§2E2.1 Making or Financing an Extortionate Extension of Credit: Federal Sentences, Fiscal Year 2019
In fiscal year 2019, 16 people were sentenced under §2E2.1, and 14 (88%) received a prison term. The median prison term was 29 months (2.4 years), but the range was wide: a quarter received 50.2 months or more and a quarter received 3.2 months or less.
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Trends › Federal Prosecution Analysis › §2E2.1 Making or Financing an Extortionate Extension of Cred › §2E2.1: FY2019
In brief: In fiscal year 2019, 16 people were sentenced under §2E2.1, and 14 (88%) received a prison term. The median prison term was 29 months (2.4 years), but the range was wide: a quarter received 50.2 months or more and a quarter received 3.2 months or less.
This post uses the U.S. Sentencing Commission's records of 16 people sentenced in federal court in fiscal year 2019. 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.
A Wide Range Around the Median
Of the 16 people sentenced under §2E2.1 in fiscal year 2019, 14 (88%) received a prison term. The other 2 (13%) received probation only, with no prison or other confinement.
The median prison term was 29 months. The highest quarter of terms were 50.2 months or more, and the lowest quarter were 3.2 months or less. A median in the middle of terms this far apart describes the center only.
Supervised release after prison was ordered for 14 people (88%), with a median term of 36 months.
Sentences Below the Range Without a Request
Below the range without a government request were 8 sentences (50%). Within the range were 4 (25%), below the range at the government's request were 3 (19%), and above the range was 1 (6%).
Across all years of §2E2.1, 21% of sentences were within the range. For all guidelines in fiscal year 2019, the share was 51%. The share for this guideline in fiscal year 2019 was 25%, about the same as the all-years figure and lower than the all-guidelines figure. In fiscal year 2018 it was 28%.
Plea Rate and Agreements
In all, 15 of the 16 people (94%) pleaded guilty, and 1 was convicted after a trial. Among the guilty pleas, 93% had a written plea agreement and 7% were straight pleas with no agreement.
No mandatory minimum prison term applied to any of the 16 people with that information recorded. The records for this year do not give separate median prison terms for pleas and trials.
Fines, Restitution, and Criminal History
A fine was ordered for 4 people (25%), and restitution for 4 (25%). In the lowest criminal history category I were 69% of the group, and none were in the highest category VI. Court-martial records have no criminal history field.
What the Guideline Covers and What Was Counted
The Guidelines Manual titles §2E2.1 "Making or Financing an Extortionate Extension of Credit; Collecting an Extension of Credit by Extortionate Means". The Commission treats these 16 cases as Extortion/Racketeering. Each is counted because §2E2.1 was the guideline behind the offense level for the most serious count.
Federal fiscal year 2019 started on October 1, 2018 and ended on September 30, 2019. Acquitted and dismissed cases are absent.
Fiscal Year 2019 Compared With Other Counts
In fiscal year 2018, 18 people were sentenced under this guideline, with a median prison term of 33 months. The table shows fiscal year 2020 with 7 people and a median of 33 months.
The all-years record has 99 people under §2E2.1: 87% sent to prison, a median of 30 months, and 92% guilty pleas. Across every guideline in fiscal year 2019, 76,538 people were sentenced, the median prison term was 21 months, and 98% pleaded guilty.
| 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 |
Limits of the Records
Without case details, the records cannot explain why prison terms spread so widely. The crosswalk offers no close court-martial counterpart, so the post is federal only.
How We Counted
Everyone sentenced in federal court in fiscal year 2019 whose primary sentencing guideline was §2E2.1 (16), 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)
- §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 2018 (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.