On April 23, 2025, Donald Trump pardoned Florida health care company executive Paul Walczak, a man previously convicted and sentenced on charges of over $10 million in tax evasion.
On November 15, 2024, Walczak pleaded guilty to tax evasion in a federal court in Miami, Florida.
According to an official U.S. Department of Justice press release:
From 2016 through 2019, Walczak withheld nearly $7.5 million in taxes from his employees' paychecks but did not pay over those taxes to the IRS as required by law. He did this despite having been penalized by the IRS in 2014 for not paying his employees' taxes. During this same period, Walczak also did not pay $3,480,111 of the business's portion of his employees' Social Security and Medicare taxes.
At the same time Walczak was withholding taxes from his employees' wages and not paying them to the IRS, he used over $1 million from his businesses' bank accounts to purchase a yacht, transferred hundreds of thousands of dollars to his personal bank accounts and used the business accounts for personal spending at retailers such as Bergdorf Goodman, Cartier and Saks Fifth Avenue.
For 2019 through 2020, Walczak did not file personal income tax returns despite being legally required to do so.
In total, Walczak caused a tax loss to the IRS of $10,912,334.80.
On April 11, 2025, Walczak was sentenced.
According to an official U.S. Department of Justice press release:
A Florida man was sentenced today to 18 months in prison, two years of supervised release, and ordered to pay $4,381,265.76 in restitution to the United States for willfully failing to pay over employment taxes and willfully failing to file individual income tax returns.
For more than a decade, Walczak was not compliant with his tax obligations and instead used the withheld taxes to enrich himself. In 2011, Walczak did not pay two quarters of withheld taxes to the IRS. In 2012, the IRS began collection efforts, including by sending him notices about his unpaid taxes, and by meeting with Walczak to help bring him into compliance. When that effort was unsuccessful, the IRS assessed the outstanding taxes against him personally. After that was imposed, Walczak paid the assessments in October 2014. Walczak's compliance did not last long, however. By the end of the following year, Walczak was again withholding taxes from his employees' paychecks and keeping the money.
Source:
(April 23, 2025). "Clemency Grants by President Donald J. Trump (2025-Present)". justice.gov. Retrieved 2025-06-02
(November 15, 2024). "Owner of Florida Healthcare Companies Pleads Guilty to Tax Crimes". justice.gov. Retrieved 2025-06-02
(April 11, 2025). "Owner Of Florida Health Care Companies Sentenced for Employment Tax Crimes". justice.gov. Retrieved 2025-06-02
According to a recent article in The New York Times entitled "Trump Pardoned Tax Cheat After Mother Attended $1 Million Dinner", Walczak submitted his application for a pardon shortly after Trump's 2025 inauguration, but it wasn't until after Walczak's mother, Elizabeth Fago, recently attended a one-million dollar per person fundraising dinner at Mar-a-Lago that the pardon was granted by Trump.
Fago had previously held three fundraisers for the Trump campaign, and had attended VIP events at both the 2017 and 2025 Trump inaugurations.
The pardon application submitted by Walczak claimed he was targeted by the Biden administration because of his family's conservative politics.
The pardon means that Walczak will spend no time in prison, and it means he will not have to pay $4.4 million in restitution.
Source:
O'Connell, Oliver. (May 27, 2025). "Trump pardoned a tax cheat. But only after his mom attended president's $1 million dinner". The Independent. Retrieved 2025-06-03
Read about other recent Trump white collar pardons in a CBS News article entitled "Trump's pardons this term include these convicted fraudsters and supporters".
Commentary:
First, in order to show how conservative media outlets go out of their way to protect Trump, I went to the foxnews.com website and did a search on "trump pardon paul walczak." Only one result came up in the search, and that was for a September 25, 2018 Fox show entitled "Media Buzz." That's it. Nothing else. No news articles about Trump's pardon of Walczak.
I did the same search on several other major conservative websites:
- The Western Journal: no results
- Brietbart: only one result found, for an article about Trump's pardon of Todd and Julie Chrisley (Walczak mentioned in only one sentence in the article)
- One America News: no posts found
- Newsmax: 23 results found, none of which have anything to do with Trump pardons or Walczak
- Right Side Broadcasting Network: no results found
If you think Fox News and conservative media isn't protecting Trump, think again.
It's reasonably clear that Walczak's mother, Elizabeth Fago, influenced Trump's decision to pardon her son. Even if she didn't pay the one-million dollar price tag to attend the Mar-a-Lago event, she obviously is and has been an ardent Trump supporter. That alone would be more than enough to sway Trump.
Walczak pleaded guilty, which is an admission that he committed the crimes. He stole over $10 million from the U.S. government - money paid by U.S. taxpayers (money that should have gone into the U.S. Treasury) - to fund a luxurious lifestyle. As far as white-collar crime is concerned, how much worse can it get?
To pardon a criminal like this is beyond egregious. It undermines the rule of law. It sends a message that under the Trump administration, anyone who breaks the law can claim "political prosecution" and get away with it, scot-free.
This is blatant and inexcusable corruption and abuse of power by a president of the United States, and it is pathetic beyond words.
Glenn Kirschner posted a video on his YouTube channel entitled "Trump's Pardon Of Social Security Thief Puts The Lie To His Claim That He 'Protects Social Security'" where he discusses how Walczak's pardon contradicts three Trump promises:
- To protect Social Security
- Trump's ongoing claim to back "The Blue" (police, law enforcement)
- Appointment of Elon Musk to find fraud in our government
Trump has claimed over and over again that he won't touch Social Security, but $3,480,111 that Walczak stole was Social Security and Medicare money. If you claim to protect something, this is not how you do it.
Kirshcner notes that "The Blue" conducted the investigation and built such a strong case that Walczak had to plead guilty. In other words they did their job, which Trump supposedly supports. According to Kirschner, Trump's pardon "disrespects," "demeans," and mocks "The Blue."
Where was Musk when he was "all in" with DOGE? Why didn't he single out Walczak? Again, the message is if you support Trump, even if you commit a crime, you get a free pass.
ABSOLUTELY PATHETIC!
Source:
Kirschner, Glenn. (May 30, 2025). "Trump's Pardon Of Social Security Thief Puts The Lie To His Claim That He 'Protects Social Security'". YouTube. Retrieved 2025-06-02