needles to cancer patients.” One of the patients at Sachdeva's clinic claimed that he contracted HIV from an old needle. ”
Joseph Shereszewski was sentenced to 22 years in prison in 2011 for targeting Orthodox Jews in a $255 million real estate pyramid scheme.
“Paul Birx, who was sentenced in 2017 to more than 14 years in prison for running a $900 million Internet Ponzi scheme, is now free,” the website continued. “So is Eric Bloom, who was sentenced to 14 years in prison for defrauding the customers of a financial company out of more than $665 million.”
It's unclear when Biden will pardon nonviolent defendants jailed for participating in the mostly peaceful protests at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.
