A Venezuelan billionaire chasing a presidential pardon handed one of President Donald Trump’s closest lawyers a contract worth more than $50 million, according to a New York Times investigation published Tuesday.
The billionaire, banker Julio Herrera Velutini, had pleaded guilty in August 2025 to a misdemeanor campaign finance offense after federal prosecutors first indicted him in August 2022 over an alleged bribery scheme involving former Puerto Rico governor Wanda Vázquez Garced. Trump pardoned him in January.
According to the Times, Herrera Velutini deployed his lawyer Christopher M. Kise to seek clemency, while his 27-year-old daughter Isabela donated $3.5 million to a pro-Trump super PAC. Then the family hired Alina Habba, a former personal lawyer for Trump who was serving as an adviser in the Justice Department, and offered her $10 million a year for four years plus bonuses. Documents and interviews reviewed by the Times put the guaranteed total above $50 million.
Under the deal, Habba would become general counsel of Concord Partners, a company Herrera set up in Florida in late October 2025 with no public profile, the Times reported. Habba finalized the agreement days after the company was registered, while she was still advising Attorney General Pam Bondi and serving as interim US attorney in New Jersey.
Habba, who now goes by Alina Mildon, rejected the account. She called the report “false and defamatory” in a post on X on Tuesday, according to multiple outlets. White House officials told the Times that the family’s political contributions had no bearing on the pardon.
Source: The New York Times
