> ## 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. # 29 U.S.C. 501, Fiduciary responsibility of officers of labor organizations: How Federal Cases Ended, FY2016–2025 - URL: https://www.bodiesburied.com/trends/federal-statute-29-usc-501-case-outcomes/ - Published: 2026-11-03T06:55:54.000Z - Updated: 2026-11-03T06:55:54.000Z - Description: Of 206 federal defendants whose most serious charge at the end of the case was under 29 U.S.C. 501, 185 (90%) pleaded guilty and 19 (9%) had their cases dismissed in fiscal years 2016 to 2025. Only 2 went to trial, and neither ended in an acquittal. Every one of the 206 charges was a felony, and 75 - Author: Jocelyn C. Stewart - Tags: Understanding Trends, Federal [Trends](https://www.bodiesburied.com/trends/) › [Federal Prosecution Analysis](https://www.bodiesburied.com/trends/federal/) › 29 U.S.C. 501 **In brief:** Of 206 federal defendants whose most serious charge at the end of the case was under 29 U.S.C. 501, 185 (90%) pleaded guilty and 19 (9%) had their cases dismissed in fiscal years 2016 to 2025\. Only 2 went to trial, and neither ended in an acquittal. Every one of the 206 charges was a felony, and 75 of the 187 people convicted (40%) received a prison term on that charge. Updated November 3, 2026 · Sources: U.S. Sentencing Commission and Federal Judicial Center, fiscal years 2016–2025 This post uses the Federal Judicial Center's records of 206 federal defendants whose cases ended in fiscal years 2016 to 2025\. The series also draws on the U.S. Sentencing Commission's records of 659,036 people sentenced 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/). ## What This Section of the Code Is Title 29, section 501 of the U.S. Code carries the heading "Fiduciary responsibility of officers of labor organizations". This post reports how federal criminal cases under that section ended. It does not describe the conduct behind any case. The count comes from the Federal Judicial Center. It includes every defendant whose case ended in the period, whether by guilty plea, dismissal, or trial. A defendant is placed under section 501 when it was the most serious charge left at the end of the case. ## Guilty Pleas Were the Usual Result Most of these cases closed with a plea. 185 of the 206 defendants (90%) pleaded guilty. Another 19 (9%) had their charges dismissed. A dismissal in these records is not always a win for the defense. The category includes cases the government dropped on its own motion, for example after the same person pleaded guilty in a separate case. The records do not say which kind each dismissal was. Counting pleas and trial verdicts together, 187 of the 206 (91%) were convicted. ## Year by Year The yearly counts are small. The highest was 33 cases ended in fiscal year 2016, and the lowest was 11 in fiscal year 2023. The share dismissed moved from year to year. It was 18% in 2016, 0% in 2022, and 27% in 2023\. With so few cases in each year, a handful of dismissals can change the percentage a great deal, so these yearly figures are not a trend. | Fiscal year | Cases ended | Pleaded guilty | Dismissed | Trials | Acquitted at trial | | ----------- | ----------- | -------------- | --------- | ------ | ------------------ | | 2016 | 33 | 82% | 18% | 0 | 0 | | 2017 | 28 | 93% | 7% | 0 | 0 | | 2018 | 30 | 97% | 3% | 0 | 0 | | 2019 | 18 | 94% | 6% | 0 | 0 | | 2020 | 23 | 87% | 13% | 0 | 0 | | 2021 | 22 | 91% | 5% | 1 | 0 (0 of 1) | | 2022 | 16 | 100% | 0% | 0 | 0 | | 2023 | 11 | 73% | 27% | 0 | 0 | | 2024 | 13 | 92% | 0% | 1 | 0 (0 of 1) | | 2025 | 12 | 83% | 17% | 0 | 0 | ## How Often Did These Cases Go to Trial? Trials were uncommon. Only 2 defendants (less than 1%) went to trial over the period. Both were jury trials, and both ended in a conviction: 0 of 2 were acquitted. No case under this section was decided by a judge at a bench trial. That is far too few trials to say anything general about how a contested case under section 501 would end. ## Felony Charges and Prison Terms The level of the charge was the same in every case. All 206 (100%) were felonies. None was a Class A misdemeanor or a petty offense. A felony conviction did not usually bring a prison term on this charge. Of the 187 convicted, 75 (40%) received one. Among those whose term was 1 month or more, the median prison term was 12 months. The remaining convicted