By Katelynn Richardson
Fraudsters who stole tens of millions of dollars were given clemency by President Joe Biden on Thursday. So were big-time drug traffickers, crack dealers, and cartel leaders. They are among nearly 1,500 people who received clemency from Biden.
As part of his record-setting clemency grant, Biden announced Thursday he would commute sentences for individuals “who were placed on home confinement during the COVID-19 pandemic and who have successfully reintegrated into their families and communities.” The list of commutations released by the White House includes some high-profile criminals.
One individual, Francesk Shkambi, was initially sentenced in July 2014 to 27 years in prison for leading a criminal organization to “smuggle cocaine and marijuana into the United States from Albania,” according to court records. (RELATED: Hunter Biden Pardon Is Just Another Example Of Biden Admin’s Failure To Bring Promised Transparency To Government)
“Shkambi also negotiated with a foreign source to traffic cocaine from Mexico to Europe,” the records show. “The jury found Shkambi responsible for trafficking 85 kilograms of cocaine, 4 kilograms of heroin, approximately 122 pounds of marijuana, and 4,000 pills of Ecstasy.”
Shkambi was later set to be released in 2029, according to the Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP).
Jose Valdez, whose sentence Biden commuted, “coordinated the distribution of large quantities of cocaine and marijuana for a drug-trafficking organization based in El Paso, Texas, from March of 2015 through July of 2016,” per court records.
Valdez also “recruited numerous individuals to deliver narcotics to cities throughout the United States.” His scheduled release date was previously set for November 2026, according to the BOP.
Biden also commuted Daniel Monsanto Lopez’s sentence, whose request for release to home confinement a court denied in 2020, noting he was “the organizer and leader of a sophisticated, years-long narcotics smuggling and distribution conspiracy that trafficked at least 20 kilograms of cocaine from Puerto Rico to the Bronx.”
“While Mr. Monsanto Lopez’s motion is long on statistics — he emphasizes in support of his motion that COVID-19 has more strongly impacted Hispanic males such as himself — it is short on specifics, and he has failed to demonstrate extraordinary and compelling reasons for his release,” the court held.
David Morrow, who was convicted of “conspiracy to distribute over 50 grams of crack cocaine” and for “maintaining a residence for the purpose of distributing crack cocaine,” also had his sentence commuted by Biden. His expected release date was set for November 2031, per the BOP.
Two of the “most notorious fraudsters” in the Chicago-area — former Dixon, Illinois Comptroller Rita Crundwell and former Sentinel Management Group, Inc. CEO Eric Bloom — also made the list, according to the Chicago Tribune.
Crundwell, who was sentenced in 2013 to nearly 20 years in prison, stole $53.7 million from Dixon over the course of a decade in what many called the largest municipal fraud in U.S. history. Bloom was convicted for defrauding “hundreds of victims” of over $665 million.
“Today, President Biden announced that he is granting clemency to nearly 1,500 Americans – the most ever in a single day,” Biden’s Thursday announcement stated. “The President is commuting the sentences of close to 1,500 individuals who were placed on home confinement during the COVID-19 pandemic.”
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
