§2B4.1 Bribery in Procurement of Bank Loan and Other Commercial Bribery: Federal Sentences, Fiscal Year 2022
In fiscal year 2022, 119 people were sentenced under §2B4.1 as the primary guideline. Prison terms went to 84 (71%), with a median of 15 months, and 117 of the 119 (98%) pleaded guilty.
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In brief: In fiscal year 2022, 119 people were sentenced under §2B4.1 as the primary guideline. Prison terms went to 84 (71%), with a median of 15 months, and 117 of the 119 (98%) pleaded guilty.
This post uses the U.S. Sentencing Commission's records of 119 people sentenced in federal court in fiscal year 2022. 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.
Nearly Everyone Pleaded Guilty
Of the 119 people, 117 (98%) pleaded guilty and 2 were convicted after a trial. Among those who pleaded guilty, more than 99% had a written plea agreement, and less than 1% entered straight pleas with no agreement.
The median prison term was 15 months after a guilty plea and 30 months after a trial. The trial figure rests on 2 people sent to prison. That is too few cases to describe how trials compare with pleas.
Across all guidelines in fiscal year 2022, 97% of the 64,142 people sentenced pleaded guilty.
Prison, Probation, and Supervised Release
A prison term was imposed on 84 of the 119 people (71%). Probation only, with no prison or other confinement, went to 24 (20%).
Among those sent to prison, the median prison term was 15 months. A quarter received 24 months or more, and a quarter received 7.8 months or less. The figures are terms imposed, not time served.
Supervised release after prison was ordered for 83 people (70%), and the median term was 36 months. No one among the 119 with mandatory minimum information recorded had a mandatory minimum prison term.
Sentences Below the Guideline Range
Only 13% of sentences (15 people) were within the guideline range. Below the range at the government's request: 61% (72). Below the range without a government request: 27% (32). Above the range: 0% (0).
The within-range share was 13% here, compared with 42% for all guidelines in fiscal year 2022 and 20% for §2B4.1 over fiscal years 2016 to 2025.
The records show how the sentences related to the range. They do not show why a court or the government took a particular position.
What the Guideline Covers and Who Is Counted
Guideline §2B4.1 is titled "Bribery in Procurement of Bank Loan and Other Commercial Bribery" in the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines Manual. The primary guideline is the one that set the offense level for the most serious count.
The U.S. Sentencing Commission placed all 119 cases in the offense type Bribery/Corruption. Only people who were convicted and sentenced appear in the data. Acquittals and dismissals do not.
Fiscal year 2022 ran from October 1, 2021 to September 30, 2022. Fines were ordered for 32 people (27%), and restitution for 79 (66%).
Years on Either Side
In fiscal year 2021, 86 people were sentenced under §2B4.1, with a median prison term of 12 months and 15% of sentences within the range. In fiscal year 2023, 112 people were sentenced, with a median of 20 months and 22% within the range.
The all-years median under this guideline was 16.5 months, across 983 people. The yearly table shows each fiscal year from 2016 to 2025. One year is a snapshot, and the table does not establish a trend.
| Fiscal year | People sentenced | Median prison | Pleaded guilty |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2016 | 83 | 24 months | 93% |
| 2017 | 107 | 12 months | 95% |
| 2018 | 91 | 21 months | 91% |
| 2019 | 78 | 18 months | 88% |
| 2020 | 78 | 14.5 months | 95% |
| 2021 | 86 | 12 months | 92% |
| 2022 | 119 | 15 months | 98% |
| 2023 | 112 | 20 months | 91% |
| 2024 | 127 | 18 months | 94% |
| 2025 | 102 | 15 months | 89% |
Criminal History and What Is Missing
Criminal history was mostly the lowest category: 95% were in category I and 0% in category VI. Court-martial records have no criminal history field.
The records do not give the facts of a case, the amount involved, or the reasons for a sentence. There is no close court-martial counterpart for this guideline in the approved crosswalk, so this post reports the federal numbers on their own.
How We Counted
Everyone sentenced in federal court in fiscal year 2022 whose primary sentencing guideline was §2B4.1 (119), 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)
- §2B4.1 Bribery in Procurement of Bank Loan and Other Commercial Bribery: Federal Sentences, FY2016–2025 (overview)
- §2B4.1 Bribery in Procurement of Bank Loan and Other Commercial Bribery: Federal Sentences, Fiscal Year 2021 (previous or next fiscal year)
- §2B4.1 Bribery in Procurement of Bank Loan and Other Commercial Bribery: Federal Sentences, Fiscal Year 2023 (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.