Jason Galanis is an American securities fraudster who was sentenced to nearly 16 years in federal prison for orchestrating schemes that stole tens of millions of dollars from a Native American tribal entity, pension fund clients, and public company shareholders. He served roughly half of that sentence before President Donald Trump commuted it on March 28, 2025, an act of clemency that also erased about $80 million in court-ordered restitution owed to his victims.1Tribal Business News. Trump Commutes Sentence of Second Man Convicted in $60M Oglala Sioux Fraud Case Galanis had drawn political attention in the interim by testifying to House committees about his former business partner Hunter Biden.
Before the tribal case, Galanis already had a securities record. In April 2007, he settled SEC charges over a misleading Penthouse International quarterly filing that recorded a $1 million payment as single-quarter revenue, paying a $60,000 penalty and accepting a five-year officer-and-director bar without admitting or denying the allegations.2U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. SEC Litigation Release No. 20110 The SEC later labeled him a “securities fraud recidivist.”3U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. SEC Litigation Release No. 23360
The Wakpamni Tribal Bond Fraud
The centerpiece of Galanis’s criminal conduct was a scheme run between March 2014 and April 2016 against the Wakpamni Lake Community Corporation, a tribal entity of the Oglala Sioux Nation on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota. Galanis and his co-conspirators persuaded the WLCC to issue more than $60 million in municipal bonds, marketed as funding for economic development and backed by annuity investments that would service the interest payments.4U.S. Department of Justice. Seven Defendants Charged in Manhattan Federal Court With Defrauding Native American Tribe
None of the bond proceeds ever reached the designated investment manager. The money was routed through a shell entity, Wealth Assurance Private Client Corporation, and then into accounts Galanis controlled. He spent more than $8.5 million personally on home expenses, jewelry, clothing, travel, and entertainment. Additional funds were recycled to finance later bond offerings, deepening the tribe’s debt without producing capital for development.5U.S. Department of Justice. Jason Galanis Sentenced to More Than 14 Years in Prison The SEC noted that some of the stolen money paid for purchases at Valentino, Prada, and Gucci, and covered criminal defense costs for Galanis and his father.6U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. SEC Charges Seven in Scheme to Defraud Native American Tribe
To create a captive market for the illiquid bonds, Galanis and co-conspirator Jason Sugarman acquired two investment advisory firms, Hughes Capital Management and Atlantic Asset Management, and directed them to buy roughly $40 million of the WLCC paper for client accounts. The purchases violated client investment parameters and were made without disclosure of material risks or conflicts. Because no secondary market existed, the pension and institutional clients holding the bonds could not sell or redeem them.4U.S. Department of Justice. Seven Defendants Charged in Manhattan Federal Court With Defrauding Native American Tribe
Seven defendants were charged in May 2016. Galanis, Michelle Morton, Gary Hirst, and cooperator Hugh Dunkerley pleaded guilty. Galanis’s father John, Bevan Cooney, and Hunter Biden’s business partner Devon Archer were convicted at trial.7CourtListener. United States v. Galanis, 16-CR-371
The Gerova Financial Stock Scheme
Between 2009 and 2011, while barred by the SEC from acting as an officer or director of a public company, Galanis secretly controlled Gerova Financial Group, a Bermuda-based company. Prosecutors said he and his co-conspirators arranged for more than five million unrestricted Gerova shares to be issued to Ymer Shahini, a Kosovo-based nominee, to hide Galanis’s ownership. The group then liquidated the shares for roughly $20 million in illicit profits.8FBI New York Field Office. Manhattan U.S. Attorney Announces Charges Against Seven Individuals
To keep the stock price stable during the sell-off, Galanis bribed investment adviser Gavin Hamels to buy Gerova shares for his own clients’ accounts. Hamels coordinated timing, price, and volume with Galanis’s son Jared and never disclosed the arrangement to the clients whose money he was using.9U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. SEC Litigation Release No. 23664 Galanis pleaded guilty in July 2016 to securities fraud and three related counts.10Bloomberg Law. Galanis Gets 11 Years Plus in $20 Million Gerova Stock Fraud
Sentencing
Galanis was first sentenced in February 2017 to 135 months, or 11 years and three months, for the Gerova scheme, with about $37 million in restitution.11U.S. Department of Justice. Clemency Grants by President Donald J. Trump In August 2017, he received a second sentence of 173 months for the tribal bond fraud, with 60 months running consecutively and roughly $47.8 million in restitution.5U.S. Department of Justice. Jason Galanis Sentenced to More Than 14 Years in Prison
