President Donald Trump has commuted the prison sentence of David Gentile, a private equity executive convicted of defrauding investors in a $1.6bn scheme. Gentile, 59, served less than two weeks of his seven-year sentence before his release. He and co-defendant Jeffry Schneider were found guilty of securities and wire fraud in August 2024. Schneider received a six-year sentence, but he has not been granted clemency. A White House official defended Gentile, saying that prosecutors mischaracterized the business as a Ponzi scheme.