PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) — The mother of local Olympic gymnast Jordan Chiles was released from prison four months early.
Jordan Chiles is from Vancouver and won a silver medal last summer with Team USA. Her mom, Gina Chiles, reported to federal prison in August for stealing more than $1 million after a federal judge in Portland agreed to postpone her 1-year sentence a month so she could watch her daughter compete in Tokyo.
Court records show Gina pleaded guilty after embezzling $1.2 million from her clients and business partners in Portland. She’s been ordered to repay the money she stole.
Gina’s biggest victim, Karla Pearlstein, lost $945,000. In July, Pearlstein told KOIN 6 that she was not pleased that Gina was allowed to delay her sentence and feared she would be released early.
“I wouldn’t be a bit surprised if she only serves six months in jail, that she’ll get out without even serving the whole year,” Pearlstein said. “I think it’s absolutely ridiculous. The courts have given her break after break. This is not the first time that they have allowed her to travel or delayed for sentencing because of Jordan’s Olympic trials or whatever, but it’s a real disservice to those of us who she victimized. And, I’m not happy about it, to be frank with you.”
Gina began serving her sentence in a federal prison in Fort Worth, Texas on August 26, 2021. A spokesman for the Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) tells KOIN 6 she was transferred on December 29, 2021, to a federal halfway house overseen by the San Antonio Residential Reentry Management Office.
Under a federal program, she was released four months early from the custody of the Bureau of Prisons on April 18, 2022.
KOIN 6 asked the Bureau of Prisons why she was released early.
“For privacy, safety, and security reasons we do not release additional information on inmates not in BOP custody,” Scott Taylor, a spokesperson for the BOP’s Office of Public Affairs wrote in an email.
A spokesman for the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Portland told KOIN 6 News that Chiles qualified for time off her sentence for good behavior which likely prompted her early release.