On January 31, 2020, Galanis pleaded guilty to a seven-count superseding information consolidating the Gerova and tribal bond conduct along with a third fraud involving an investment advisory firm. Judge P. Kevin Castel sentenced him on September 24, 2020 to 189 months, close to 16 years, with forfeiture of about $80.9 million and restitution of roughly $80.8 million. Acting U.S. Attorney Audrey Strauss said Galanis and his co-defendants “stole a large portion of the proceeds of tribal bonds that were intended to fund economic development projects.”12U.S. Department of Justice. Jason Galanis Sentenced in Manhattan Federal Court for Multiple Securities Fraud Schemes
The Hunter Biden Connection
Between 2014 and 2015, Galanis was in business with Devon Archer and Hunter Biden. He later told House investigators the partnership was an effort to build a private equity platform around Burnham & Co., a Wall Street firm the group acquired, using what he called “relationship capital” from the Biden family name. Galanis claimed Hunter Biden and Archer received free equity in exchange for Biden’s access to his father, then-Vice President Joe Biden.13House Committee on Oversight and Accountability. Jason Galanis Written Testimony
In a February 23, 2024 transcribed interview and written testimony for a March 20, 2024 hearing titled “Influence Peddling: Examining Joe Biden’s Abuse of Public Office,” Galanis alleged that at a May 2014 gathering in Brooklyn, Hunter Biden put his father on speakerphone to demonstrate proximity to power. He cited a draft email in which Hunter Biden discussed securing a board seat for “a certain relation” at Chinese firm Harvest Fund Management after the vice presidency ended, and said the group’s goal was to “make billions, not millions.”14House Committee on Oversight and Accountability. Jason Galanis Transcribed Interview Hunter Biden denied the claims, and the Republican-led impeachment inquiry against President Biden stalled without formal charges.15Politico. Trump Pardons Jason Galanis
Galanis also told committee investigators that the Justice Department retaliated against him for cooperating. He said Bureau of Prisons staff approved him for CARES Act home confinement on June 9, 2023, and reversed that approval on June 13, one day after the House Oversight Committee announced a subpoena for Devon Archer. He alleged that Southern District of New York prosecutors “aggressively weighed in” to block his release.14House Committee on Oversight and Accountability. Jason Galanis Transcribed Interview In March 2024, House Oversight Chairman James Comer, Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan, and Representative Andy Biggs demanded records of the reversal from BOP Director Colette Peters and a Manhattan assistant U.S. attorney.16House Judiciary Committee. House GOP Probes Alleged DOJ Retaliation Against Impeachment Witness
Trump’s 2025 Commutation
On March 28, 2025, President Trump signed an executive grant of clemency commuting Galanis’s 189-month sentence to time served and relieving him of all remaining fines, restitution, probation, and other conditions. Because the action was a commutation rather than a pardon, his underlying convictions remain on the record.1Tribal Business News. Trump Commutes Sentence of Second Man Convicted in $60M Oglala Sioux Fraud Case Two days earlier, Trump had granted a full pardon to Devon Archer, with the White House saying the “tone and tenor” of Archer’s prosecution had shifted after he cooperated as a witness against the Biden family.17KCRA. Trump Pardons Devon Archer, Biden Business Partner The White House offered no specific rationale for the Galanis commutation.15Politico. Trump Pardons Jason Galanis
The elimination of roughly $80 million in restitution drew sharp criticism from clemency specialists. Former U.S. pardon attorney Liz Oyer called such actions “unprecedented” and said “the victims are the losers,” pointing out that the president was overriding legal requirements meant to repay people who “in some cases, have lost their life savings.” Clemency expert Mark Osler of the University of St. Thomas noted that victims can still bring civil suits, but that doing so is a “lengthy and expensive proposition” and that restitution is normally their preferred path because it does not require hiring private counsel.18ABC News. Trump’s Pardons Shortchanged Fraud Victims Millions of Dollars in Restitution
What the Commutation Left Behind
In a victim impact statement filed before Galanis’s 2020 sentencing, the Wakpamni Lake Community Corporation described what the fraud left on the ground: four half-finished buildings on the prairie, intended for a community center, a language and tutoring center, a warehouse, and retail space including a bakery and laundromat. The community, which the WLCC said sits with roughly 80% unemployment and no tax base, asked for $507,740 in restitution simply to pay local tribal construction workers and finish the buildings. The statement called Galanis the “mastermind behind this great deception” and said the fraud had created a “chilling effect on all investments in Indian Country,” leaving the WLCC named in civil lawsuits it could not afford to defend.19Indianz.com. WLCC Victim Impact Statement
With the commutation, the court-ordered mechanism for recovering any of that money from Galanis is gone. The WLCC still holds the outstanding bond obligations and the unfinished buildings, and now has no restitution to collect from the man a federal court found responsible.20Lakota Times. $60M OST Fraud Case Felons Released