A San Diego businesswoman convicted in two separate multimillion-dollar fraud schemes received presidential clemency from Donald Trump not once, but twice, escaping the remainder of her first prison sentence before receiving a full pardon in a second case involving nearly $49 million in court-ordered restitution and millions more in assets subject to forfeiture. Now, congressional investigators are questioning how Adriana Camberos secured her extraordinary second chance, particularly given her family's political contributions, connections to Chula Vista Mayor John McCann and history of spending fraud proceeds on luxury cars and San Diego real estate.
Adriana Isabel Camberos, formerly known as Adriana Shayota, received a full presidential pardon on January 15, 2026, alongside her brother, Andres Enrique Camberos. The siblings had been convicted in October 2024 of conspiracy to commit wire and mail fraud and seven counts of wire fraud after federal prosecutors established that they deceived major manufacturers into selling them discounted merchandise supposedly destined for Mexico, prisons and rehabilitation facilities. Instead, the goods were resold to American distributors at higher prices, generating tens of millions of dollars in profits.
What makes the case particularly unusual is that Camberos had already benefited from Trump's presidential clemency five years earlier. On January 20, 2021, during the final hours of his first administration, Trump commuted her 26-month federal prison sentence arising from an entirely separate counterfeit energy drink operation. According to findings cited in a subsequent congressional inquiry, Camberos committed wire fraud again just 42 days after receiving that first grant of clemency.
The first criminal case involved a scheme to distribute counterfeit 5-Hour Energy drinks. Camberos and her then-husband, Joseph Shayota, operated Baja Exporting, a business that obtained discounted energy drinks intended for the Mexican market. Federal prosecutors established that the company diverted products into the United States, replaced Spanish-language labeling and ultimately participated in manufacturing millions of counterfeit bottles.
The operation went considerably further than simply reselling products in unauthorized markets. Prosecutors said the defendants used untrained workers to manufacture imitation energy drinks in an unsanitary San Diego facility, producing counterfeit beverages that were packaged to resemble legitimate 5-Hour Energy products. More than 3.7 million counterfeit bottles entered interstate commerce, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.
A federal jury convicted Camberos and her husband in November 2016. In June 2017, Camberos was sentenced to 26 months in prison, three years of supervised release and a $144,868 fine. Her husband received an 86-month sentence. Following appeals, Camberos began serving her sentence in December 2019.
Her family subsequently sought presidential intervention, with assistance from attorneys and supporters who argued that she deserved leniency. Among those supporters was John McCann, then a Chula Vista city councilman serving as deputy mayor and now the city's mayor, who submitted a letter supporting her release.
The Trump White House cited McCann's support when announcing the January 2021 commutation, describing Camberos as a mother and deeply religious woman with no prior convictions who had demonstrated a commitment to rehabilitation. By then, she had served approximately 13 months of her 26-month sentence.
The decision drew criticism from attorneys representing the manufacturer of 5-Hour Energy. Geoffrey Potter, an attorney for Living Essentials, characterized the commutation as making a mockery of the criminal justice system, arguing that the seriousness of the counterfeit beverage operation had been overlooked. Related civil litigation had produced judgments exceeding $20 million.
McCann defended his involvement, explaining that he believed Camberos deserved a second chance because she was a mother with no prior convictions who had already served a substantial portion of her sentence. He later said he was disappointed to learn she had become involved in another criminal scheme.
But McCann's relationship with the Camberos family has since become a controversy of its own.
According to reporting by the San Diego Union-Tribune, McCann offered differing accounts of how he knew Andres Camberos, who had approached him about supporting his sister's clemency request. In 2021, McCann described a connection through Bonita Vista High School and said he supported Adriana because she was an "incredibly good person" who had become involved in circumstances she did not fully understand.
In a 2023 email, however, McCann stated that he first met Andres during a tour of Grasshopper, a Chula Vista cannabis business associated with the Camberos family, and had spoken with him only a handful of times. He also emphasized that the two had attended high school approximately a decade apart and said his support for Adriana was based on information supplied by her attorneys and family.
The accounts raised questions about the extent of McCann's relationship with the family and the circumstances surrounding his intervention. McCann reportedly declined to reconcile the differing descriptions when questioned by the Union-Tribune.
The matter resurfaced during McCann's unsuccessful 2025 campaign for the San Diego County Board of Supervisors, when opponent Paloma Aguirre criticized his support for Camberos. Aguirre also filed a public records lawsuit seeking documents concerning the clemency letter, although the outcome of that litigation has not been established.
The political connections surrounding the Camberos family extended beyond McCann's letter.
According to reporting by the New York Times and local campaign finance investigations, Andres Camberos contributed $50,000 to Trump's 2020 reelection effort while his sister was seeking clemency. The exact date and recipient committee require further confirmation, but the contribution and its connection in time to the clemency effort have been documented.
