Philip EsformesSentenced to 20 years in prison for $1.3 billion Medicare fraud scheme. commuting In 2020 by then-Pres Donald Trumpwas arrested over the weekend in Florida on domestic violence charges.
Esformes is at least the seventh person to receive a pardon from Trump and has since been charged with new crimes. The New York Timeswho first reported this latest arrest.
In August, he named a drug dealer and predatory lender in New York Jonathan BrownTrump, whose 10-year prison term was changed in 2021, was accused of attacking his father-in-law and his wife in separate incidents.
Esformes was arrested Saturday and later charged with felony tampering with a victim or witness and misdemeanor criminal damage to property, court records show.
He was booked into the Miami-Dade County Jail on Sunday, his 56th birthday.
Esformes was released Monday after posting two separate $1,650 bonds, according to a jail spokeswoman.
A lawyer for Esformes did not immediately comment on the arrest.
CNBC reached out to a spokesperson for Trump’s presidential campaign for comment.
CNBC also sought comment from an attorney for Esformes’ ex-wife, Sherri Beth Esformes, from whom his divorce was finalized in July 2020.
Sherri Beth Esformes filed a petition in her ex-husband’s federal health care fraud case in August, claiming a 50% ownership interest in several companies and properties that could be forfeited by Philip Esformes to settle a $38.7 million forfeiture judgment in that case.
Sherri Beth’s attorney wrote that her legal right to the properties trumped the US government’s interest in the assets, invalidating the forfeiture order.
By not listing Sherri Beth as the record owner of the properties, her ex-husband “acquired these properties in breach of trust and by fraudulent or unlawful means,” the petition states.
On Tuesday, a Miami federal court judge set a Nov. 4 date for Philip Esformes to respond to his ex-wife’s petition.
Florida nursing home owner Philip Esformes was indicted in 2019 on 20 felony counts in what the Justice Department said at the time was the largest health care fraud scheme ever prosecuted by the department.
The DOJ said Esformes and co-conspirators funneled thousands of Medicare and Medicaid patients through a network of nursing and assisted living facilities for more than two decades, even though they did not deserve such care.
Trump commuted Esformes’ prison sentence in late 2020, leading to his immediate release.
White House, in announces switchinghe said at the time, “This replacement is supported by former Attorneys General Edwin Meese and Michael Mukasey, as well as former Deputy Attorney General Larry Thompson.”
“Furthermore, former Attorneys General Edwin Mees, John Ashcroft and Alberto Gonzalez, as well as other prominent legal figures such as Ken Starr, supported the appeal challenging the attorney’s conviction on the basis of prosecutorial misconduct. customer privilege.”
“While in prison, Mr. Esformes, 52, is devoted to prayer and penance, and his health is deteriorating,” the White House added.
But the DOJ later moved to retry Esforms on six felony charges on which jurors deadlocked in the first trial.
Esformes fought those efforts for several years, but agreed to plead guilty this past February to one count of conspiracy to commit health care fraud. He was sentenced to prison.
In September, the New York Times detailed how six more convicted felonsIncluding Brown, he was arrested after receiving a pardon from Trump. Executive clemency can be a pardon that overturns a person’s federal criminal conviction or a commutation that ends any jail or prison sentence.
Among the pardons detailed in the article are former White House adviser Steve Bannon, rapper Kodak Black, investment fraudster Eliyahu Weinstein, robber Jamie Davidson and counterfeit energy drink fraudster Adriana Camberos.