> ## 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. # Federal Money Laundering Sentences in the Eastern District of California, FY2016–2025 - URL: https://www.bodiesburied.com/trends/federal-money-laundering-sentences-eastern-district-of-california/ - Published: 2026-11-04T11:08:18.000Z - Updated: 2026-11-04T11:08:18.000Z - Description: In the Eastern District of California, 103 people were sentenced for money laundering offenses in fiscal years 2016 to 2025. The median prison term was 37 months, and 83% received a prison term. Sentences were within the guideline range for 32% of them, and 45% were below the range at the government - Author: Jocelyn C. Stewart - Tags: Understanding Trends, Federal [Trends](https://www.bodiesburied.com/trends/) › [Federal Prosecution Analysis](https://www.bodiesburied.com/trends/federal/) › [Federal Sentences in the Eastern District of California, FY2](https://www.bodiesburied.com/trends/federal-district-eastern-district-of-california/) › Money Laundering: Eastern District of California **In brief:** In the Eastern District of California, 103 people were sentenced for money laundering offenses in fiscal years 2016 to 2025\. The median prison term was 37 months, and 83% received a prison term. Sentences were within the guideline range for 32% of them, and 45% were below the range at the government's request. 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 103 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/). ## Where Did Sentences Fall Against the Guideline Range? The guideline range is the sentencing range calculated under the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines. For the 102 people with this information recorded, 32% (33) were sentenced within the range. A below-range sentence at the government's request applied to 45% (46), and a below-range sentence without a government request applied to 21% (21). Only 2% (2) were above the range. Across all 94 federal districts, 25% of money laundering sentences were within the range. In the Eastern District of California, all offenses together had 40% within the range. Money laundering cases here were therefore within the range less often than the district's cases as a whole. ## Prison Terms and Probation Of the 103 people sentenced, 85 (83%) received a prison term, and 15 (15%) received probation only, with no prison or other confinement. Across all 94 districts, 88% of people sentenced for money laundering were sent to prison. Among those sent to prison, the median prison term was 37 months (3.1 years). A quarter received 19.5 months or less, and a quarter received 81 months or more. The median for money laundering in all districts together was 40 months, and the median for all offenses in this district was 48 months. Prison terms here are the terms imposed, not time served. ## Guilty Pleas, Plea Agreements, and Trials A total of 93 of 103 people (90%) pleaded guilty, and 10 were convicted after a trial. Among all districts, 93% pleaded guilty. In this district, all offenses together had a 96% guilty plea rate. Among the 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 33 months. After a trial it was 67.5 months, based on 10 people convicted at trial and sent to prison. That is a small group, and it cannot show how trials and pleas compare in general. ## Which Guidelines Applied? The offense type is the U.S. Sentencing Commission's category "Money Laundering." The most common primary guideline was §2S1.1 (Laundering of Monetary Instruments), used in 80 cases. The next most common was §2S1.3 (Structuring Transactions to Evade Reporting Requirements), used in 22 cases. A mandatory minimum prison term applied to 14 of the 103 people with that information recorded (14%). Supervised release after prison was ordered for 84 (82%), with a median term of 36 months. A fine was ordered for 13 (13%), and restitution was ordered for 37 (36%). ## Year-by-Year Counts Money laundering made up 2% of the 4,546 people sentenced in this district over fiscal years 2016 to 2025\. Fiscal years 2016 to 2019 had 60 people, and fiscal years 2020 to 2025 had 43 people. A fiscal year runs from October 1 through the end of September. Yearly counts are small, from 2 people in 2021 to 22 in 2017\. The yearly medians move widely, and these counts do not show a trend. The table gives each year. | Fiscal year | People sentenced | Median prison | Pleaded guilty | | ----------- | ---------------- | ------------- | -------------- | | 2016 | 18 | 64 months | 67% | | 2017 | 22 | 31 months | 86% | | 2018 | 8 | 35 months | 8 of 8 | | 2019 | 12 | 26 months | 100% | | 2020 | 8 | 24 months | 8 of 8 | | 2021 | 2 | 72 months | 1 of 2 | | 2022 | 7 | 24 months | 7 of 7 | | 2023 | 10 | 46 months | 100% | | 2024 | 7 | 43 months | 7 of 7 | | 2025 | 9 | 70 months | 9 of 9 | ## Criminal History and the Military Installations In this group, 64% were in the lowest criminal history category, and 5% were in the highest. Court-martial records have no criminal history field, so that measure has no military counterpart. Beale AFB, Edwards AFB, and Travis AFB, all in California, are in this district and appear in the site's court-martial data. Courts-martial are tried in military courts, not in this federal court. These federal numbers are reported on their own. ## What the Records Cannot Show The Sentencing Commission data counts only people who were convicted and sentenced. Acquittals and dismissals are not in it, so the numbers cannot show how many money laundering cases were charged and did not end in a conviction. The records also do not explain why any sentence was above or below the range. ### How We Counted Everyone sentenced in federal court in the Eastern District of California (U.S. Sentencing Commission district label "California East") in fiscal years 2016 to 2025 whose offense type was "Money Laundering" (103). Offense types are the Commission's OFFGUIDE categories. 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](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) - [Federal Sentences in the Eastern District of California, FY2016–2025](https://www.bodiesburied.com/trends/federal-district-eastern-district-of-california/) (overview) - [Federal Drug Trafficking Sentences in the Eastern District of California, FY2016–2025](https://www.bodiesburied.com/trends/federal-drug-trafficking-sentences-eastern-district-of-california/) (same district, other offense type) - [Federal Firearms Sentences in the Eastern District of California, FY2016–2025](https://www.bodiesburied.com/trends/federal-firearms-sentences-eastern-district-of-california/) (same district, other offense type) - [Federal Fraud, Theft, and Embezzlement Sentences in the Eastern District of California, FY2016–2025](https://www.bodiesburied.com/trends/federal-fraud-theft-embezzlement-sentences-eastern-district-of-california/) (same district, other offense type) - [Federal Immigration Offense Sentences in the Eastern District of California, FY2016–2025](https://www.bodiesburied.com/trends/federal-immigration-sentences-eastern-district-of-california/) (same district, other offense type) - [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.