Michael Peppel, the former CEO of MCSi Inc., based in Dayton, Ohio, was convicted on charges of conspiracy, fraud, and money laundering for a scheme which defrauded investors of $18 million. Peppel allegedly cooked MCSi’s books to cause its stock value to remain high. Peppel faced between eight to 10 years’ imprisonment. However, according to… Continue Reading
Category Archives: Sentencing
Subscribe to Sentencing RSS FeedSixth Circuit Reduces Sentence of Detroit Arsonist, Limited by Plea Agreement
Posted in Pleas, SentencingIn 2010, Sam Wright and an accomplice, Calvin Jones, set fire to a commercial building on the east side of Detroit. The fire paralyzed one firefighter and injured six others who responded to the scene. Wright was charged in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan, entered a plea agreement with the… Continue Reading
Ellijay VP of Appalachian Community Bank Sentenced to 5 Years, 10 Months
Posted in Bank Fraud, SentencingAdam Teague of Ellijay, Georgia, former Senior Vice President of Appalachian Community Bank, was sentenced to 5 years’ and 10 months’ imprisonment Friday after pleading guilty last August to conspiracy and fraud charges in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia. Teague was also ordered to pay $5.8 million in restitution, his… Continue Reading
Atlanta Securities Lawyer Gregory Bartko Sentenced to 23 Years for Securities Fraud
Posted in Securities Fraud, SentencingImage source: www.gurneylawfirm.com/attorney-profile Gregory Bartko, a securities lawyer and Atlanta resident, was sentenced last Wednesday in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of North Carolina to 23 years’ imprisonment for securities fraud, as reported in the Columbus, Indiana, Republic. Bartko was convicted in 2010 at the conclusion of a 13-day trial on six counts… Continue Reading
TRAC Sentencing Data Posted Online
Posted in SentencingAs I’ve mentioned before, one of the purposes of this blog is to raise the quality of representation by providing access to pleadings, documents and ideas that will hopefully improve the practice across the board. In that regard, today, the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse posted online their new tool that allows users to access data… Continue Reading
The AP Report on Federal Sentencing
Posted in SentencingAs Professor Doug Berman notes over at his Sentencing Law and Policy blog, the AP reports that five years of federal sentencing data examined by the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC) (we recently cited this important resource), demonstrates that sentences for the same crimes in the same courthouse imposed by different judges varies sharply. The AP… Continue Reading
Six Sentenced in Georgia for Reverse Mortgage Fraud Scheme
Posted in Mortgage and Foreclosure Fraud, SentencingImage source: my.opera.com/edwardpiercy/blog/2011/04/28/reverse-mortgage-no-jill-st-john-yes You’ve probably heard of reverse mortgages, pitched on television ads by celebrities such as Robert Wagner and Fred Thompson. The mortgages are part of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) Home Equity Conversion Program (HECP) which permits senior citizens aged 62 years or older to purchase a home or remain… Continue Reading
Financial Fraud Sentencings in the Northern District of Georgia
Posted in SentencingWithin a couple of weeks of observing that the U.S. Attorney’s Office in the Northern District of Georgia has been slow on the uptake in prosecuting financial institution fraud, there were 2 significant sentencings in Atlanta on Friday. In the first case, 5 defendants (Kelsey Hull (151 months), Jonathan Kimpson (102 months), James Green (37… Continue Reading
Georgia to Take on Sentencing and Prison Reform
Posted in SentencingImage source: http://colorlines.com/archives/2011/02/seven_guards_arrested_for_retaliatory_abuse_of_georgia_prison_inmate.html Two articles in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution in the past two days reveal a sudden new priority of Georgia’s leadership to tackle criminal sentencing and prison reform. First, the AJC interviewed Governor Nathan Deal, who acknowledged the growing costs of Georgia’s prison system. “We’re at a point in time where the necessity for… Continue Reading
Georgia Man Pleads Guilty in Nationwide “Pill Mill” Prosecution
Posted in Pleas, SentencingJames Hazelwood, of Cumming, Georgia, pled guilty last Wednesday in Federal court in Ohio to charges of engaging in a continuing criminal enterprise. As reported in the Columbus Ledger-Enquirer, the charges relate to an alleged online "pill mill," which allegedly dispensed prescription drugs, including painkillers and anti-anxiety drugs, nationwide by means of false prescriptions. Hazelwood and… Continue Reading
Two Former Georgia Department of Family and Children Services Employees Sentenced for EBT Fraud
Posted in SentencingThe Atlanta Crime Examiner reports that Gene Tell and Kristy Nicole Williams were sentenced last Thursday in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia. Tell and Williams, employees of the DeKalb County office of the Georgia Department of Family and Children Services (DFCS), were charged with defrauding the U.S. Department of Agriculture of nearly… Continue Reading
Conrad Black Re-Sentenced to an Additional 13 Months’ Imprisonment
Posted in High Profile Cases, SentencingPhoto credit: http://dealbreaker.com On Friday, U.S. District Judge Amy St. Eve of the Northern District of Illinois re-sentenced Lord Conrad Black, former CEO of newspaper giant Hollinger International, Inc., to serve the remainder of his sentence, as reported in Canada’s Globe and Mail. Black has served 29 months of his original 78 month sentence,… Continue Reading
Conversion Solutions Holdings CEO of Adairsville, GA, Arrested in Provo, UT, After Fleeing Trial
