§2B5.1 Offenses Involving Counterfeit Bearer Obligations of the United States: Federal Sentences, Fiscal Year 2022
In fiscal year 2022, 86 people were sentenced in federal court with §2B5.1 as the primary guideline. Of those, 70 (81%) received a prison term, and the median prison term was 19.5 months. Nearly all of them, 85 of 86 (99%), pleaded guilty.
· Understanding Trends in Military Practice · 7 min read
Trends › Federal Prosecution Analysis › §2B5.1 Offenses Involving Counterfeit Bearer Obligations of › §2B5.1: FY2022
In brief: In fiscal year 2022, 86 people were sentenced in federal court with §2B5.1 as the primary guideline. Of those, 70 (81%) received a prison term, and the median prison term was 19.5 months. Nearly all of them, 85 of 86 (99%), pleaded guilty.
This post uses the U.S. Sentencing Commission's records of 86 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.
What Happened to the 86 People Sentenced Under §2B5.1 in Fiscal Year 2022?
The U.S. Sentencing Guidelines Manual titles §2B5.1 "Offenses Involving Counterfeit Bearer Obligations of the United States." The U.S. Sentencing Commission counted 86 people in fiscal year 2022 whose most serious count was sentenced under this guideline. The fiscal year ran from October 1, 2021 to September 30, 2022.
Of the 86 people, 70 (81%) were sentenced to prison. Another 10 (12%) received probation only, with no prison or other confinement.
Among the 70 who went to prison, the median prison term was 19.5 months. A quarter received 30.6 months or more, and a quarter received 8.2 months or less. These are the terms imposed, not the time actually served.
Guilty Pleas and the One Trial
Only 1 person in this group was convicted after a trial. The other 85 (99%) pleaded guilty. A one-person group cannot be summarized, so the trial figures here should be read as a single sentence and not as a pattern.
The median prison term after a guilty plea was 18 months. The median after a trial was 36 months, and that figure rests on 1 person.
Among those who pleaded guilty, 86% had a written plea agreement. The other 14% entered straight pleas with no agreement.
Where Sentences Fell Against the Guideline Range
The Commission records whether each sentence was inside the advisory guideline range. In this group, 57% (49 people) were sentenced within the range. A sentence below the range at the government's request applied to 17% (15 people), and a sentence below the range without a government request applied to 21% (18 people). A sentence above the range applied to 5% (4 people).
A mandatory minimum prison term applied to 1 of the 86 people (1%). Supervised release after prison was ordered for 70 people (81%), with a median term of 36 months.
Fines, Restitution, and Criminal History
A fine was ordered for 4 people (5%). Restitution was ordered for 48 (56%).
In criminal history, 27% were in the lowest category, category I, and 22% were in the highest, category VI. Court-martial records have no criminal history field, so that measure cannot be compared between federal and military records.
How Fiscal Year 2022 Compares With Other Groups
Across fiscal years 2016 to 2025, 1,486 people were sentenced under §2B5.1. In that period, 84% were sent to prison, the median prison term was 18 months, 99% pleaded guilty, and 57% were sentenced within the guideline range. The fiscal year 2022 median of 19.5 months is higher than the 18 months for all years, and the within-range share of 57% is the same.
For everyone sentenced in federal court in fiscal year 2022 under any guideline, the total was 64,142 people. Their median prison term was 30 months, which is higher than for this guideline. Guilty pleas were 97%, and 42% were sentenced within the range.
The Commission places these cases in the offense type Forgery/Counter/Copyright, which had 86 people in the year.
| Fiscal year | People sentenced | Median prison | Pleaded guilty |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2016 | 280 | 18 months | 97% |
| 2017 | 238 | 15 months | 99% |
| 2018 | 228 | 18 months | more than 99% |
| 2019 | 229 | 15 months | more than 99% |
| 2020 | 160 | 18 months | 99% |
| 2021 | 98 | 15 months | 99% |
| 2022 | 86 | 19.5 months | 99% |
| 2023 | 67 | 20 months | 99% |
| 2024 | 60 | 18 months | 97% |
| 2025 | 40 | 22.5 months | 98% |
The Years on Each Side of 2022
In fiscal year 2021, 98 people were sentenced under §2B5.1. The median prison term was 15 months, and 62% were sentenced within the range. In fiscal year 2023, 67 people were sentenced, the median prison term was 20 months, and 48% were sentenced within the range.
The counts fell and the medians moved up and down from year to year. These are small groups, and one year does not make a trend. The yearly table shows all 10 fiscal years.
What These Numbers Do Not Show
The data counts only people who were convicted and sentenced. People who were acquitted or whose cases were dismissed are not in it, so it cannot show how often charges under this guideline led to a conviction.
There is no close court-martial counterpart for this guideline in the approved crosswalk, so this post reports the federal numbers on their own. The records also do not show the facts of any case or the reasons for a particular sentence.
How We Counted
Everyone sentenced in federal court in fiscal year 2022 whose primary sentencing guideline was §2B5.1 (86), 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.
Mandatory minimum sentences. Many federal statutes on drugs, images of child exploitation, child sex abuse, and firearms carry mandatory minimum prison terms. The UCMJ has mandatory minimums only for a few offenses (a dishonorable discharge or dismissal for rape and sexual assault, and life for premeditated murder). Federal sentences for these offenses are partly set by Congress, not by the judge.
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)
- §2B5.1 Offenses Involving Counterfeit Bearer Obligations of the United States: Federal Sentences, FY2016–2025 (overview)
- §2B5.1 Offenses Involving Counterfeit Bearer Obligations of the United States: Federal Sentences, Fiscal Year 2021 (previous or next fiscal year)
- §2B5.1 Offenses Involving Counterfeit Bearer Obligations of the United States: 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.