§2E2.1 Making or Financing an Extortionate Extension of Credit: Federal Sentences, Fiscal Year 2016
In fiscal year 2016, 11 people were sentenced in federal court under §2E2.1, the guideline for extortionate extensions of credit. Of the 11, 9 (82%) received a prison term, with a median of 24 months (2 years). A mandatory minimum prison term applied to 1 person (9%).
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In brief: In fiscal year 2016, 11 people were sentenced in federal court under §2E2.1, the guideline for extortionate extensions of credit. Of the 11, 9 (82%) received a prison term, with a median of 24 months (2 years). A mandatory minimum prison term applied to 1 person (9%).
This post uses the U.S. Sentencing Commission's records of 11 people sentenced in federal court in fiscal year 2016. 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 Was Common, and One Mandatory Minimum Applied
Of the 11 people sentenced under §2E2.1 in fiscal year 2016, 9 (82%) received a prison term. The other 2 (18%) received probation only, with no prison or other confinement.
The median prison term was 24 months. The longest quarter of terms were 37 months or more, and the shortest quarter were 12 months or less. Terms here are sentences, not time actually served.
A mandatory minimum prison term applied to 1 of the 11 people with that information recorded, which is 9%.
Supervised Release, Fines, and Restitution
In all, 9 people (82%) were ordered to serve supervised release after prison, and the median term was 36 months. One person (9%) was fined, and 3 (27%) were ordered to pay restitution.
A Plea-and-Trial Comparison That Rests on One Case
In all, 10 of the 11 people (91%) pleaded guilty, and 1 was convicted after a trial. The median prison term after a guilty plea was 28.5 months. The person convicted at trial and sent to prison received 12 months.
One trial case cannot show how trial and plea sentences differ in general. Among the guilty pleas, 80% had a written plea agreement and 20% were straight pleas with no agreement.
Sentences Compared With the Guideline Range
Within the range were 5 sentences (45%). Below the range at the government's request were 4 (36%), and below the range without a government request were 2 (18%). None were above the range.
Across all years of §2E2.1 from fiscal year 2016 to 2025, 21% of sentences were within the range. For all guidelines in fiscal year 2016, the share was 49%. The share for this guideline in fiscal year 2016 was higher than its all-years share and lower than the all-guidelines share. In fiscal year 2017 it was 14%.
Criminal History
In the lowest criminal history category I were 64% of the group, and none were in the highest category VI. Court-martial records have no criminal history field.
Guideline Title and Counting Rules
The Guidelines Manual titles §2E2.1 "Making or Financing an Extortionate Extension of Credit; Collecting an Extension of Credit by Extortionate Means". The 11 cases fall in the Commission's Extortion/Racketeering offense type. Only cases where §2E2.1 drove the offense level of the most serious count are included.
This fiscal year began October 1, 2015 and ended September 30, 2016. People who were not convicted are not counted.
How Fiscal Year 2016 Compares
Taking all years together, 99 people were sentenced under §2E2.1. The all-years figures are 87% sent to prison, a median prison term of 30 months, and 92% guilty pleas. The median in fiscal year 2016 was lower than the all-years median.
In fiscal year 2017, 14 people were sentenced under this guideline, with a median prison term of 28 months. For all guidelines in fiscal year 2016, 67,742 people were sentenced, the median prison term was 24 months, and 97% pleaded guilty. The table lists every year.
| Fiscal year | People sentenced | Median prison | Pleaded guilty |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2016 | 11 | 24 months | 91% |
| 2017 | 14 | 28 months | 93% |
| 2018 | 18 | 33 months | 94% |
| 2019 | 16 | 29 months | 94% |
| 2020 | 7 | 33 months | 7 of 7 |
| 2021 | 9 | 15 months | 9 of 9 |
| 2022 | 4 | 0 months | 4 of 4 |
| 2023 | 9 | 35 months | 8 of 9 |
| 2024 | 8 | 33 months | 6 of 8 |
| 2025 | 3 | 37 months | 2 of 3 |
What the Records Leave Out
The records say nothing about the facts of a case. Because the crosswalk offers no close court-martial counterpart, this post does not compare military numbers.
How We Counted
Everyone sentenced in federal court in fiscal year 2016 whose primary sentencing guideline was §2E2.1 (11), 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)
- §2E2.1 Making or Financing an Extortionate Extension of Credit: Federal Sentences, FY2016–2025 (overview)
- §2E2.1 Making or Financing an Extortionate Extension of Credit: Federal Sentences, Fiscal Year 2017 (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.