The Unforgivable Pardon When Justice Gets Traded Away

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This episode unleashes a blistering reaction to one of the most disturbing pardons in recent memory—an act that wiped away prison time, fines, and restitution for a convicted Ponzi schemer who devastated retirees, families, cancer patients, and lifelong savers. After 25 years of exposing Wall Street fraud, Chris confronts the heartbreak of watching a president he once supported let a major financial criminal walk free. He reads the voices of the victims, challenges partisan blinders, and asks: if you can’t criticize your own side when it betrays the innocent, what good are your principles?

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
The Watchdog on Wall Street podcast explaining the news coming
out of the complex worlds of finance, economics, and politics
and the impact it we'll have on everyday Americans. Author,
investment banker, consumer advocate, analyst, and trader Chris Markowski.

Speaker 2 (00:16):
Absolutely disgusting, disgusting. Pardon, I'm not going to get into
the thousands of pardons that the president is issuing right now.
I got a quick story for you. I appear on
a lot of guest appearances on radio shows TV. You
know that one of them is very much a MAGA program,

(00:38):
and we were on the topic was last week about
these pardons, and I ripped in to Donald Trump. I
ripped into what he was doing and who he was pardoning.
And the host told me, all these people are complaining
and saying, I sound like I'm on CNN, I sound
like MSNBC. How dare I go after the president like that?

(01:01):
And I'm saying, I'm thinking to myself, if Caitlin Collins
from CNN were to report that two plus two equals four,
would you disagree with that statement? Because she's on CNN.
I reported on this, and I'm gonna I'm gonna put

(01:26):
your I'm gonna give you my position. Okay, nobody. There
hasn't been anybody in the entire country that has covered
Wall Street fraud scams, whether they be from the boiler
room operators or the big firms like we have ever Okay,
the closest to me, I would have to say is

(01:48):
Matt Tybee and Michael Lewis. Now, both of them are
a thousand times more talented than I am when it
comes to writing, without a doubt. Okay, Michael Lewis books,
He's written movies that he's I mean, he's unbelievable. But
to the extent no one's covered it more than I have.

(02:09):
I do it on a regular basis. Tybee had some
great stuff back in the day, going after Goldman Sachs.
He had the great line. He called it the giant
vampire squid with its tentacles around the world. It was
just brilliant. I mean, much much better than I am.
Very talented guys, but I've been a watchdog on Wall

(02:30):
Street for twenty five years. Twenty five years. I've had
this show going after the conners. I say it taking
the liars to crooks, the cheats out behind the woodshed
and giving them a beatdown. How do you think it
makes me feel? Okay to all you people upset that

(02:50):
I'm reporting the truth? How do you think it makes
me feel that the guy I voted for, the guy
I voted for, commuted a sentence, this David Genteel from
Long Island after what a couple days in prison? This
is a what billion and a half dollar Ponzi scheme?

(03:15):
And I just found out that Donald Trump also in
his commutation, wiped away all all fines and restitution, so
this guy gets to keep all of his ill gotten gains.
That's okay with you. I'm going to read to you

(03:36):
people that obviously are a little bit lost. I'm gonna
read to you from some of the people that were defrauded.
I lost my whole life savings. It was my intention
to take the money out, which I was not allowed
to do. In the end, the money was to pay
for necessary repairs at my home and other bills, including
medical bills. I was forced to take out a home
equity loan on my home at ten percent, and he

(03:59):
helped that can be given both in monetary measures and
also through expediting. The payout would be appreciated. As I
am living check to check the loss of retirements. Another one.
The loss of retirement income has made a significant impact
on our daily lives. Our inability to meet our housing
expenses necessitated in us taking on credit card debt to
maintain our home, in which we provide housing for our

(04:21):
handicapped sun. You can imagine the anxiety this has caused
us in providing for his and our needs. We now
over one hundred thousand dollars in credit card debt, in
addition to the interests we have incrued to allow us
to maintain our mortgage and remain in our house. At
the time of this investment, we had no credit card debt.
As elderly senior citizens at the age of eighty two

(04:42):
and seventy six, our ability to find additional income is
extremely limited. We are now at a point of looking
at our belongings to sell to allow us to stay
in our home. The emotional stress of this has taken
a fiscal and mental toll on our financials ability to function.
We felt we planned well for our retirement yields and

(05:02):
feel we feel robbed by the actions of this crime.
Another one. Since the fraud, we have lost well over
half our family's net worth. Large portion of our income
at seventy four, I've been unable to retire. Now my
wife has contracted cancer and has ongoing treatment, and our daughter,
who has cerebral palsy, has to ensure the insuring. Stress

(05:26):
from all of that.

Speaker 1 (05:29):
Another one.

Speaker 2 (05:30):
I was initially aware of the fraud when my father
passed away in June, and in the course of arranging
his affairs and transition of a state to my stepmother,
realized that their investments were illiquid and tied up in
the fraud perpetrated by Genteel, Schneider and Lash. I need
to access the assets to pay for my stepmother's care.
She's now ninety one and has advanced dementia and lives

(05:53):
in an assisted living facility with twenty four hour care.
That care is very expensive. In the money my parents
so carefully saved over their lives was meant to help
ensure they were comfortable and cared for the lack of
access and seeming loss of their investment has made that
harder for me and my stepbrother. I write primarily to
remind the court and defendants of the real world impact

(06:15):
of the defendants' crimes, the financial harm they wreaked on
too hard working retired New York school teachers, along with
the financial stress and lost time for me in the
following cases and in my ensuring ensuring that my parents'
rights are protected. I have tons of these everyone more.
Two years ago, I was diagnosed with acute my Lloyd leukemia.

(06:37):
The funds for my investment was intended to help cover
my treatment costs. Without these funds, we are struggling to
manage the financial burden of my illness. This crime has
not only caused us immense financial loss, but also deeply
affected our emotional and physical well being. I have to

(07:00):
and again again, this is difficult for me. You can
imagine being my again. Watch Dog on Wall Street guy,
I voted for pardon these guys, Pardon these guys and
commuted their fines and restitution. I'm throwing this out there, okay,

(07:26):
to all the haters that get upset when I actually
speak the truth here on the program. What say you
on this?

Speaker 1 (07:37):
What? What do you?

Speaker 2 (07:38):
What are your thoughts on this? Can can you give
me something? Okay? What butt monkey? You're gonna come up with?
But but but but but but but what excuse this?
Because I I can't. I can't watch Dog on Wall
Street dot com