Federal Theft and Fraud Sentences With a Loss of $95,001 to $550,000, Fiscal Year 2016
In fiscal year 2016, 1,670 people were sentenced in federal court for theft or fraud with a recorded loss of $95,001 to $550,000. Of them, 1,318 (79%) received a prison term, and the median prison term was 21 months. Almost all of them, 96%, pleaded guilty.
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Trends › Federal Prosecution Analysis › Federal Theft and Fraud Sentences With a Loss of $95,001 to › $95,001 to $550,000: FY2016
In brief: In fiscal year 2016, 1,670 people were sentenced in federal court for theft or fraud with a recorded loss of $95,001 to $550,000. Of them, 1,318 (79%) received a prison term, and the median prison term was 21 months. Almost all of them, 96%, pleaded guilty.
This post uses the U.S. Sentencing Commission's records of 1,670 people sentenced in federal court in fiscal year 2016. 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.
Prison Terms in This Loss Band
The sentencing records place 1,318 of the 1,670 people in prison, or 79%. Another 198 people (12%) received probation only. Those 198 served no prison time or other confinement.
For people sent to prison, the median prison term was 21 months. The median is the middle sentence: equal numbers of people received more and less. A quarter of those in prison received 36 months or more. At the other end, a quarter received 12 months or less.
Who Is Counted Here
Theft and fraud sentences in federal court fall under guideline §2B1.1. That guideline uses a loss table, and each step in the table raises the guideline calculation. The band of $95,001 to $550,000 follows those steps.
The U.S. Sentencing Commission data covers only people who were convicted and sentenced. Anyone acquitted, and anyone whose case was dismissed, does not appear. Fiscal year 2016 ran from October 1, 2015, to September 30, 2016.
Guilty Pleas and Trials
Of the 1,670 people, 1,601 pleaded guilty. That is 96%. The other 69 were convicted after a trial.
Among the guilty pleas, 92% came with a written plea agreement. The other 8% were straight pleas, entered with no agreement with the government.
The median prison term after a guilty plea was 20 months. After a trial it was 36 months. The trial figure rests on 65 people who were convicted at trial and sent to prison, a much smaller group. The records do not show why the medians differ. Cases that go to trial may also differ in their facts from cases that end in a plea.
Where Sentences Fell Against the Guideline Range
All 1,670 records listed how the sentence compared with the guideline range. Only 31% (512) were within the range. Another 29% (482) were below the range at the government's request. The records do not say why the government made each request.
The largest group, 39% (646), received a sentence below the range without a government request. Only 2% (30) were sentenced above the range.
Other Parts of the Sentence
A prison term was not the only order. Supervised release after prison was ordered for 1,299 people (78%), and the median supervised release term was 36 months.
Restitution, an order to repay victims, was part of the sentence for 1,528 people (91%). A fine was ordered far less often: 77 people, or 5%.
A mandatory minimum prison term applied to 248 people (15%). Criminal history was mostly light. In this group, 70% were in category I, the lowest criminal history category, and 5% were in category VI, the highest.
Fiscal Year 2016 Against Other Years and Bands
Across fiscal years 2016 to 2025, this loss band covered 12,709 people. For that full period, 78% were sent to prison and the median prison term was 20 months. The 2016 figures were close to those numbers.
All §2B1.1 theft and fraud sentences in fiscal year 2016, across every loss band, numbered 7,104. For that wider group, 70% were sent to prison, and the median prison term was 22.2 months. People in this band went to prison more often, and their median term was a little lower. The table lists each fiscal year for this band. The 1,670 people sentenced in 2016 were the highest count in the table.
| Fiscal year | People sentenced | Median prison | Pleaded guilty |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2016 | 1,670 | 21 months | 96% |
| 2017 | 1,489 | 21 months | 96% |
| 2018 | 1,328 | 21 months | 95% |
| 2019 | 1,283 | 21 months | 96% |
| 2020 | 944 | 21 months | 98% |
| 2021 | 1,013 | 20.5 months | 99% |
| 2022 | 1,228 | 20.1 months | 98% |
| 2023 | 1,247 | 21 months | 96% |
| 2024 | 1,280 | 18 months | 97% |
| 2025 | 1,227 | 18 months | 98% |
Limits of the Records
These records cannot be matched against military justice by dollar amount. Court-martial records rarely show the value of a larceny, so no court-martial count exists for this band. The federal numbers also say nothing about cases that ended without a conviction. They describe sentences, not the facts of any case.
How We Counted
People sentenced in fiscal year 2016 under guideline §2B1.1 whose recorded dollar loss falls in the band "$95,001 to $550,000" (1,670), 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 $95,001 to $550,000, FY2016–2025 (overview)
- Federal Theft and Fraud Sentences With a Loss of $95,001 to $550,000, Fiscal Year 2017 (previous or next year)
- Federal Theft and Fraud Sentences With No Dollar Loss, Fiscal Year 2016 (same year, other loss band)
- Federal Theft and Fraud Sentences With a Loss of $1,000 or Less, Fiscal Year 2016 (same year, other loss band)
- Federal Theft and Fraud Sentences With a Loss of $1,001 to $15,000, Fiscal Year 2016 (same year, other loss band)
- Federal Theft and Fraud Sentences With a Loss of $15,001 to $95,000, Fiscal Year 2016 (same year, other loss band)
- Federal Theft and Fraud Sentences With a Loss of $550,001 to $3.5 Million, Fiscal Year 2016 (same year, other loss band)
- Federal Theft and Fraud Sentences With a Loss Over $3.5 Million, Fiscal Year 2016 (same year, other loss band)
- Federal Theft and Fraud Sentences With the Loss Amount Not Specified, Fiscal Year 2016 (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.