§2S1.1 Laundering of Monetary Instruments: Federal Sentences, Fiscal Year 2022
In fiscal year 2022, 896 of the 1,001 people sentenced under §2S1.1 went to prison, with a median term of 48 months (4 years). A quarter received 100 months or more, and 9 people received a life sentence. 92% pleaded guilty.
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In brief: In fiscal year 2022, 896 of the 1,001 people sentenced under §2S1.1 went to prison, with a median term of 48 months (4 years). A quarter received 100 months or more, and 9 people received a life sentence. 92% pleaded guilty.
This post uses the U.S. Sentencing Commission's records of 1,001 people sentenced in federal court in fiscal year 2022. 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.
The Spread of Prison Terms in Fiscal Year 2022
The median is the middle sentence when all prison terms are put in order. Among the 896 people sent to prison under §2S1.1 in fiscal year 2022, the median prison term was 48 months. A quarter received 100 months or more, and a quarter received 24 months or less.
9 people received a life sentence. 73 people (7%) received probation only, with no prison or other confinement. The 896 who went to prison were 90% of the 1,001 people sentenced.
For all 64,142 people sentenced in federal court in fiscal year 2022, the median prison term was 30 months. That group covers every kind of offense, so it provides background only.
Trials Compared With Guilty Pleas
918 people (92%) pleaded guilty, and 83 were convicted after a trial. Federal court overall had a guilty plea rate of 97% in the same year. 93% of the guilty pleas here had a written plea agreement, and 7% did not.
The median prison term was 46 months after a guilty plea and 130 months after a trial, based on 83 people convicted at trial and sent to prison. The records do not say how strong the evidence was or what offers were made in each case.
What Guideline §2S1.1 Is
The Sentencing Guidelines Manual gives §2S1.1 the title "Laundering of Monetary Instruments; Engaging in Monetary Transactions in Property Derived from Unlawful Activity." The U.S. Sentencing Commission sorts the cases into the offense type Money Laundering. Each person is counted under the primary guideline, which set the offense level for the most serious count.
Fiscal year 2022 ran from October 1, 2021 to September 30, 2022.
Mandatory Minimums and Guideline Range
A mandatory minimum prison term applied to 300 of the 1,001 people with that information recorded (30%).
23% of the sentences (226) were within the guideline range. 47% (473) were below it at the government's request, and 29% (292) were below it without such a request. Less than 1% (10) were above it. In all federal cases that year, 42% were within the range, so within-range sentences were less common under this guideline.
Supervised Release, Fines, Restitution, and Criminal History
865 people (86%) were ordered to serve supervised release after prison, with a median term of 36 months. 80 people (8%) were ordered to pay a fine, and 354 (35%) to pay restitution.
67% were in the lowest criminal history category I, and 4% were in the highest category VI. Court-martial records have no criminal history field. The crosswalk has no close court-martial counterpart for this guideline, so this post reports federal numbers on their own.
Comparison With Neighboring and All Years
In fiscal year 2021, 831 people were sentenced under §2S1.1, with a median prison term of 50 months and 20% within the range. In fiscal year 2023, there were 1,132 people, a median of 48 months, and 21% within the range.
Across fiscal years 2016 to 2025, 10,282 people were sentenced under the guideline. 90% went to prison, the median prison term was 48 months, 92% pleaded guilty, and 22% were within the range. The table gives each year. The records cannot show why the numbers differ between years.
Only people who were convicted and sentenced are counted. Acquittals and dismissals are not in the data.
| Fiscal year | People sentenced | Median prison | Pleaded guilty |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2016 | 1,084 | 48 months | 92% |
| 2017 | 1,086 | 50 months | 92% |
| 2018 | 1,138 | 48 months | 93% |
| 2019 | 990 | 50 months | 91% |
| 2020 | 755 | 50 months | 94% |
| 2021 | 831 | 50 months | 95% |
| 2022 | 1,001 | 48 months | 92% |
| 2023 | 1,132 | 48 months | 90% |
| 2024 | 1,095 | 46 months | 90% |
| 2025 | 1,170 | 46 months | 92% |
How We Counted
Everyone sentenced in federal court in fiscal year 2022 whose primary sentencing guideline was §2S1.1 (1,001), 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)
- §2S1.1 Laundering of Monetary Instruments: Federal Sentences, FY2016–2025 (overview)
- §2S1.1 Laundering of Monetary Instruments: Federal Sentences, Fiscal Year 2021 (previous or next fiscal year)
- §2S1.1 Laundering of Monetary Instruments: Federal Sentences, Fiscal Year 2023 (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.