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Trump pardoned three defendants in a Puerto Rico bank-regulator bribery scheme, including banker Herrera Velutini and ex-Gov. Vázquez

On January 16, 2026, President Trump pardoned three co-defendants in a Puerto Rico bank-regulator bribery scheme: Venezuelan-Italian banker Julio Herrera Velutini, former Governor Wanda Vázquez Garced, and former FBI agent Mark Rossini. Prosecutors had alleged that Herrera Velutini arranged roughly $300,000 in support for Vázquez's 2020 reelection campaign in exchange for firing a banking regulator investigating his bank. The pardons wiped out the cases, including Vázquez's guilty plea to reduced campaign-finance charges.

Jurisdiction
Federal
Location
Washington, D.C.

Abuses documented

Actors

On January 16, 2026, President Donald Trump granted pardons to three co-defendants in a federal bribery scheme tied to banking regulation in Puerto Rico: Julio Herrera Velutini, a Venezuelan-Italian banker; Wanda Vázquez Garced, the former governor of Puerto Rico; and Mark Rossini, a former FBI agent who had consulted for Vázquez. All three had been charged in connection with a single conspiracy, and the clemency erased their exposure in the case.

Prosecutors alleged that Herrera Velutini arranged roughly $300,000 in support for Vázquez's 2020 reelection campaign in exchange for her firing a banking regulator who was examining his bank — then under review for about $10 billion in transactions — and installing a replacement of his choosing. As trial approached, the Justice Department narrowed the case, and Vázquez pleaded guilty in August 2025 to reduced misdemeanor campaign-finance charges; the presiding judge called the resulting penalty "a mere slap on the wrist when compared to the sentencing exposure." The pardon nullified even that outcome.

In the period surrounding the clemency, Herrera Velutini's 25-year-old daughter, Isabela Herrera, contributed $3.5 million to the pro-Trump super PAC MAGA Inc. — $2.5 million in December 2024 and $1 million in July 2025 — despite no prior record of significant political giving. A White House official said the donations "had nothing to do with the pardon," and administration officials characterized the original prosecution as politically motivated, noting that it began after Vázquez endorsed Trump.

Updates

2026-02-17 — Watchdog asked FEC to investigate the donations as a straw-donor scheme [5]

The Campaign Legal Center filed a complaint with the Federal Election Commission alleging that Herrera Velutini used his daughter as a conduit to route $3.5 million in prohibited foreign-national and straw-donor contributions to MAGA Inc., in violation of 52 U.S.C. §30121 and §30122, timed around his pursuit of the pardon.

Why we recorded this

Public office holds the pardon power in trust to temper justice, not to protect the president's allies and donors from accountability. Trump used it to erase the cases against three people in a Puerto Rico bank-regulator bribery scheme — among them a foreign banker whose daughter had given $3.5 million to a pro-Trump super PAC in the months around his bid for clemency, and a former governor whose reduced plea a federal judge had called "a mere slap on the wrist." This archive records when clemency is turned toward personal and political favor rather than justice.

Sources

  1. Trump Pardons Venezuelan Banker, Ex-Puerto Rico Governor — Bloomberg Law primary accessed July 10, 2026
  2. Trump's pardon of convicted woman is the second time he's erased her sentence in a criminal case — CNN secondary accessed July 10, 2026
  3. Trump pardons Puerto Rico's former governor Wanda Vázquez — CBS News secondary accessed July 10, 2026
  4. 'Corrupt bargain': Foreign billionaire used illegal 'straw donor' scheme to purchase pardon from Trump, federal complaint says — Law & Crime secondary accessed July 10, 2026
  5. Seeking Pardon, Foreign Billionaire Allegedly Funneled Millions to Trump Super PAC — Campaign Legal Center primary accessed July 10, 2026

See also