§2B1.4 Insider Trading: Federal Sentences, Fiscal Year 2017
5 of the 11 people sentenced under guideline §2B1.4, Insider Trading, in fiscal year 2017 were convicted after a trial, and 6 (55%) pleaded guilty. The plea rate was lower than the 83% for all years under this guideline. The median prison term was 13 months overall.
· Understanding Trends in Military Practice · 6 min read
Trends › Federal Prosecution Analysis › §2B1.4 Insider Trading › §2B1.4: FY2017
In brief: 5 of the 11 people sentenced under guideline §2B1.4, Insider Trading, in fiscal year 2017 were convicted after a trial, and 6 (55%) pleaded guilty. The plea rate was lower than the 83% for all years under this guideline. The median prison term was 13 months overall.
This post uses the U.S. Sentencing Commission's records of 11 people sentenced in federal court in fiscal year 2017. Acquittals and dismissals come from a second source, the Federal Judicial Center's records of 753,808 federal defendants whose cases ended in fiscal years 2016 to 2025. It is part of the Federal Prosecution Analysis series, which builds on Military Moves Toward Sentencing Guidelines to Mirror the Federal System. How the numbers were built: How the Federal Comparison Data Was Built.
A Year With Many Trials
The U.S. Sentencing Commission recorded 11 people sentenced in federal court in fiscal year 2017 with §2B1.4 as the primary guideline. The Guidelines Manual titles that guideline "Insider Trading."
6 of the 11 (55%) pleaded guilty, and 5 were convicted after a trial. For all fiscal years 2016 to 2025 under this guideline, 83% pleaded guilty. For all federal cases in fiscal year 2017, the rate was 97%.
Among the 6 guilty pleas, 4 had a written plea agreement and 2 were straight pleas with no agreement.
Trial and Plea Sentences
The median prison term after a guilty plea was 2.5 months. After a trial it was 40.5 months, based on 4 people convicted at trial and sent to prison.
The trial median was higher than the plea median in this year. The group is very small, and the records do not show the facts or charges in each case. The comparison therefore cannot show that going to trial leads to a longer sentence.
Overall Prison and Probation Figures
8 of the 11 people (73%) received a prison term, and 2 (18%) received probation only, with no prison or other confinement. The all-years prison rate for this guideline is 75%.
The overall median prison term was 13 months. A quarter of those sent to prison received 38.2 months or more, and a quarter received 3.8 months or less. The all-years median is 12 months.
8 people (73%) were ordered to serve supervised release after prison, with a median term of 24 months. No mandatory minimum prison term applied to any of the 11.
No Sentence Within the Range
The guideline range is the range the Manual calculates for a case. 0 of the 11 sentences were within it. 5 (45%) were below it at the government's request, and 6 (55%) were below it without a government request. 0 were above the range.
Across all years, 7% of sentences under this guideline were within the range. For all federal cases in fiscal year 2017, the share was 49%.
Fines, Restitution, and Prior Record
A fine was ordered for 9 of the 11 people (82%), and restitution for 3 (27%). All 11 (100%) were in the lowest criminal history category I, and 0% were in the highest category VI. Court-martial records have no criminal history field.
Neighboring Years and the Table
Fiscal year 2017 ran from October 1, 2016 to September 30, 2017. The Commission files these cases under "Fraud/Theft/Embezzlement." In fiscal year 2016, 18 people were sentenced under §2B1.4, the median prison term was 6 months, and 11% were within the range. In fiscal year 2018, 31 people were sentenced, the median was 12 months, and 3% were within the range.
Everyone sentenced in federal court in 2017 totals 66,873 people, with a median prison term of 24 months. The all-years count for §2B1.4 is 206 people. The table gives each year's count, median, and plea rate.
| Fiscal year | People sentenced | Median prison | Pleaded guilty |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2016 | 18 | 6 months | 94% |
| 2017 | 11 | 13 months | 55% |
| 2018 | 31 | 12 months | 81% |
| 2019 | 35 | 6 months | 71% |
| 2020 | 10 | 13.5 months | 80% |
| 2021 | 7 | 6 months | 7 of 7 |
| 2022 | 17 | 16 months | 88% |
| 2023 | 13 | 22 months | 85% |
| 2024 | 36 | 5 months | 92% |
| 2025 | 28 | 14 months | 82% |
Limits
With 11 people, a few cases can change any percentage here. A single year is not a trend, and the data does not explain why 5 cases went to trial.
Acquittals and dismissals are not counted, and prison terms are those imposed, not time served. The approved crosswalk has no close court-martial counterpart, so only federal numbers are given.
How We Counted
Everyone sentenced in federal court in fiscal year 2017 whose primary sentencing guideline was §2B1.4 (11), U.S. Sentencing Commission individual data files. The primary guideline is the one that set the offense level for the most serious count.
Federal fiscal years run from October 1 to September 30. No person, judge, or lawyer is identified in any of these records.
What to Keep in Mind
No parole in federal prison; credit for good conduct. Federal prison has no parole for crimes committed on or after November 1, 1987. A federal prisoner can earn up to 54 days of good conduct credit for each year of the sentence the judge imposed, which is about 15%. Some federal prisoners can also earn First Step Act time credits, but many offenses make a person ineligible. The numbers in this post are the sentences judges imposed, not the time people actually served.
Federal supervised release. Most federal prison sentences are followed by a term of supervised release that the judge sets as part of the sentence. A person who violates it can be sent back to prison. A court-martial cannot sentence anyone to supervision after release. Military parole and mandatory supervised release are decided later by a board, not by the judge at trial.
Who decides the sentence, and under what rules. Federal judges sentence every federal case. They must calculate the Sentencing Guidelines range, which is advisory, and must impose any mandatory minimum the statute requires unless an exception applies. In courts-martial, the accused could choose sentencing by members until the rules changed. For cases in which every guilty finding is for an offense committed after December 27, 2023, a military judge sentences alone, within sentencing parameters. Courts-martial tried in 2024 and later include both old-rule and new-rule cases, and the data cannot tell them apart.
Time periods. Federal numbers are by federal fiscal year (October 1 to September 30), based on the sentencing date. The military numbers are by trial date. Neither source has the date of the offense, so a change in law shows up in either data set gradually.
How life sentences and "time served" are counted. In the federal numbers, a life sentence is counted as 470 months, and any other sentence longer than 470 months is counted as just under 470 months. A sentence of "time served" is counted as one day (0.03 months). Averages are affected by these rules; medians much less.
Related Analysis
- Military Moves Toward Sentencing Guidelines to Mirror the Federal System (the background article)
- Federal Prosecution Analysis (all federal posts)
- How the Federal Comparison Data Was Built (sources and method)
- §2B1.4 Insider Trading: Federal Sentences, FY2016–2025 (overview)
- §2B1.4 Insider Trading: Federal Sentences, Fiscal Year 2016 (previous or next fiscal year)
- §2B1.4 Insider Trading: Federal Sentences, Fiscal Year 2018 (previous or next fiscal year)
- How Often Federal Judges Sentence Outside the Guideline Range
- Mandatory Minimums: How Many Federal Sentences Are Set by Congress
- U.S. Sentencing Commission, Individual Offender Datafiles (source)
- Federal Judicial Center, Integrated Database (criminal defendants) (source)
About the author. Jocelyn C. Stewart is a retired Army JAG with more than 24 years of trying courts-martial and more than 200 jury trials. She hosts Where All The Bodies Are Buried and runs the Law Office of Jocelyn C. Stewart. This analysis is for education and information only. It is not legal advice, and every case is different.