Over the past month, President Trump has been pardoning white collar criminals.

But in what may be a first, President Trump has pardoned a corporate criminal.

Earlier this year, BitMEX was fined $100 million for violating the Bank Secrecy Act by willfully failing to establish, implement, and maintain an adequate anti-money laundering and know-your-customer program. 

While the mainstream press reported that Trump pardoned the three founders of crypto exchange BitMEX and another executive, they didn’t report the historic first – Trump pardoned the corporation – BitMEX.

“When I look at the pardon of BitMEX, I see an opening for an opportunity for a lobbying frenzy for pardons for corporate criminals,” Claypool told Corporate Crime Reporter in an interview last week. “There is a new reward for them on the table. They can have their criminal records totally wiped out.” 

It’s interesting that no administration thought of pardoning a corporation before. It seemed off limits that you could pardon a corporation.

Have you ever thought that the government would pardon a corporate criminal?

“I had not. It had not occurred to me. But then when the early news stories came out, I saw that the four executives from BitMEX were pardoned. And I thought – what about the company? The initial reports said – executives pardoned. They didn’t say anything about the company itself.”

“Then some of the more legal focused news outlets over the weekend started reporting that the corporation itself had been pardoned. I said – I don’t think that has ever happened before. If it had happened before, I felt like I would have known about it.”

Have the major news outlets like the New York Times or Washington Post or the Wall Street Journal, CNBC, reported on the corporate pardon?

“I don’t think they did report on it,” Claypool said. “But on the effects of a corporate pardon, it sends a signal about the cases the Justice Department now may or may not pursue – the cases the remaining prosecutors might or might not bring.”

In a report Public Citizen released last month – Corporate Clemency: How Trump Is Halting Enforcement Against Corporate Lawbreakers – Claypool finds that “the Trump administration has dropped or halted more than one out of five prominent investigations into and enforcement actions against corporations in just its first six weeks in office.” 

Whole categories of corporate crime enforcement have come screeching to a halt just weeks into President Donald Trump’s second term, the report found.

“Trump is handing out ‘get out of jail free’ cards to corporate lawbreakers,” the report found. “The consequences for the public when corporations face a diminished threat of enforcement are disastrous. Meanwhile, honest businesses that are not Trump administration insiders – or that refuse to play along with the ultra-MAGA ideological agenda – may face serious disadvantages from Trump’s politicized approach to enforcement.”

The Trump administration has already halted or moved to dismiss enforcement investigations and cases against more than 100 corporations, Claypool said. 

This includes:

All 42 cases at the U.S. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau;

At least 20 investigations and cases under the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act;

At least 15 cases brought by the Civil Rights and Environment and Natural Resource divisions at the U.S. Department of Justice;

At least six Equal Employment Opportunity Commission cases defending transgender and gender non-conforming workers from workplace abuse and discrimination; 

At least seven cases at the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission against cryptocurrency corporations.

At least 34 corporations facing enforcement actions collectively contributed more than $34 million to Trump’s inaugural festivities. 

These 34 corporations are facing a total of 60 separate federal investigations and lawsuits. The corporations facing the greatest number of investigations and cases are Tesla (eight), Amazon (seven), Pfizer (five), Wells Fargo (four), SpaceX (four), and UnitedHealthcare (four), the report found.

“We are tracking law enforcement prominent cases against corporations that are at risk, cases that were active at the end of the Biden administration to see how they fare under the Trump administration,” Claypool said.

“Our latest report finds that more than 100 cases and investigations against corporate misconduct have been halted or dropped by the Trump administration.”

You have put up what you call a Corporate Enforcement Tracker. How many cases are in that database?

“Right now, there are a little over 500 cases against about 430 corporations. About a fifth of those represent cases that have been dropped or halted.”

How did you identify the 500 cases under investigation?

“The government will sometimes say they are investigating a company. Or the company will disclose that they are under investigation in their SEC filings. And sometimes it comes to light from reporting. This is not a comprehensive database. There are investigations that are not disclosed to the public.”

Is the Trump administration publicly announcing that they are closing down these cases?

“In some cases, yes. In high profile cases, cases where they want to send a signal, yes they will announce it. There was an investigation into a cancer alley chemical plant in Louisiana. This was part of the Biden administration’s environmental justice initiative. The administration put out a press release saying they are closing the case, citing their efforts to combat ‘unfair DEI’ policies.”

“Crypto currency companies are making a big deal out of the cases against them being dropped. A number of high profile investigations, primarily by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) have been closed down. Companies that were facing those investigations are posting about it online, saying it’s a great victory for the crypto industry.“

“In one of the last remaining crypto investigations, the CEO wrote an op-ed in a Florida newspaper saying – we’re one of the last ones left, we want to be next, please drop our case.”

In early February 2025, the White House put out a press release titled – Pausing Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) Enforcement to further American Economic and National Security. I guess that means that all of the FCPA cases were put on hold. How did you handle those cases?

“Those are considered halted cases. And halting the investigations is the first step to dropping them entirely.”

What part of the 100 cases are FCPA halted cases?

“I would say around 20 to 25 cases. One of those has been stopped entirely.” 

Public Citizen was critical of the Biden administration for its weak corporate crime enforcement. How is this different?

“Corporate crime enforcement is going to plunge even further from the unsatisfactory low under Biden. It’s true that under Biden, the Securities and Exchange Commission, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and the Federal Trade Commission were very active and had strong enforcement programs.” 

“But enforcing corporate crime cases, not so much.”

[For the complete q/a format Interview with Rick Claypool, see 39 Corporate Crime Reporter 15(14), April 14, 2025, print edition only.]