Former President Donald Trump has granted a pardon to Stephen Buyer, a former U.S. Representative from Indiana and a member of the Republican Party. Buyer was convicted of securities fraud due to insider trading activities in 2018, linked to his role as a consultant for T-Mobile US during its $23 billion merger with Sprint.
The pardon was officially issued on Thursday and made public by the White House on Friday. While the announcement did not specify the reasons behind the pardon, it highlighted Buyer’s commendable service as a U.S. Army judge advocate general and his notable tenure in Congress.
The statement further mentioned that Trump’s decision to grant Buyer a “full, complete, and unconditional pardon” was based on the “advice and recommendation” of 52 current and former members of the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives, whose names were included in the proclamation.
Buyer represented Indiana as a Republican in the House of Representatives from 1993 to 2011, after which he transitioned into a career as a corporate consultant. In March 2023, he was found guilty on four counts of securities fraud and subsequently sentenced to 22 months in prison in September of the same year.
During the trial, prosecutors claimed that Buyer purchased Sprint stock after a T-Mobile executive tipped him off about merger discussions between the two telecom giants in 2018, leading to further illicit trading activities the following year.
According to prosecutors, Buyer made more than $100,000 from the Sprint trades and more than $200,000 from buying stock in Navigant Consulting Inc. before it was acquired by Guidehouse in 2019.
Buyer, who had served as one of the House managers in the 1999 impeachment trial of then-President Bill Clinton, took the stand at his own trial and denied trading on inside information.
Prosecutors sought three years in prison for Buyer in court filings, saying that he had abused his clients’ trust and lied on the stand.
The US Supreme Court refused in May of this year to hear Buyer’s appeal of his conviction.