Posted in Fraud, Securities Fraud, SentencingAfter a five-day nation-wide manhunt, Rufus Paul Harris, former CEO of Conversion Solutions Holdings Corporation (CSHC), originally of Adairsville, Georgia, was arrested on Sunday by the U.S. Marshal’s Service in Provo, Utah. According to the Rome News-Tribune, Harris fled Atlanta on May 23 following the eighth day of his jury trial for conspiracy, fraud and… Continue Reading
The Crack Cocaine Guidelines After the Fair Sentencing
Posted in SentencingThe draconian disparities in the sentencing of defendants convicted of crack cocaine offenses compared with those convicted of powder cocaine offenses is an oft-decried area of criminal sentencing. Since the 1980s, the United States Sentencing Commission’s Sentencing Guidelines used a "100-to-1" ratio, meaning that a criminal defendant who was convicted or pled guilty to an… Continue Reading
Conrad Black on the Problems of the U.S. Justice and Prison System: Prisoners are “An Ostracized, Voiceless Legion of the Walking Dead”
Posted in Fraud, SentencingCanadian citizen Conrad Black, former head of Hollinger International, Inc., and once the third biggest newspaper magnate in the world, was charged in the Northern District of Illinois with diverting corporate funds for his own use and was convicted in July of 2007for "honest services" mail fraud, in violation of 18 U.S.C. s 1846,… Continue Reading
Wesley Snipes, Actor, “Foreign Diplomat” and “Fiduciary of God,” Has Tax Convictions and Sentence Affirmed by Eleventh Circuit
Posted in Sentencing, Tax Fraud, VenueOn Friday, the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals issued an opinion in the highly-publicized tax evasion case against actor Wesley Snipes, U.S. v. Snipes, No. 08-12402, which may be read here. The odd facts in the case are as follows: around 2000, Snipes became involved with a tax resistance organization, American Rights Litigators (“ARL”), operated… Continue Reading
Former Brocade CEO Greg Reyes Sentenced to 18 Months; Counsel Blames Lawyers for Failure to Catch Stock Option Backdating
Posted in Securities Fraud, SentencingFrom Law.com, the former Chief Executive Officer of Brocade Communications Systems, Inc., Gregory Reyes was sentenced to 18 months in prison yesterday in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California for securities fraud and backdating stock options. The government had sought a 37 month sentence and a loss amount of $137 million. Reyes’ counsel attempted… Continue Reading
Former Broncos and UGA Football Player Arthur Marshall Sentenced to 69 Months for Mortgage Fraud
Posted in Fraud, Mortgage and Foreclosure Fraud, SentencingArthur Marshall, a former wide receiver for the Denver Broncos, was sentenced to 69 months imprisonment yesterday for bank fraud in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Georgia, Augusta Division, as reported by the Augusta Chronicle. Marshall was indicted in June of last year and pled guilty to two counts of bank fraud… Continue Reading
Florida Ponzi Con Man Scott Rothstein Gets 50 Years
Posted in Fraud, Ponzi Schemes, SentencingFlorida attorney and mastermind of a $1.2 billion Ponzi scheme, Scott Rothstein, was sentenced to 50 years yesterday in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida. The scam involved investments in non-existent settlements, and resulted in the loss of about $400 million to 400 victims. Rothstein wrote a letter to the court… Continue Reading
Ponzi and Check Kiting Schemes by Georgia Mortgage Broker Cost Victims $23 Million
Posted in Fraud, Ponzi Schemes, SentencingAccording to a press release by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Georgia, Edward William Farley, of Hoschton, Georgia, was sentenced to 25 years imprisonment today in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia for causing more than $23 million in losses to mortgage lenders in a real estate investment… Continue Reading
Federal District Courts Taking Increasing Advantage of Sentencing Discretion in Wake of U.S. v. Booker; 41.2% of Sentences Nationwide in 2009 Were Below Recommended Sentencing Guidelines Ranges
Posted in SentencingThe New Jersey Law Journal contains an article concerning the continuing struggles of federal district courts to come to terms with the discretion which the Supreme Court granted to them in sentencing in U.S. v. Booker, 543 U.S. 220 (2005). The article notes that the courts continue to follow the Guidelines, but that there has… Continue Reading
Justice John Paul Stevens on Criminal Law
Posted in Courts and Judiciary, SentencingSupreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens, who notified President Barack Obama last week that he will be stepping down from the Court when its current term is over in June or July, has written nearly 400 opinions over his nearly 35 year tenure on the Court. Justice Stevens has weighed in on many occasions on… Continue Reading
Tom Petters, The “Minnesota Madoff,” Gets 50 Years Out of Potential 335 Years for $3.7 Billion Ponzi Scheme
Posted in Fraud, Ponzi Schemes, SentencingFormer Minnesota billionaire and former owner of Polaroid and Sun Country Airlines Tom Petters was sentenced to 50 years imprisonment yesterday by the U.S. District Court for the District of Minnesota, according to the Associated Press. Petters, 52, was charged with a $3.7 billion Ponzi scheme–the largest in Minnesota history– which had over 500 victims and… Continue Reading
Warning to Tax Violators by U.S. Attorney’s Office, Northern District of Georgia; Marietta Men Sentenced for Investment Schemes Involving Raquel Welch, Faster Growing Trees
Posted in Miscellaneous, SentencingGeorgia federal criminal news today includes: A warning by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Georgia to would-be tax law violators, listing recent tax prosecutions (which has become something of an annual tradition as April 15 approaches). Two Marietta, Georgia, men were sentenced in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District… Continue Reading