Biden grants clemency to nearly 1,500 individuals, including three Long Islanders

WASHINGTON — An Old Westbury investment adviser who pleaded guilty to conducting one of the biggest Ponzi schemes in Long Island history to keep afloat a landmark Montauk resort was among nearly 1,500 nonviolent criminals who were granted clemency on Thursday by President Joe Biden.

Brian Callahan, 55, pleaded guilty in 2014 to securities fraud charges in the $96 million scheme to prop up the Panoramic View Resort and Residence. He was later sentenced to 12 years in prison and ordered to pay $67 million in restitution.

The commutation of Callahan's sentence was part of what White House officials billed as the largest single-day act of clemency and pardons by a president.

Biden also commuted the sentences of Andrew Mackey, 75, who last resided in Cedarhurst and was convicted of operating a $12 million Ponzi scheme, and Tremaine Brown, 35, a former Jamesport resident, convicted of conspiring to sell cocaine in Riverhead. Biden also pardoned 39 nonviolent offenders.

"America was built on the promise of possibility and second chances," Biden said in a statement. "As president, I have the great privilege of extending mercy to people who have demonstrated remorse and rehabilitation, restoring opportunity for Americans to participate in daily life and contribute to their communities, and taking steps to remove sentencing disparities for nonviolent offenders, especially those convicted of drug offenses."

Biden said his list included individuals serving sentences that would be lower "if charged under today’s laws, policies, and practices." He noted that the bulk of the individuals "were placed on home confinement during the COVID pandemic, have successfully reintegrated into their families and communities and have shown that they deserve a second chance."

The Federal Bureau of Prisons released Callahan in New York, Brown in Florida and Mackey in Pennsylvania, according to bureau records.

Biden said he will continue reviewing additional clemency requests and take more steps in the weeks ahead.

Last month, House Democrats urged Biden in a letter to use clemency to "help broad classes of people and cases, including the elderly and chronically ill, those on death row, people with unjustified sentencing disparities and women who were punished for defending themselves against their abusers."
The president faced bipartisan criticism after pardoning his son Hunter Biden earlier this month after he pleaded guilty to lying on a gun purchase application and falsifying tax records. The president called the charges overblown and said political opponents had "instigated" them.

Biden is also reportedly considering extending preemptive pardons to lawmakers and investigators involved in probing Trump’s role in the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol and his push to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election.

Ponzi scheme

In 2014, Eastern District United States Attorney Loretta Lynch called the Ponzi scheme by Callahan and his brother-in-law Adam Manson "one of the largest investment frauds in Long Island history."

From 2005 to 2012, Callahan raised more $96 million from at least 45 investors and diverted funds to the historic 117-unit Panoramic View resort, located on a scenic 10-acre beachfront property he co-owned with Manson.

A court-appointed receiver in the Securities and Exchange Commission action and criminal authorities in a parallel criminal action collected and distributed to harmed investors over $51 million, according to an SEC statement.

Last year, the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York entered a final judgment against Callahan, Manson and Manson's two entities for their role in the scheme. Manson, sentenced to two years in prison in 2022, did not receive clemency.

A federal court in Georgia found Mackey guilty of operating a Ponzi scheme from 2003 to 2007 through a company he set up called ADM Financial Funding Corporation in Valley Stream.

He and a partner, Inger Jensen, were convicted of defrauding more than 150 investors, primarily in the Atlanta area, of more than $12 million by promising returns of 20% interest per month.

Mackey was also previously arrested in the late 1980s for running a prostitution ring near the Lincoln Tunnel. NYPD officials quoted in a November 1987 Associated Press article about his arrest described him as "the biggest" of the pimps in the area.

Brown was arrested in November 2018 in a joint investigation by the FBI and the Suffolk County East End Drug Task Force into narcotics trafficking and gang activity on the East End, according to the U.S. Attorney’s office for the Eastern District of New York.\

Investigators "purchased more than 300 grams of crack cocaine from Brown at his home in Jamesport, where he resided with his wife and his children," and he was captured on video during one of the purchases “‘cooking’ powder cocaine into crack in his kitchen, while a child was present," according to the news release.

In June 2019, Brown pleaded guilty to charges of conspiring to distribute and possess cocaine.