Trump's NASA pick was once arrested, accused of passing bad checks to casinos
Trump's NASA pick was once arrested, accused of passing bad checks to casinos Jared Isaacman, a billionaire pilot and astronaut, was sued in 2009 by the Trump Taj Mahal casino in New Jersey over $1 million in bad checks. The casino later settled for $650,000.
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The Mohegan Sun casino in Connecticut sued Isaacman over $1 million in bounced checks. The suit was resolved and withdrawn.
Isaacman was arrested by U.S. Customs officers in 2010 at the Canadian border over a criminal complaint by a Las Vegas casino. He was released the next day.
"In my early 20s, I was fortunate to experience business success at a young age, and I spent time in casinos as an immature hobby," Isaacman wrote to senators.
He called the lawsuits "forms of negotiation."
President Donald Trump's nominee for NASA administrator, Jared Isaacman, was arrested on fraud charges in 2010 and faced lawsuits in two states for writing $2 million in bad checks to casinos, according to government records and court filings.
Isaacman is a billionaire pilot and astronaut who founded the Shift4 Payments company as a teenager and commanded the first civilian space crew in 2021 aboard a SpaceX capsule.
Isaacman's nomination is scheduled for a vote by the Senate Commerce Committee on April 30.
More: Trump's cuts to NASA budget could make failure an option for space agency
'Fugitive' arrest
In a February 22, 2010, press release titled, "Nevada Fugitive Captured at Canadian Border," U.S. Customs and Border Protection said it arrested Isaacman on a warrant for alleged fraud at the Washington state line. He was taken to a county jail for extradition to Nevada, where Clark County, home to Las Vegas, had issued the felony warrant. No further detail on the alleged fraud was provided.
According to jail records, he was released the next day.
In a questionnaire in connection with his nomination to head the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, Isaacman said he was returning from the Olympics in Vancouver, British Columbia, in February 2010 when he was detained by CBP for "drawing and passing checks without sufficient funds."
He said the arrest stemmed from a dispute with the Palms Casino resort in Las Vegas over a travel reimbursement the resort promised and failed to honor. Isaacman said he resolved the matter in less than 24 hours and the charges were dismissed. The court records were sealed, he said.
A spokesperson for the Palms Casino declined to comment. The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment. A spokesperson for Isaacman declined to comment.
Claims of unpaid casino debts
Court records from New Jersey and Connecticut filed in 2009 and 2010 respectively allege the New Jersey native failed to pay casino debts.
Civil cases were brought against him by Trump's now-defunct Taj Mahal casino in Atlantic City, New Jersey and the Mohegan Sun in Connecticut, according to court documents.
The Trump Taj Mahal sued Isaacman in July 2009 in connection with a line of credit he got in November 2005. Isaacman wrote four checks in 2008 for a total of $1 million but his bank account did not have the funds for them to be cashed, according to the complaint.
The case was settled in 2011 for $650,000.
In a 2010 complaint filed in Connecticut, the Mohegan Sun said Isaacman had written four bad checks totaling $1 million. That action was eventually resolved and withdrawn, according to a court filing.
In a subsequent filing for his nomination, Isaacman disclosed four civil casino cases: the two described above, plus another from the Taj Mahal and one from the Trump Plaza, a source familiar with the matter said.
The other two cases, from 2008, could not immediately be retrieved, according to New Jersey court personnel.
In a written question submitted after his April 9 nomination hearing, Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Washington, asked Isaacman about being detained at the border and sued four times between 2008 and 2010 in connection with casino debts and allegations of fraudulent checks.
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"In my early 20s, I was fortunate to experience business success at a young age, and I spent time in casinos as an immature hobby," Isaacman answered. "The legal matters referenced were, in fact, forms of negotiation and were all resolved promptly. The incident at the border, following my return from the Olympics, stemmed from a payment issue that had already been resolved, which is why I was detained for only a few hours."
Isaacman assured the committee that the behavior was in his past.
Still, while orbiting Earth in a SpaceX capsule in 2021, he placed the first sports bet to Las Vegas from space.
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