In addition to minimizing the dismemberment of a journalist by bone saw and calling a woman reporter “Piggy” this month, President Donald Trump managed to squeeze in a pardon for a fraudster whose victims include Arkansas employees and nursing home residents. The lucky felon is Joseph Schwartz, who operated a multi-state nursing home chain called Skyline. Schwartz controlled nearly 100 nursing homes in 11 states, including several here. He was sentenced in federal court in April of this year to 36 months in prison for his role in a $38 million employment tax fraud scheme, having willfully failed to pay employment taxes owed. He withheld the amounts from employees’ paychecks, then pocketed it. As part of his April sentencing, Schwartz was required to pay a $100,000 fine and $5 million in restitution. But the president’s full and unconditional pardon means he will get any money he paid toward fines and restitution returned to him, and he will be a free man after having served only three months of a three-year sentence. Someone should explain why this guy who ran several nursing homes in Arkansas into the ground won’t have to pay a price. And trust me when I say he ran Arkansas nursing homes into the ground, that is a fact. Two homes were run so poorly that the state of Arkansas had to take them over. So many of our most weak, frail and vulnerable Arkansans received inexcusably poor care, and this guy gets pardoned by the president! Really? While Trump may not mind the graft, other Republicans certainly did. In May, Arkansas Attorney General Tim Griffin trumpeted Schwartz’s conviction for Medicaid fraud and tax evasion. “Schwartz didn’t just take advantage of our vulnerable population, he also preyed on Arkansans who worked in his facilities,” Griffin said in a press release. “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. My office will continue to hold bad actors accountable and pursue those who exploit Arkansans.” Separate from his federal charges, in Arkansas Schwartz pleaded guilty to one count of Medicaid fraud and one count of attempting to evade or defeat tax, both felonies. Schwartz was sentenced to 12 months in the Arkansas Department of Corrections with an additional 48 months suspended imposition of sentence. And he was ordered to pay a $2,000 fine, court costs and restitution totaling $1,801,620. 53. There’s no word yet on whether Schwartz will have to come to Arkansas and serve his time. I hope he does. Not only did Schwartz not pay his taxes or his employees here, he also ran out on his own lawyers. More than one defense firm in Arkansas discharged him as a client for failing to pay his bills. Judges all over this state have entered default judgements against him. But will these judgements ever be paid? Most of you probably don’t know that nursing homes in Arkansas are not required to carry insurance. You read that right. The companies that get paid large amounts of both state and federal taxpayer dollars to care for our most frail and vulnerable citizens aren’t required to carry insurance. Most of the homes that do have insurance only carry anywhere from $100,000 to $250,000 in coverage. In Schwartz’s case, he operated a number of homes here without any coverage at all. That’s a good reason for defense attorneys to have fired him as a client. There was no coverage to pay their bills, let alone pay for the pain, suffering and even death in Schwartz-controlled nursing homes. So unless someone is able to track down where Schwartz hid all his money, there is a slim-to-none chance that these judgements will ever be paid. That leaves us wondering why, exactly, the president saw fit to let Schwartz off the hook. The Washington Post reports that at about the same time Schwartz was being convicted by the feds, he retained two lobbyists at the cost of almost $1 million for the purpose of securing him a federal pardon. The story quotes Liz Oyer, a former U. S. pardon attorney, who explained there is “a special tier of justice for people who can afford to pay.” Oyer was fired by the Trump administration in March. In addition to being the Arkansas Times’ development director, Bob Edwards is an attorney who advocates for victims and their families.
https://arktimes.com/arkansas-blog/2025/11/26/trump-pardons-a-nursing-home-scoundrel-who-cheated-and-neglected-arkansans
