Trump pardons Florida fraudster after commuting her sentence during his first term

Donald Trump has pardoned a woman who ended up imprisoned for fraud a second time after he afforded her clemency during his first presidency.

Adriana Camberos initially had a sentence commuted by Trump just before his first stint in the White House ended in 2021. That came after she was convicted as part of an effort to divert 5-Hour Energy drink bottles acquired for resale in Mexico and instead keep them in the US. Prosecutors said she and several co-conspirators attached counterfeit labels and filled the bottles with a phony liquid before selling them.

Then in 2024, she and her brother, Andres, were convicted in a separate case – involving lying to manufacturers to sell wholesale groceries and additional items at big discounts after pledging that they were meant for sale in Mexico or to prisoners or rehabilitation facilities. The siblings sold the products at higher prices to US distributors, prosecutors said.

The Camberoses were among 13 pardons Trump issued on Thursday, along with eight commutations. Others were for the father of a large donor to his super PAC and former governor of Puerto Rico Wanda Vázquez, who had pleaded guilty to a campaign finance violation.

An additional pardon was announced on Friday for Terren Peizer, a resident of Puerto Rico and California who headed the Miami-based healthcare company Ontrak.

Peizer had been convicted and sentenced to 42 months in prison, and fined $5.25m, for engaging in an insider trading scheme to avoid losses exceeding $12.5m, according to the US justice department.

The president has issued a number of clemencies during the first year of his second term, many targeted at criminal cases once touted by federal prosecutors. They’ve come amid a continuing Trump administration effort to erode public integrity guardrails – including the firing of the justice department’s pardon attorney.