Empty Promises: The Fraudsters Who Stole Millions from the Oglala Sioux Tribe
March 30, 2026
About the Oglala Sioux Tribe
On the Pine Ridge Reservation in southwestern South Dakota, economic development is a matter of survival.
The reservation has the lowest per capita income of any county in the country ($8,768), with unemployment hovering around 80 percent and more than half of the residents living below the poverty line. So when investors approached the Wakpamni Lake Community Corporation (WLCC), the economic development arm of the Oglala Sioux tribe, tribal leaders listened. The reservation is home to about 20,000 tribe members, all of whom would benefit from job opportunities from new projects and better community spaces.
Instead, the fraudulent investors swindled the tribe out of millions of dollars.
The Fraud Scheme
Between 2014 and 2016, Jason Galanis and his co-conspirators orchestrated a scheme to convince the WLCC to issue more than $60 million in municipal bonds. The shady investors promised the WLCC that proceeds from the bonds would be placed into an annuity, which would generate annual income to cover bond interest payments and fund tribal economic development. Instead, fraudsters diverted more than $38 million in proceeds from the bonds for personal use. Galanis alone spent $8.5 million on a Tribeca luxury apartment, jewelry, and travel.
Investors in the bonds were left holding securities that were illiquid and worthless. The tribe received nothing.
Following an investigation into this case and other schemes that defrauded investors out of millions, Galanis pleaded guilty in September 2020. He was sentenced to 189 months in federal prison (about 16 years) and ordered to pay $80.8 million in restitution.
Pleading for Pardon
Galanis’ first attempt to receive a pardon failed in 2020, when he tried to get a pardon at the end of President Trump’s first term. He came back onto the national stage in March 2024, when House Republicans sought testimony from Galanis as part of the impeachment proceedings into President Biden. As Galanis was still incarcerated at the time, the House Oversight Committee allowed him to testify via Zoom, waiving their own ban on virtual witnesses to accommodate him. Galanis testified about alleged phone calls involving Hunter Biden and his father and his relationship with the president’s son.
By this time, two federal judges had already called Galanis a “con man” and Hunter Biden was never implicated in Galanis’ fraud schemes. Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD) called the hearing “the most spectacular failure in the history of Congressional investigations.”
But perhaps Galanis’ testimony on behalf of the House Republicans may have been enough to endear him to the president.
What Trump’s Pardon Cost Us
Shortly after the start of his second term, President Trump commuted Galanis’ entire sentence without public announcement. The pardon erased the millions in restitution owed to the victims of the fraud schemes. One week earlier, Trump had fully pardoned Devon Archer for the same crime, promising him clemency at an NCAA wrestling event. No explanation was offered for either action.
It is worth pausing on what was taken from the Oglala Sioux people twice: first at the hands of Galanis and his co-conspirators, and again by President Trump. The commutation ensures the tribe will never recover what has been stolen from them—not just millions of dollars, but the promise of a better future.
The American Kleptocracy Clearinghouse will continue to put a name to the victims of corruption in this country. We will not allow the powerful to erase this fraudster’s crimes.