This is verified reporting from ProPublica. Trump did pardon Joseph Schwartz in November 2024 after he'd served three months of a three-year sentence for a $39 million payroll tax scheme. Families who won multimillion-dollar wrongful death suits—including one for $19 million—haven't collected because Schwartz liquidated his assets. The framing emphasizes the human cost (grieving families getting nothing) rather than Schwartz's legal arguments, which is fair given the facts, though it doesn't explore whether collection efforts against out-of-state assets were fully exhausted.