# I Beg Your Pardon part 4

Page: https://stenobird.com/podcast/pretend-888499/i-beg-your-pardon-part-4
Text version: https://stenobird.com/podcast/pretend-888499/i-beg-your-pardon-part-4.md
Podcast: [PRETEND](https://stenobird.com/podcast/pretend-888499)
Published: 2026-04-07T07:00:00+00:00
Episode link: https://www.podtrac.com/pts/redirect.mp3/pdst.fm/e/pscrb.fm/rss/p/tracking.swap.fm/track/GShUDppPATUMmMhYllkv/pfx.vpixl.com/h54wi/traffic.megaphone.fm/IMP3987202041.mp3?updated=1775529030
Audio file: https://www.podtrac.com/pts/redirect.mp3/pdst.fm/e/pscrb.fm/rss/p/tracking.swap.fm/track/GShUDppPATUMmMhYllkv/pfx.vpixl.com/h54wi/traffic.megaphone.fm/IMP3987202041.mp3?updated=1775529030
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JSON: https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/pretend-888499/episodes/i-beg-your-pardon-part-4
Duration seconds: 1550

## Resource

Content Warning: This episode contains detailed descriptions of nursing home neglect, including accounts of residents found in unsanitary conditions. Listener discretion is advised. You're about to hear the story of a man who built a nursing home empire from a tiny office above a pizza parlor in New Jersey. His name is Joseph Schwartz. At its peak, his company Skyline Healthcare owned or operated more than 100 facilities across eleven states. What happened inside those facilities (the rationed diapers, the unpaid bills, the maggots, the residents left without food or clean water) is one of the cruelest stories of corporate neglect you will hear this year. When Schwartz finally got convicted of defrauding the government out of $38 million, he started making calls. In this episode, we'll follow the money from a nursing home empire to a presidential pardon, and then to a violent extortion plot that ended with an FBI arrest in Midtown Manhattan. EPISODE RESOURCES & SHOW NOTES ARTICLES & INVESTIGATIONS Brookings Register: Wave of SD nursing home closures hitting hardest in rural small towns URL: https://www.brookingsregister.com/article/wave-of-sd-nursing-home-closures-hitting-hardest-in-rural-small-towns Arkansas Advocate: Nursing home owner pardoned by Trump ordered to serve state sentence URL: https://arkansasadvocate.com Arkansas Democrat-Gazette (2019): Firm's fall risked care in homes for frail URL: https://www.arkansasonline.com/news/2019/apr/28/firm-s-fall-risked-care-homes-frail-201/ Arkansas Democrat-Gazette (2025): Judge orders former nursing home magnate to prison URL: https://www.arkansasonline.com/news/2025/dec/18/arkansas-judge-orders-former-nursing-home-magnate/ The Washington Post: Joseph Schwartz Trump Pardon Fraud (Coverage of the $960k lobbying effort) U…

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