§2B1.4 Insider Trading: Federal Sentences, Fiscal Year 2019
In fiscal year 2019, 35 people were sentenced in federal court with §2B1.4, titled "Insider Trading," as the primary guideline. Of those, 30 (86%) received a prison term, and the median prison term was 6 months. Across fiscal years 2016 to 2025, the median under this guideline was 12 months.
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In brief: In fiscal year 2019, 35 people were sentenced in federal court with §2B1.4, titled "Insider Trading," as the primary guideline. Of those, 30 (86%) received a prison term, and the median prison term was 6 months. Across fiscal years 2016 to 2025, the median under this guideline was 12 months.
This post uses the U.S. Sentencing Commission's records of 35 people sentenced in federal court in fiscal year 2019. 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.
The Median Prison Term in Fiscal Year 2019 Was 6 Months
The 35 people in this group are everyone sentenced in fiscal year 2019 whose most serious count was scored under §2B1.4. The Sentencing Commission calls that count the primary guideline.
Of the 35, 30 (86%) were sent to prison. Another 2 (6%) received probation only, with no prison or other confinement. Among those sent to prison, a quarter received 15.5 months or more, and a quarter received 3 months or less.
The fiscal year ran from October 1, 2018 to September 30, 2019. The terms are the sentences imposed, not the time actually served.
How the Sentences Compared With the Guideline Range
None of the 35 sentences was within the guideline range, and none was above it. All 35 were below the range. For 10 people (29%) the sentence was below the range at the government's request. For 25 people (71%) it was below the range without a government request.
For all guidelines in fiscal year 2019, 51% of sentences were within the range. Under §2B1.4 across fiscal years 2016 to 2025, the share was 7%. This year is lower than both.
No one in this group was subject to a mandatory minimum prison term.
Guilty Pleas and Trials
A total of 25 of the 35 people (71%) pleaded guilty, and 10 were convicted after a trial. Guilty pleas were less common here than across federal court in fiscal year 2019, where the rate was 98%.
The median prison term after a guilty plea was 5.5 months. After a trial it was 15 months, based on the 10 people convicted at trial and sent to prison. Every guilty plea (100%) came with a written plea agreement.
Supervised Release, Fines, and Restitution
A total of 27 people (77%) were ordered to serve supervised release after prison, and the median term was 24 months. A fine was ordered for 24 people (69%). Restitution was ordered for 4 (11%).
In this group, 91% were in the lowest criminal history category I, and 0% were in the highest VI. Court-martial records have no criminal history field, so that measure has no military equivalent.
Fiscal Year 2019 Next to the Other Years
The previous year, fiscal year 2018, had 31 people under this guideline and a median prison term of 12 months. The next year, fiscal year 2020, had 10 people and a median of 13.5 months. Fiscal year 2019 had the lowest median of those years and the largest count.
The table lists every year from 2016 to 2025. Counts are small and change a great deal from year to year, so one year is not a trend. Across all 10 years, 206 people were sentenced under §2B1.4, 75% were sent to prison, and 83% pleaded guilty.
| 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% |
What These Numbers Cannot Show
The Sentencing Commission data counts only people who were convicted and sentenced. Acquittals and dismissals are not in it. The records also do not say what the trading involved or why any sentence was set where it was.
The approved crosswalk has no close court-martial counterpart for this guideline, so this post reports the federal numbers on their own. The fraud, theft, and embezzlement category in which the Commission places these 35 cases is its own grouping, not a military one.
How We Counted
Everyone sentenced in federal court in fiscal year 2019 whose primary sentencing guideline was §2B1.4 (35), 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 2018 (previous or next fiscal year)
- §2B1.4 Insider Trading: Federal Sentences, Fiscal Year 2020 (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.