A billionaire charged with bribery won a pardon from President Donald Trump after his family handed a lucrative contract to one of the president's loyalists.
Julio Herrera Velutini, a Venezuelan banking heir, received a full pardon early this year after his daughter's company hired Alina Habba, Trump's former personal attorney, under a deal guaranteeing her more than $50 million across four years, The New York Times reported Tuesday. Habba was serving as a senior adviser at the Justice Department when she signed on.
Federal prosecutors charged Herrera in 2022 over an alleged plot to bribe then-Puerto Rico Gov. Wanda Vazquez into firing a regulator who was examining his bank. In August 2025, he pleaded guilty to a lone misdemeanor campaign finance violation, a bargain that left career prosecutors unhappy.
Even that reduced conviction bothered Herrera, according to The Times. He brought in Christopher Kise, a former member of Trump's personal legal team, to press for clemency, and his daughter, Isabela Herrera, gave $3.5 million to a pro-Trump super PAC. By last fall, neither move had delivered a pardon.
Isabela Herrera registered a Florida company called Concord Partners in late October 2025, and Habba locked in her role as its general counsel within days. Her base pay was set at $10 million a year, with bonuses on top. The Times reported the firm "has no public profile and its business remains unclear" even to some people tied to the family's businesses.
Habba officially started on Jan. 1. Within weeks, Trump issued Herrera a full and unconditional pardon. Vazquez and a former FBI agent who had consulted for the banker were pardoned alongside him, just ahead of their sentencing dates. People familiar with Habba's contract told The Times they believed she was hired to help with the pardon effort.
Habba denied any part in the pardon and said the Justice Department knew about and signed off on her outside job. At the time, she held special government employee status, which permits limited federal service alongside private work.
The DOJ said she never discussed a pardon with anyone, and a White House official said she played no role, pointing to a review process run by the White House Counsel's Office and the DOJ. The Herreras did not respond to The Times.