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# §2R1.1 Bid-Rigging, Price-Fixing or Market-Allocation Agreements Among Competitors: Federal Sentences, FY2016–2025
- URL: https://www.bodiesburied.com/trends/federal-guideline-2r1-1-bid-rigging-price-fixing-or-market-allocation/
- Published: 2026-11-03T01:40:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-11-03T01:40:00.000Z
- Description: Fines were ordered for 164 of the 184 people (89%) sentenced under §2R1.1 from fiscal year 2016 to fiscal year 2025. 79 (43%) received a prison term, with a median of 6 months, and 59 (32%) received probation only.
- 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

**In brief:** Fines were ordered for 164 of the 184 people (89%) sentenced under §2R1.1 from fiscal year 2016 to fiscal year 2025\. 79 (43%) received a prison term, with a median of 6 months, and 59 (32%) received probation only.

Updated November 2, 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 184 people sentenced in federal court in fiscal years 2016 to 2025\. 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/).

## Fines Were the Usual Financial Penalty

164 of 184 people (89%) were ordered to pay a fine. Restitution was ordered for 75 (41%). Fines were therefore much more common than restitution in this group.

The group is the people whose primary guideline was §2R1.1, which is the guideline that set the offense level for the most serious count.

## What the Title Says

The Manual's title for §2R1.1 is "Bid-Rigging, Price-Fixing or Market-Allocation Agreements Among Competitors." By the title, it concerns agreements among competitors about bids, prices, or how to divide markets.

The Commission classifies all 184 cases as Antitrust. The approved crosswalk lists no close court-martial counterpart, so only federal numbers are reported.

## Prison Terms

79 people (43%) were sentenced to prison. The median prison term was 6 months. A quarter received 12 months or more, and a quarter received 4 months or less.

No mandatory minimum prison term applied to anyone. 78 people (42%) were ordered to serve supervised release after prison, and the median term was 36 months.

## Pleas and Trials

167 of 184 people (91%) pleaded guilty, and 17 were convicted after a trial. 96% of guilty pleas came with a written plea agreement, and 4% were straight pleas.

The median prison term after a guilty plea was 5 months. After a trial it was 18 months, based on 17 people. Cases that go to trial may differ from plea cases in many ways, and these records cannot show how.

## Where Sentences Fell Against the Range

Most sentences were below the guideline range at the government's request: 71% (130 people). Another 16% (29) were below the range without a request, and 14% (25) were within it. None was above the range.

Criminal history was minimal for nearly everyone. 95% were in the lowest category, and 0% were in the highest.

## Changes Across Fiscal Years

In fiscal years 2016 to 2019, 118 people were sentenced and the median prison term was 6 months. In fiscal years 2020 to 2025, 66 people were sentenced and the median was also 6 months.

The yearly table shows more movement. Fiscal year 2018 had the most people, at 53\. The yearly medians ran from 0 months in fiscal year 2021 to 14.9 months in fiscal year 2022, though those years had 6 and 8 people. The share who pleaded guilty ran from 77% in fiscal year 2017 to 100% in fiscal years 2019 and 2023.

| 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%            |

## Limits

The files include only people who were convicted and sentenced. They do not include acquittals, dismissed cases, or the size of any scheme. Because the Commission reports prison terms as imposed, the figures also do not show how much time anyone served.

### How We Counted

Everyone sentenced in federal court in fiscal years 2016 to 2025 whose primary sentencing guideline was §2R1.1 (184), from the U.S. Sentencing Commission's 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)
- [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.