Both siblings subsequently contributed $360 apiece to McCann's 2022 mayoral campaign, the maximum individual contribution permitted under city rules. Adriana also contributed $20,000 to the Community Leadership Coalition, a political action committee sponsored by the Lincoln Club of San Diego County.
Two businesses associated with the Camberos family reportedly contributed another $30,000 to the same political committee. The organization ultimately spent more than $105,000 opposing McCann's mayoral opponent, Ammar Campa-Najjar, according to local campaign finance reporting.
Altogether, the reported contributions associated with the siblings and their businesses amounted to $50,720 in direct donations to McCann's campaign and to a political committee that supported his electoral interests.
McCann has denied soliciting the contributions or receiving compensation in exchange for his clemency letter. He has also said he was unaware of the siblings' contributions to his mayoral campaign. The documented donations do not establish that McCann's official actions were improperly influenced or that either presidential clemency decision was purchased.
Meanwhile, federal investigators uncovered a second fraud operation involving businesses controlled by Adriana and Andres Camberos. Prosecutors said the siblings used Tradeway International, doing business as Baja Exporting, Specialty Foods International and a related Mexican company to obtain substantial manufacturer discounts by falsely representing where their products would be sold.
The deception went far beyond ordinary misrepresentations in purchase orders. According to the Justice Department, the businesses removed GPS tracking devices from shipments, altered Spanish-language packaging, obtained Mexican customs documents and arranged staged visits to stores in Tijuana to convince manufacturers that merchandise was being distributed as promised.
Those staged visits reportedly included placing products in Mexican stores alongside models hired by the defendants' companies to reinforce the appearance of legitimate distribution. Investigators said the siblings also maintained a fake Mexico City office and continued providing misleading assurances when manufacturers questioned whether their products were being diverted into the American market.
Federal prosecutors determined that less than one-tenth of one percent of the businesses' sales went to Mexican retailers or distributors, despite repeated representations that the products were intended for Mexico. The businesses also conducted no sales to prisons or rehabilitation facilities, contrary to representations made to obtain preferential pricing.
Between January 2019 and September 2023, Baja Exporting and Specialty Foods International generated more than $58 million in gross profits. Prosecutors said Adriana Camberos personally received more than $12 million from Baja Exporting, while her brother paid himself more than $14 million through Specialty Foods International.
The money helped finance an extravagant lifestyle. Federal authorities identified purchases or financing involving a Ferrari F12 Berlinetta, a Lamborghini Huracan, multiple Range Rovers, several San Diego-area homes and a beachfront condominium in Coronado. Funds also flowed into investment accounts, insurance policies, cryptocurrency holdings and other assets.
In October 2024, following an 11-day trial before U.S. District Chief Judge Cynthia Bashant in San Diego, a federal jury convicted both siblings on eight fraud-related counts while acquitting them of three mail fraud charges.
Adriana Camberos was subsequently sentenced in 2025 to one year and one day in federal prison, followed by three years of supervised release. She also received an additional two months of incarceration for violating the terms of supervised release imposed in her original counterfeit energy drink case, bringing her combined prison exposure to approximately 14 months.
Her brother received three years of probation, including 12 months of home detention and electronic monitoring. The siblings were also ordered to pay $48,824,415.45 in restitution, jointly and severally, meaning they were collectively responsible for satisfying the obligation rather than each owing a separate $48.8 million.
The restitution order identified 19 victim companies, including some of the nation's most recognizable food and consumer product manufacturers. Mars Wrigley Confectionery was awarded approximately $21.8 million, Ghirardelli Chocolate Company approximately $8.6 million, The Hain Celestial Group approximately $6.1 million, B&G Foods $3 million and Lifeway Foods approximately $2.5 million.
Other identified victims included Tender Corporation, Sunwarrior, Navitas, Orgain, Marukan Vinegar, Stonewall Kitchen, Lundberg Family Farms and several additional manufacturers. Together, their losses formed the basis for one of the most financially consequential aspects of the siblings' federal convictions.
The court also pursued forfeiture of assets prosecutors traced to the fraudulent operation. A subsequent August 2026 report from Democratic staff of the House Judiciary Committee, titled Pardons, Inc., identified approximately $13.2 million in forfeiture exposure associated with Adriana and $14.5 million associated with Andres, totaling approximately $27.7 million.
Those figures were separate from the nearly $49 million restitution order. The congressional report characterized the pardons as eliminating the siblings' forfeiture exposure, although the precise status of assets already forfeited before the presidential intervention remains unclear.
Adriana began serving her new prison sentence in August 2025. She had been incarcerated for approximately five and a half months when Trump intervened again.
