Former Pittsburgh dentist among Trump's late-term pardons

Alfonso Costa, a former Fox Chapel dentist who received a presidential pardon of his 2008 insurance fraud conviction, was a one-time political donor to President Donald Trump’s personal lawyer Rudy Guiliani.

According to records on file with the Federal Elections Commission, Costa, a year before he was sentenced to serve three years on probation following his guilty plea for inflating insurance claims, donated $2,300 dollars to Guiliani’s brief presidential campaign.

Costa was one of 15 people who on Tuesday night received a full pardon from Trump. According to a White House news release that announced the pardon, Costa also has ties to Dr. Ben Carson, Trump’s Secretary of Housing Urban Development as well as to Pittsburgh Steelers Hall of Fame running back Jerome Bettis.

A presidential pardon restores any rights lost as a result of the pardoned offense, but does not erase or expunge the conviction, itself.

Costa, who according to campaign finance records now resides in Florida, practiced dentistry at offices in the Oakland section of Pittsburgh and in Murrysville until 2001, when his license expired. Federal prosecutors contended that between 1996 to 2001 Costa, along with his then dental partner Roberto Michienzi, submitted about 50 fraudulent bills to seven insurance companies over a five-year period. Costa pleaded guilty in 2008. His probation sentence was eventually reduced by a year in return for 400 hours of community service he completed with the Carson Scholars Fund.

Campaign finance records indicated since 2000 Costa donated to a number of Republican campaigns and political action committees. Costa was not a donor to Trump’s presidential campaigns in 2016 and 2020.

Costa donated $2,700 in 2015 to Carson’s unsuccessful bid for the White House.

Neither Costa nor his former criminal attorney, Robert Del Grecco Jr., could be reached for comment on Wednesday.

Carson submitted a letter and testified as a character witness on Costa’s behalf before he was sentenced more than a decade ago in Pittsburgh.

“Al Costa is my best friend,” Ben Carson said in a statement to the Tribune-Review following his appearance with Costa at a 2015 fundraiser.

Bettis testified on Costa’s behalf during his federal sentencing hearing.

“He’s a great friend of mine, kind of like a brother in a lot of senses,” Bettis said of Costa.

Costa currently serves as the chairman of the Costa Land Co., which he founded in 1990. According to the company’s website, it owns real estate developments in Allegheny County, including the Robinson Crossroads shopping center in North Fayette, a bank building in Fox Chapel and a office complex in Monroeville. The company also lists ownership of golf and equestrian resorts in Florida, retail and office buildings in New York City as well as properties in Italy.

“(Costa) has devoted much of his adult life to service to his community, including serving on the board of the Pittsburgh Opera, and doing significant service for children and the underprivileged,” according to the White House press release.