§2B1.4 Insider Trading: Federal Sentences, Fiscal Year 2025
In fiscal year 2025, 28 people were sentenced in federal court under §2B1.4, "Insider Trading." Of those, 20 (71%) received prison, 6 (21%) received probation only, and the median prison term was 14 months. Restitution was ordered for 12 people (43%), and a fine for 15 (54%).
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In brief: In fiscal year 2025, 28 people were sentenced in federal court under §2B1.4, "Insider Trading." Of those, 20 (71%) received prison, 6 (21%) received probation only, and the median prison term was 14 months. Restitution was ordered for 12 people (43%), and a fine for 15 (54%).
This post uses the U.S. Sentencing Commission's records of 28 people sentenced in federal court in fiscal year 2025. 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.
Prison, Probation, and the Median Term
Among the 28 people sentenced, 20 (71%) received a prison term. Another 6 (21%) received probation only, with no prison or other confinement.
The median prison term was 14 months. A quarter received 24 months or more, and a quarter received 4.5 months or less. Fiscal year 2024 had a median of 5 months, so the 2025 median is higher. The fiscal year ran from October 1, 2024 to September 30, 2025.
Financial Orders
A fine was ordered for 15 people (54%), and restitution for 12 (43%). Restitution is money a court orders a defendant to pay to people or entities that lost money because of the offense. A fine is a separate payment to the government.
Supervised release followed prison for 19 people (68%), with a median term of 36 months.
Guilty Pleas Versus Trials
A total of 23 of 28 people (82%) pleaded guilty, and 5 were convicted after a trial. The median prison term after a guilty plea was 12 months. After a trial, it was 26 months, based on 4 people sent to prison.
Among guilty pleas, 96% had a written plea agreement, and 4% were straight pleas. In the table, the plea rate in fiscal year 2025 is 82%.
Position Against the Guideline Range
One sentence (4%) was within the range. 8 people (29%) were below the range at the government's request, and 19 (68%) were below without a request. None was above the range.
The previous year had 17% within the range. For all guidelines in fiscal year 2025, which covers 66,662 people, 51% were within the range. No mandatory minimum applied to any of the 28 people.
All Years Under the Same Guideline
From fiscal years 2016 to 2025, 206 people were sentenced under §2B1.4. Of them, 75% were sent to prison, the median prison term was 12 months, and 83% pleaded guilty.
The table gives each year's count, median, and plea rate. Counts range from 7 to 36, so small shifts can come from just a few cases.
In 2025, 96% of the group were in criminal history category I and 0% in category VI.
| 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 This Does Not Show
Only people convicted and sentenced are counted. The data has no acquittals or dismissals, and prison terms are those imposed rather than served.
The Commission places these cases in fraud, theft, and embezzlement. The approved crosswalk has no close court-martial counterpart, so this post reports the federal numbers on their own. The all-guidelines median of 24 months covers many other offenses, so it is context only and not a measure of how this guideline should compare. Counts this small can shift with only a few cases, and the records give no reasons for any single sentence.
How We Counted
Everyone sentenced in federal court in fiscal year 2025 whose primary sentencing guideline was §2B1.4 (28), 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 2024 (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.