defendants did not receive a prison term on this charge. The records summarized here do not show what sentence they received instead. ## Type of Counsel at the End of the Case Type of counsel is recorded at the end of the case. A federal public or community defender represented 102 defendants (50%). A CJA panel attorney, a private lawyer appointed by the court, represented 27 (13%). Private (retained) counsel represented 76 (37%). The guilty plea share was 94% with a federal defender, 93% with a CJA panel attorney, and 83% with retained counsel. Dismissals were 6%, 7%, and 14% for the same groups. Both trials involved retained counsel. These differences describe groups of cases, not the quality of lawyers. People who hire a lawyer and people who receive an appointed lawyer face different charges and circumstances. The numbers cannot show what any lawyer did or how a case would have gone with different counsel. | Type of counsel at the end of the case | Defendants | Pleaded guilty | Dismissed | Trials | Acquitted at trial | | -------------------------------------- | ---------- | -------------- | --------- | ------ | ------------------ | | Federal public or community defender | 102 | 94% | 6% | 0 | 0 | | CJA panel attorney | 27 | 93% | 7% | 0 | 0 | | Private (retained) counsel | 76 | 83% | 14% | 2 | 0 (0 of 2) | ## What These Records Leave Out The approved crosswalk has no close court-martial counterpart for this statute, so the figures stand on their own. They count defendants, not the facts of any case. They do not show plea terms, the strength of the evidence, or why a case was dismissed. ### How We Counted Every federal defendant whose case ended in fiscal years 2016 to 2025 and whose most serious charge at the end of the case (TTITLE1) was under 29 U.S.C. 501, any subsection (206), Federal Judicial Center, counted as in the federal courts' Table D-4\. Type of counsel is TCOUNSEL; labels from the FJC criminal codebook. Section heading from the U.S. Code as published by the Office of the Law Revision Counsel (release point 119-136). 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 **Who is in each set of numbers.** The federal sentencing numbers come from the U.S. Sentencing Commission. They count only people who were convicted and sentenced in federal district court. People whose cases were dismissed or who were acquitted are not in them. The military numbers come from court-martial results, which include acquittals. To compare acquittal or dismissal rates, the federal side uses a different source: the Federal Judicial Center's case data, which counts every defendant whose case ended. **How "plea" and "trial" are counted.** In the federal sentencing numbers, "trial" means the person was convicted after a trial, including people who pleaded guilty to some counts and went to trial on others. People acquitted at trial are not in these numbers at all (see "Who is in each set of numbers"). In the federal case data, the trial rate counts both convictions and acquittals at trial among all defendants whose cases ended, including dismissed cases. Military numbers count contested cases that reached a verdict. These denominators are not the same, and each post states the one it uses. **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. **Type of counsel describes groups of cases, not lawyers.** The Federal Judicial Center records the type of counsel at the end of the case. Defendants who hire a lawyer differ from defendants who receive an appointed lawyer in their charges, criminal history, and circumstances, and some defendants change lawyers during a case. Differences in outcomes by type of counsel therefore cannot be credited to the type of lawyer. ## 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) - [29 U.S.C. 439, Violations and penalties: How Federal Cases Ended, FY2016–2025](https://www.bodiesburied.com/trends/federal-statute-29-usc-439-case-outcomes/) (same title of the U.S. Code) - [Appointed vs. Retained Lawyers in Federal Criminal Cases: How Cases Ended, 2016–2025](https://www.bodiesburied.com/trends/federal-appointed-vs-retained-counsel-outcomes/) - [Are Courts-Martial More Likely to End in Acquittal Than Federal Trials?](https://www.bodiesburied.com/trends/federal-trial-acquittal-rates-vs-courts-martial/) - [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.