The year 2025 witnessed a stark and controversial shift in America's approach to financial crime, as the administration of Donald Trump systematically dismantled consequences for white-collar offenders. This trend, marked by a series of high-profile pardons and the abandonment of major corporate prosecutions, has sparked warnings of a new era where economic stability is sacrificed for political gain.
The Pardon President: A Lifeline for Financial Criminals
Central to this shift has been Trump's unprecedented use of presidential clemency. Where predecessors used the power sparingly, Trump has wielded it promiscuously, often for individuals convicted of crimes that directly contradict his administration's stated policy goals.
The most emblematic case is that of Changpeng Zhao, the founder of the cryptocurrency giant Binance. In 2024, Zhao pleaded guilty to money laundering charges, while Binance agreed to pay a record $4.3bn penalty for facilitating terrorist financing. US prosecutors had detailed how groups including Islamic State, al-Qaida, and Hamas used the platform to move funds. Despite this, in late October 2025, Trump pardoned Zhao, with the White House dismissing the crimes as having produced no "identifiable victims."
This pattern repeated with Juan Orlando Hernández, the former Honduran president convicted in 2024 of conspiring to import roughly 400 tonnes of cocaine into the United States. After lobbying Trump allies, Hernández was freed in December 2025, with Trump claiming he had been treated unfairly—a move that undermined the administration's own anti-narcotics rhetoric.
The pardons extended deep into domestic fraud and political corruption. Charles Scott, a businessman convicted of stock manipulation, was freed. Reality TV stars Julie and Todd Chrisley, jailed for tax evasion, were pardoned. David Gentile, who defrauded 10,000 investors of $1.6bn, had his sentence commuted days into his prison term.
In the political sphere, Trump pardoned figures like former congressman Henry Cuellar, the first US Congress member formally accused of acting as a foreign agent for Azerbaijan, and former Arkansas state legislator Jeremy Hutchinson, convicted of bribery. The message was clear: loyalty to Trump now offers a shield from accountability.
Gutting Corporate Enforcement and the Crypto Carousel
Beyond pardons, the Trump administration has actively thwarted investigations and prosecutions of corporate malfeasance. The nonprofit Public Citizen reports that out of 480 corporations targeted in prior enforcement actions, the administration has paused or scuttled approximately one third.
A prime example is Boeing. After deadly crashes linked to systemic negligence, the Department of Justice launched a felony case. Boeing initially agreed to plead guilty and pay nearly $700m in fines. Following a $1m donation to Trump's inauguration fund, the prosecution was dropped—a decision victim lawyers called "unprecedented" for the deadliest corporate crime in US history.
No sector better illustrates this corrupt dynamic than cryptocurrency. Major players like Crypto.com and Coinbase saw investigations shelved. The case of Binance and Zhao is particularly revealing. Months before Zhao's pardon, Binance helped Trump's personal crypto firm, World Liberty Financial, craft a stablecoin. A UAE-controlled firm then used that coin to bankroll a $2bn investment back into Binance, generating millions for the Trump family and culminating in Zhao's pardon.
Why Enable Economic Destabilisation?
Analysts point to a confluence of motives driving this agenda. Part is personal grievance, with Trump viewing himself as a victim of financial crime investigations. Part is raw power accumulation, ensuring support from a cadre of indebted allies who would back him in a potential constitutional crisis. A significant part is ideological, a deliberate dismantling of the so-called "administrative state."
Key regulatory bodies have been neutered. The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and Federal Trade Commission (FTC) have lost independence. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is starved. The Environmental Protection Agency has rolled back critical pollution limits. The Foreign Corrupt Practices Act is being weakened, and a new shell company registry to combat dirty money is effectively dead.
The end result is an incentivisation of crime. When rules are not enforced, compliance becomes a liability. This race to the bottom, experts warn, sets the stage for future calamities—be it ecological catastrophe, a repeat of the Great Recession, or terrorist attacks financed through newly lax systems. The notion of "victimless" white-collar crime is exposed as a dangerous fallacy; the victims, in the end, will be the broader public and the stability of the American economy itself.
