Trump Commutes Sentence of New York Jewish Man in $50 Million Mortgage Fraud Case

HARTFORD, Conn. — President Donald Trump has commuted the prison sentence of Jacob Deutsch of Williamsburg, leading to his release after nearly 22 months behind bars for his role in a wide-ranging mortgage fraud scheme involving apartment buildings in Hartford.

The decision followed sustained advocacy by the Tzedek Association, which argued that Deutsch’s punishment far exceeded what the facts of the case warranted. Supporters said the case involved no violence, no financial loss to lenders and no restitution owed, yet Deutsch received a sentence that was nearly three times longer than what prosecutors had sought.

“This was a profound miscarriage of justice,” advocates said in a statement thanking the White House and Justice Department officials for what they called a rare act of corrective mercy.

Words cannot capture our gratitude to @POTUS for commuting the sentence of Jacob Deutsch! This was a profound miscarriage of justice, a non-violent, zero-loss case with zero restitution owed, punished with extraordinary severity, THREE TIMES MORE THAN THE PROSECUTOR ASKED FOR.… pic.twitter.com/gqEADjOv8e

— Rabbi Moshe Margaretten (@Tzedek_Assoc) January 16, 2026

Deutsch had been sentenced in 2024 to more than five years in prison after pleading guilty to conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud affecting financial institutions. Trump’s commutation removes the remainder of his sentence but leaves the conviction intact.

Deutsch and a co-defendant, Aron Deutsch of Monsey, admitted to participating in a scheme that prosecutors said relied on false rent rolls, leases and financial records to secure nearly $50 million in loans tied to multifamily properties in Hartford.

Federal authorities said the defendants worked at B H Property Management, which oversaw numerous buildings, and inflated property values by staging vacant apartments and fabricating tenants to make units appear fully occupied and profitable. The false information, prosecutors said, led lenders — as well as Freddie Mac, Fannie Mae and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development — to back or insure loans they otherwise would not have approved.

Aron Deutsch was sentenced to five years of probation and fined $1 million. Jacob Deutsch received a 62-month prison term, a fine and supervised release, though he ultimately served about 22 months before the commutation.

In a statement, the Tzedek Association said Trump’s action “restored fairness, reunited a family and reaffirmed mercy as a cornerstone of American justice.”