Trump's NASA pick was once arrested, accused of passing bad checks to casinos [View all]

Source: USA Today

April 25, 2025, 6:04 p.m. ET


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.

'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."

Read more: https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2025/04/25/trump-nasa-pick-jared-isaacman-arrested-sued-casino-debts/83279745007/