White Collar Crimes Carry a Wide Range of Sentences

White collar crime can take many different forms. Whether it is insider trading, failing to report income taxes or other types of fraud, many of these crimes wind up in federal court. Many of these cases can become high-profile, especially if a significant amount of money was involved. Those who are convicted of a white collar crime could be facing time in a federal prison.

Exactly how much time that one of these white collar crimes carries with a conviction has become a major issue for those awaiting sentencing. Federal judges use the Federal Sentencing Guidelines when deciding how long an offender will be sent to prison. These guidelines are merely there to aid the judge in determining the appropriate sentence, and are no longer mandatory.

The adherence to the suggestions by the guidelines varies from judge to judge, and seemingly also from crime to crime. The guidelines use a point system when coming up with the amount of prison time for the offender. For example, the case of hedge fund manager Joseph Contorinis has made the news recently for the sentence he received. Contorinis received information about several companies that were merging or being sold. He used this information to acquire or sell shares for the fund he was managing.

The court calculated the gains from the crimes as over $7 million, which left Contorinis facing significant time in prison. Investigators also stated that his trading helped the fund avoid an additional $6 million in losses, which could have added to even more time to his sentence.

Contorinis contended that the guidelines did not account for the significant losses incurred as a result of the trades. Others charged with crimes connected with these sales and mergers had significantly shorter sentences, ranging from three months in prison to three years of probation. When Contorinis was sentenced, he received six years in prison.

With the disparities in sentencing being the norm in white collar criminal cases, it is more crucial for those charged with crimes to understand how the courts will sentence them if convicted. An experienced criminal defense attorney will help you protect yourself during the trial and sentencing phase, if necessary.