On January 15, 2026, the president issued a full and unconditional pardon covering the siblings' convictions in the second fraud case. Unlike the 2021 commutation, which shortened Adriana's sentence without overturning her original conviction, the second action granted a presidential pardon for the later federal offenses.
The distinction is important. Camberos' original 2016 conviction remains intact because Trump's first intervention was a commutation rather than a pardon. The January 2026 warrant applied only to the second case and did not erase her earlier criminal conviction.
The second pardon also had extraordinary financial implications.
Congressional investigators and the siblings' own attorneys have characterized the pardon as eliminating the nearly $49 million criminal restitution obligation and related forfeiture exposure. The pardon warrant itself does not expressly address restitution, and a separate published court order formally vacating the restitution judgment has not been identified.
A presidential pardon can remit unpaid criminal penalties, but it does not automatically eliminate independent civil liability or disturb property rights already vested in third parties. The precise financial consequences therefore depend on the status of the restitution, forfeiture proceedings and any surviving claims by the manufacturers.
The siblings' attorneys welcomed the decision. Adriana's attorney, Marcus Bourassa, maintained that his client had been wrongfully convicted and expressed gratitude to Trump, the White House and presidential pardon adviser Alice Johnson. Andres' attorney similarly described the conviction as wrongful and said his client was grateful for the opportunity to move forward.
An unnamed White House official defended the clemency decision by asserting that the siblings had been unfairly targeted by the Biden Justice Department because Trump previously commuted Adriana's sentence. The official also characterized the underlying conduct as ordinary wholesale grocery business activity rather than criminal fraud.
That explanation directly conflicts with the federal jury's findings and the prosecution's evidence concerning fabricated export arrangements, concealed product diversion and millions of dollars in losses to manufacturers. The White House did not publicly identify evidence establishing that the prosecution was politically retaliatory.
The decision subsequently attracted scrutiny beyond San Diego.
On May 7, 2026, Senator Peter Welch and Representatives Dave Min and Raul Ruiz launched a congressional oversight inquiry into presidential clemency decisions, sending letters to 17 recipients, including separate requests to Adriana and Andres Camberos.
The lawmakers questioned the circumstances surrounding the siblings' pardons, specifically identifying the nearly $49 million restitution order, Adriana's earlier clemency grant and reporting that the siblings had retained attorneys with connections to Trump's political and legal circles.
The letters identified Stefan Passantino, a former White House lawyer, and Adam Katz, a former attorney for Rudy Giuliani, as having represented Camberos in connection with her clemency efforts. Reporting by the New York Times also connected the earlier effort to former Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene.
Lawmakers demanded information about the attorneys, lobbyists, consultants and other intermediaries involved in seeking clemency, including engagement agreements, communications with government officials and any financial contributions or payments associated with the effort.
The requests also sought records of contacts with Trump administration officials, the identities of individuals advocating for the pardons and details of any money paid to intermediaries or politically connected organizations. The deadline for responses was May 22, 2026.
No public response from Camberos or her representatives to the congressional inquiry has been identified, and the amount, if any, paid to attorneys or other advocates in connection with either clemency effort remains unverified.
The August 2026 House Judiciary Democratic staff report expanded on those concerns, examining the administration's clemency practices and identifying the Camberos case as an example of the financial consequences associated with presidential pardons. The report's findings and criticisms represent the conclusions of the Democratic staff investigators, not a judicial determination that either pardon involved corruption.
For San Diego, the case presents a particularly striking intersection of federal criminal justice, local political influence and extraordinary personal wealth. The same woman whose first prison sentence was shortened after a local elected official supported her clemency request was found by a federal jury to have committed fraud again just 42 days later, subsequently accumulated luxury properties and vehicles, and ultimately received a second act of presidential intervention.
The case also raises questions about the practical consequences of clemency for victims. Nineteen manufacturers were awarded nearly $49 million in restitution following a federal jury trial, yet the subsequent presidential pardon has created substantial uncertainty about their ability to recover through the criminal proceedings.
There is no established evidence that either sibling purchased a pardon, that McCann received compensation for his support or that Trump personally benefited financially from granting clemency. Those questions must be distinguished from the documented convictions, political contributions, attorney relationships and financial consequences of the presidential actions.
What is beyond dispute is that federal juries convicted Adriana Camberos in two separate criminal cases, Trump granted her clemency on two occasions, and the second intervention occurred while she was serving another prison sentence and appealing her conviction.
Her first conviction remains on the books. Her second received a presidential pardon. And the nearly $49 million restitution order, representing losses attributed to 19 companies, remains central to congressional scrutiny of the decision.
For those manufacturers, the most consequential question may no longer be how the fraud occurred or why the president intervened. It is whether the companies that prevailed in federal court will ever recover the money they were awarded.
Originally published on October 31, 2026.
