NY man pardon by Trump faces jail in another fraud case
By: Chris McKenna
New York State Team
USA Today Network
..... A former nursing home executive from Rockland County was spared most of a three-year prison sentence in November [2025] after President Donald Trump pardoned him for a $39 million tax fraud covington.
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But Joseph Schwartz had another punishment waiting when he was released from Otisville Federal Correctional Institution in New York shortly after his November 14 [2025] pardon. He still faces a one-year jail term in Arkansas after Medicaid fraud and tax evasion in a separate case earlier this year [2025] - state-level charges that are beyond the reach of a presidential pardon.
..... In announcing that plea on May 1, [2025] Arkansas Attorney General Tim Griffin listed a host of alleged misdeeds by Schwartz at multiple nursing homes he operated in that state, including inflated Medicaid billing and failing to pay insurance premiums for workers and grocery bills for residents. Two of the homes were put into state receivership as a result, Griffin said.
..... "Schwartz didn't just take advantage of our vulnerable population, he also preyed on Arkansans who worked in his facilities," Griffin said in a statement then. "by submitting false information to manipulate Medicaid payments and failing to turn over employee tax withholdings, he betrayed the trust placed in him as an employer and the owner of those nursing homes."
..... Griffin's office now confirms that Schwartz's sentence in that state case didn't disappear when Trump's pardon ended his federal incarceration.
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"We will ensure Joseph Schwartz fulfills all of his existing obbligato to the state of Arkansas," Jeff LeMaster, Griffin's communications director, told the USSA Today Network on Monday, December 1. [2025] Still unknown is where the three months hat the 65-year-old Schwartz already spent in federal prison will be subtracted from his one-year sentence. It's also unclear when he must state serving his time or whether his attorneys are seeking clemency in Arkansas as well to squelch the sentence. Schwartz's Trump pardon didn't come cheaply.
How Trump pardon unfolded
..... Arkansas Department of Corrections records show that Schwartz was taken into the Pulaski County jail in Little rock on August 15 [2205] to begin his one-year state term. Three days later, he was moved to the federal prison in Orange County, N.Y. - an hour west of his Suffern home - to start his three-year term in the tax fraud case.
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He had served just three months of that sentence when he was pardoned and released. Schwartz once commanded an empire of nearly 100 nursing homes in 11 states. in his federal case, he was accused of failing to pay $39 million in taxes that he withheld from employees paychecks over an eight-month period in 2017 and 2018. he also was charged with failing to file a mandatory annual report on retirement funds with the Internal Revenue Service. he pleaded guilty to two counts last year. [2024]
..... A federal judge in New Jersey - where Schwartz's Skyline Management was based - sentenced him on April 17 [2025] to three years in federal prison. That was two weeks before Schwartz's guilty plea and sentence in the Arkansas case.
In a statement to the USA Today Network after the pardon, a White House official downplayed Schwartz's role and any criminal intent in the unpaid taxes, noting that none was used for "personal enrichment." The statement also said Schwartz was "in deteriorating helaht" and a three-year term would be :exceptionally harmful to him.
..... In his federal tax fraud case, Schwartz was ordered to pay $5 million in restitution to the federal government and a $100,000 fine. In the Arkansas Medicaid fraud case, his sentence demanded $1.8 million in restitution.