§2C1.2 Offering, Giving, Soliciting, or Receiving a Gratuity: Federal Sentences, Fiscal Year 2023
In fiscal year 2023, 12 people were sentenced under §2C1.2, and 7 of them (58%) received probation only. 4 (33%) were sent to prison, with a median prison term of 9 months. All 12 pleaded guilty.
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Trends › Federal Prosecution Analysis › §2C1.2 Offering, Giving, Soliciting, or Receiving a Gratuity › §2C1.2: FY2023
In brief: In fiscal year 2023, 12 people were sentenced under §2C1.2, and 7 of them (58%) received probation only. 4 (33%) were sent to prison, with a median prison term of 9 months. All 12 pleaded guilty.
This post uses the U.S. Sentencing Commission's records of 12 people sentenced in federal court in fiscal year 2023. 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.
Probation Only for 7 of 12
In fiscal year 2023, 7 of the 12 people sentenced under §2C1.2 received probation only. That means they received no prison and no other confinement. A prison term went to 4 people (33%).
Among those 4, the median prison term was 9 months. A quarter received 15 months or more, and a quarter received 6 months or less.
Supervised release after prison was ordered for 4 people (33%), with a median term of 9 months.
Equal Groups Against the Guideline Range
The sentences divided evenly by position. Within the range were 4 (33%). Below the range at the government's request were 4 (33%). Below the range without a government request were 4 (33%). None were above the range.
For all years of §2C1.2, 19% of sentences were within the range. Across all guidelines in fiscal year 2023, the share was 42%. The share in this year was higher than the all-years share for this guideline and lower than the all-guidelines share.
No Trials and Full Plea Agreements
Every one of the 12 pleaded guilty (100%), and no one was convicted after a trial. All of the pleas came with a written plea agreement.
No mandatory minimum prison term applied to any of the 12 people with that information recorded. With no trials in the group, there is no plea-and-trial comparison for this year.
Fines, Restitution, and Criminal History
The court ordered a fine for 5 people (42%) and restitution for 3 (25%).
All 12 were in the lowest criminal history category I and none were in the highest. Court-martial records have no criminal history field.
What the Guideline Covers and What Was Counted
The title of §2C1.2 in the Guidelines Manual is "Offering, Giving, Soliciting, or Receiving a Gratuity". All 12 cases are in the Commission's Bribery/Corruption category. A person is counted under the guideline that set the offense level for the most serious count.
The fiscal year runs from October 1, 2022 to September 30, 2023. The data leaves out acquittals and dismissals. Prison terms are those imposed, not time served.
Where Fiscal Year 2023 Sits in the Series
In fiscal year 2022, 15 people were sentenced under this guideline, with a median prison term of 8.5 months and 13% of sentences within the range. The median in fiscal year 2023 was higher than that. The counts in both years are small.
Across fiscal years 2016 to 2025, 112 people were sentenced, 46% were sent to prison, the median prison term was 12 months, and 96% pleaded guilty. For all guidelines in fiscal year 2023, 64,124 people were sentenced, the median prison term was 30 months, and 97% pleaded guilty. The table lists every year.
| Fiscal year | People sentenced | Median prison | Pleaded guilty |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2016 | 24 | 16.5 months | 100% |
| 2017 | 13 | 15 months | 77% |
| 2018 | 10 | 14 months | 100% |
| 2019 | 7 | 12 months | 7 of 7 |
| 2020 | 8 | 8 months | 8 of 8 |
| 2021 | 13 | 12 months | 92% |
| 2022 | 15 | 8.5 months | 93% |
| 2023 | 12 | 9 months | 100% |
| 2024 | 9 | 24 months | 9 of 9 |
| 2025 | 1 | n/a | 1 of 1 |
Limits of the Data
The records do not describe the facts of any case, so they cannot show why probation was more common than prison in this year. The crosswalk has no close court-martial counterpart for this guideline, so only federal numbers are reported.
How We Counted
Everyone sentenced in federal court in fiscal year 2023 whose primary sentencing guideline was §2C1.2 (12), 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)
- §2C1.2 Offering, Giving, Soliciting, or Receiving a Gratuity: Federal Sentences, FY2016–2025 (overview)
- §2C1.2 Offering, Giving, Soliciting, or Receiving a Gratuity: Federal Sentences, Fiscal Year 2022 (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.