> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://www.bodiesburied.com/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # §2R1.1 Bid-Rigging, Price-Fixing or Market-Allocation Agreements Among Competitors: Federal Sentences, Fiscal Year 2018 - URL: https://www.bodiesburied.com/trends/federal-guideline-2r1-1-bid-rigging-price-fixing-or-market-allocation-fy2018/ - Published: 2026-11-04T10:57:20.000Z - Updated: 2026-11-04T10:57:20.000Z - Description: 53 people were sentenced in fiscal year 2018 with §2R1.1 as the primary guideline, the largest yearly count from 2016 to 2025. 17 (32%) were sent to prison, with a median prison term of 8 months, and 17 (32%) received probation only. Restitution was ordered for 42 (79%). - Author: Jocelyn C. Stewart - Tags: Understanding Trends, Federal [Trends](https://www.bodiesburied.com/trends/) › [Federal Prosecution Analysis](https://www.bodiesburied.com/trends/federal/) › [§2R1.1 Bid-Rigging, Price-Fixing or Market-Allocation Agreem](https://www.bodiesburied.com/trends/federal-guideline-2r1-1-bid-rigging-price-fixing-or-market-allocation/) › §2R1.1: FY2018 **In brief:** 53 people were sentenced in fiscal year 2018 with §2R1.1 as the primary guideline, the largest yearly count from 2016 to 2025\. 17 (32%) were sent to prison, with a median prison term of 8 months, and 17 (32%) received probation only. Restitution was ordered for 42 (79%). Updated November 4, 2026 · Sources: U.S. Sentencing Commission and Federal Judicial Center, fiscal years 2016–2025 This post uses the U.S. Sentencing Commission's records of 53 people sentenced in federal court in fiscal year 2018\. 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](https://www.bodiesburied.com/trends/federal/) series, which builds on [Military Moves Toward Sentencing Guidelines to Mirror the Federal System](https://www.bodiesburied.com/trends/military-sentencing-guidelines-federal-system/). How the numbers were built: [How the Federal Comparison Data Was Built](https://www.bodiesburied.com/trends/federal-data-methodology/). ## The Largest Yearly Group Under §2R1.1 Guideline §2R1.1 is titled "Bid-Rigging, Price-Fixing or Market-Allocation Agreements Among Competitors" in the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines Manual. In fiscal year 2018, the U.S. Sentencing Commission counted 53 people with it as the primary guideline. The table below lists 26 people for 2017 and 20 for 2019. All 53 fall under the Commission's offense type Antitrust. The fiscal year ran from October 1, 2017 to September 30, 2018\. A group this size is still small beside the 69,425 people sentenced under every guideline that year. ## Money Penalties A fine was ordered for 50 of the 53 people (94%). Restitution was ordered for 42 (79%). Restitution is payment ordered to repay a loss. The data does not show the amounts. It also does not show whether these penalties were paid. ## Prison Terms and Supervised Release 17 of the 53 (32%) received a prison term, and 17 (32%) received probation only, with no prison or other confinement. The median prison term among those sent to prison was 8 months. A quarter received 15 months or more, and a quarter received 1 months or less. 17 people (32%) were ordered to serve supervised release after prison, with a median term of 36 months. A mandatory minimum prison term applied to 0 of the 53 people with that information recorded (0%). ## Plea Agreements and Trials 48 of the 53 (91%) pleaded guilty, and 5 were convicted after a trial. Among guilty pleas, 98% had a written plea agreement, and 2% were straight pleas with no agreement. The median prison term after a guilty plea was 3.7 months. After a trial it was 18 months, based on 5 people convicted at trial and sent to prison. The groups are small, and the data does not show differences in the facts of each case. The comparison cannot show what a trial adds to a sentence. ## Position Against the Guideline Range 43 sentences (81%) were below the range at the government's request. 6 (11%) were within the range, and 4 (8%) were below the range without a government request. None was above the range. The all-years share within the range under §2R1.1 is 14%, and the share for everyone sentenced in fiscal year 2018 under every guideline is 51%. 94% of the group were in the lowest criminal history category. Court-martial records have no criminal history field. ## Context From Other Years The Commission's 2016 to 2025 total for §2R1.1 is 184 people. Of these, 43% went to prison, the median prison term was 6 months, and 91% pleaded guilty. The previous fiscal year, 2017, had a median prison term of 11 months, and the next, 2019, had 4 months. The fiscal year 2018 median was higher than the 2016 to 2025 median. For all guidelines in fiscal year 2018, the median prison term was 24 months. Only convicted and sentenced people appear in the Commission's data. The approved crosswalk lists no close court-martial match for this guideline, so no military comparison is made. | Fiscal year | People sentenced | Median prison | Pleaded guilty | | ----------- | ---------------- | ------------- | -------------- | | 2016 | 19 | 5 months | 95% | | 2017 | 26 | 11 months | 77% | | 2018 | 53 | 8 months | 91% | | 2019 | 20 | 4 months | 100% | | 2020 | 9 | 8 months | 7 of 9 | | 2021 | 6 | 0 months | 6 of 6 | | 2022 | 8 | 14.9 months | 7 of 8 | | 2023 | 17 | 6 months | 100% | | 2024 | 8 | 5 months | 8 of 8 | | 2025 | 18 | 6 months | 89% | ### How We Counted Everyone sentenced in federal court in fiscal year 2018 whose primary sentencing guideline was §2R1.1 (53), 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](https://www.bodiesburied.com/trends/military-sentencing-guidelines-federal-system/) (the background article) - [Federal Prosecution Analysis](https://www.bodiesburied.com/trends/federal/) (all federal posts) - [How the Federal Comparison Data Was Built](https://www.bodiesburied.com/trends/federal-data-methodology/) (sources and method) - [§2R1.1 Bid-Rigging, Price-Fixing or Market-Allocation Agreements Among Competitors: Federal Sentences, FY2016–2025](https://www.bodiesburied.com/trends/federal-guideline-2r1-1-bid-rigging-price-fixing-or-market-allocation/) (overview) - [§2R1.1 Bid-Rigging, Price-Fixing or Market-Allocation Agreements Among Competitors: Federal Sentences, Fiscal Year 2017](https://www.bodiesburied.com/trends/federal-guideline-2r1-1-bid-rigging-price-fixing-or-market-allocation-fy2017/) (previous or next fiscal year) - [§2R1.1 Bid-Rigging, Price-Fixing or Market-Allocation Agreements Among Competitors: Federal Sentences, Fiscal Year 2019](https://www.bodiesburied.com/trends/federal-guideline-2r1-1-bid-rigging-price-fixing-or-market-allocation-fy2019/) (previous or next fiscal year) - [How Often Federal Judges Sentence Outside the Guideline Range](https://www.bodiesburied.com/trends/federal-sentences-outside-guideline-range/) - [Mandatory Minimums: How Many Federal Sentences Are Set by Congress](https://www.bodiesburied.com/trends/federal-mandatory-minimum-sentences/) - [U.S. Sentencing Commission, Individual Offender Datafiles](https://www.ussc.gov/research/datafiles/commission-datafiles?ref=bodiesburied.com) (source) - [Federal Judicial Center, Integrated Database (criminal defendants)](https://www.fjc.gov/research/idb?ref=bodiesburied.com) (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](https://www.ucmj-defender.com/?ref=bodiesburied.com). This analysis is for education and information only. It is not legal advice, and every case is different.