Federal Theft and Fraud Sentences With a Loss of $1,000 or Less, Fiscal Year 2024
In fiscal year 2024, 78 people were sentenced in federal court for theft or fraud with a recorded loss of $1,000 or less. A mandatory minimum prison term applied to 6 of them (8%), and restitution was ordered for 66 (85%). The 28 people sent to prison (36%) had a median term of 5.8 months.
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Trends › Federal Prosecution Analysis › Federal Theft and Fraud Sentences With a Loss of $1,000 or L › $1,000 or less: FY2024
In brief: In fiscal year 2024, 78 people were sentenced in federal court for theft or fraud with a recorded loss of $1,000 or less. A mandatory minimum prison term applied to 6 of them (8%), and restitution was ordered for 66 (85%). The 28 people sent to prison (36%) had a median term of 5.8 months.
This post uses the U.S. Sentencing Commission's records of 78 people sentenced in federal court in fiscal year 2024. 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.
Mandatory Minimums in a Low-Loss Band
A mandatory minimum is a prison term set by statute that the court generally cannot go below. In fiscal year 2024, it applied to 6 people in this band, or 8%.
Mandatory minimums come from statutes, not from the sentencing guidelines. The records used here show that a mandatory minimum applied in these cases. They do not show which statute set it or what conduct was involved.
Restitution and Fines
Courts ordered restitution, which is repayment to the victim, for 66 of the 78 people. That is 85%.
A fine, paid to the government, was ordered for 19 people (24%). The records show the orders, not whether the amounts were paid.
Prison, Probation, and Supervised Release
Prison terms went to 28 people, or 36%. Probation only, with no prison or other confinement, went to 47, or 60%.
The median prison term was 5.8 months, the same as the all-years median for this band. A quarter of the prison terms were 1.1 months or less. A quarter were 12.5 months or more.
Supervised release follows prison. It was ordered for 26 people (33%), and the median term was 36 months.
| Fiscal year | People sentenced | Median prison | Pleaded guilty |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2016 | 184 | 6.6 months | more than 99% |
| 2017 | 200 | 5.7 months | 98% |
| 2018 | 161 | 4.5 months | 99% |
| 2019 | 151 | 6 months | 99% |
| 2020 | 108 | 5.6 months | 100% |
| 2021 | 85 | 4.5 months | 99% |
| 2022 | 91 | 1.5 months | 100% |
| 2023 | 102 | 6.5 months | 97% |
| 2024 | 78 | 5.8 months | 99% |
| 2025 | 50 | 5.2 months | 100% |
Pleas and the 1 Trial
Guilty pleas resolved 77 of the 78 cases (99%). There was 1 conviction after a trial.
The median prison term after a guilty plea was 5.6 months. The person convicted at trial received 14 months. A single sentence is not enough to compare pleas and trials.
Of the guilty pleas, 82% were under a written plea agreement, and 14% were straight pleas.
Guideline Range and Criminal History
Within the guideline range were 65 of the 78 sentences (83%). Below the range without a government request were 6 (8%). Below the range at the government's request were 5 (6%). Above the range were 2 (3%).
Criminal history category I, the lowest, covered 72%. Category VI, the highest, covered 4%.
This Band Within the Whole Federal Count
All loss bands combined, 5,015 people were sentenced under §2B1.1 in fiscal year 2024. Of them, 74% went to prison, and their median term was 20 months.
For the $1,000-or-less band across fiscal years 2016 to 2025, 33% of 1,210 people went to prison. The fiscal year 2024 share was higher.
Where the Data Stops
The bands follow the steps in the §2B1.1 loss table. The data comes from the U.S. Sentencing Commission and lists only people convicted and sentenced, without acquittals or dismissals. Fiscal year 2024 covers October 1, 2023, to September 30, 2024.
There is no matching court-martial figure, because military larceny records rarely include the dollar value involved.
How We Counted
People sentenced in fiscal year 2024 under guideline §2B1.1 whose recorded dollar loss falls in the band "$1,000 or less" (78), U.S. Sentencing Commission (LOSSHI).
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
Different cases reach each system. Federal prosecutors bring a narrow set of cases. In fiscal year 2024, immigration and drug trafficking cases were 59% of everyone sentenced in federal court (36,664 of 61,678). Many crimes that the military prosecutes, such as most assaults, most sexual assaults between adults, and drug use, are usually state crimes for civilians and reach federal court only in special situations, such as on federal land or in Indian Country. A federal case and a court-martial for the same crime can involve different kinds of facts.
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.
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 (the background article)
- Federal Prosecution Analysis (all federal posts)
- How the Federal Comparison Data Was Built (sources and method)
- Federal Theft and Fraud Sentences With a Loss of $1,000 or Less, FY2016–2025 (overview)
- Federal Theft and Fraud Sentences With a Loss of $1,000 or Less, Fiscal Year 2023 (previous or next year)
- Federal Theft and Fraud Sentences With a Loss of $1,000 or Less, Fiscal Year 2025 (previous or next year)
- Federal Theft and Fraud Sentences With No Dollar Loss, Fiscal Year 2024 (same year, other loss band)
- Federal Theft and Fraud Sentences With a Loss of $1,001 to $15,000, Fiscal Year 2024 (same year, other loss band)
- Federal Theft and Fraud Sentences With a Loss of $15,001 to $95,000, Fiscal Year 2024 (same year, other loss band)
- Federal Theft and Fraud Sentences With a Loss of $95,001 to $550,000, Fiscal Year 2024 (same year, other loss band)
- Federal Theft and Fraud Sentences With a Loss of $550,001 to $3.5 Million, Fiscal Year 2024 (same year, other loss band)
- Federal Theft and Fraud Sentences With a Loss Over $3.5 Million, Fiscal Year 2024 (same year, other loss band)
- Federal Theft and Fraud Sentences With the Loss Amount Not Specified, Fiscal Year 2024 (same year, other loss band)
- Theft and Fraud by Dollar Loss: Federal Sentences vs. Article 121 Courts-Martial
- Army Article 121 Cases by the Numbers, 2021–2025 (court-martial data)
- Air Force Article 121 Cases by the Numbers, 2016–2025 (court-martial data)
- How Has Article 121 Changed in Navy-Marine Corps Courts-Martial Since 2017? (court-martial data)
- Article 121 (Larceny): Court-Martial Data and Trends (court-martial data)
- Article 121 UCMJ: Larceny and Wrongful Appropriation (law firm reference page)
- 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.