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Sentencing Commission is obliged to increase sentences for those defendants under a provision of the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act, the major gun safety measure that President Joe Biden signed into law in June. The commission, which has seven voting members, in January proposed two options to increase penalties, by either allowing judges to enhance sentences for straw purchasers or amending the federal sentencing guidelines to increase the starting, or base, range for sentences. "A knee jerk response to the directive in the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act will not make us safer," she said in a testimony at the hearing, arguing policy makers should collect data first before adopting any measure. The panel faces a May 1 deadline to submit any amendments to the guidelines to Congress. Reporting by Nate Raymond in Boston; Editing by Aurora EllisOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ Glencore sentenced to pay $700 million in US after bribery guilty plea
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-28 | by ( Luc Cohen | Thomson Reuters | Reports On The New York Federal Courts. Previously Worked As A Correspondent In Venezuela | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

Companies Glencore PLC FollowNEW YORK, Feb 28 (Reuters) - A U.S. judge on Tuesday ordered Glencore Plc (GLEN.L) to pay $700 million in connection with its guilty plea over a decade-long scheme to bribe foreign officials across several countries. Prosecutors have said Glencore paid more than $100 million in bribes to officials in countries including Nigeria, Brazil, Venezuela and the Democratic Republic of the Congo to win business or avoid audits. Overall, the Swiss-based multinational has said it expects to pay more than $1.5 billion to settle bribery and market manipulation accusations, including more than $1 billion in the United States. Last year, Glencore was ordered to pay $341 million in fines and $144 million in forfeiture after pleading guilty to a market manipulation charge in Connecticut federal court. Reporting by Luc Cohen in New York Editing by Marguerita ChoyOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ Sentencing Commission to Offer Guidance on New Laws After Yearslong Hiatus
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-10 | by ( Mariah Timms | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Sentencing Commission, back in action after more than three years without enough voting members, is advancing a broad set of proposals to make federal criminal sentencing more consistent. The commission sets guidelines and practices for the federal courts, instructing judges on the specifics of how to apply broadly worded laws written by Congress. Among its biggest projects now is providing guidance on the 2018 First Step Act, a bipartisan criminal justice overhaul that walked back some of the harsh sentencing policies of the 1980s and 1990s.

Sentencing Commission unanimously voted to publish for public comment a proposed amendment to federal sentencing guidelines relied upon by judges nationally that would limit them from considering a defendant's "acquitted conduct." The vote came a day before U.S. Supreme Court justices were scheduled to meet privately to consider hearing, among other cases, four different appeals by criminal defendants urging them to end to this common judicial practice. The U.S. Supreme Court in 1997 held that a jury's verdict of acquittal does not prevent a judge at sentencing from considering conduct underlying the acquitted charge. Some U.S. lawmakers and defense lawyers have criticized the practice as unfair and a potential violation of defendants' civil rights. Some members of the judiciary including current Supreme Court justices have questioned it.

☆ QAnon Adherent Is Sentenced to Five Years in Jan. 6 Riot
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-16 | by ( Jan Wolfe | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

WASHINGTON—A judge imposed a five-year prison sentence on an Iowa man who led a mob that chased a police officer near the Senate chamber during the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot. “You played a leading role in egging that mob forward,” U.S. District Judge Timothy Kelly told the defendant, Douglas Jensen, during a Washington, D.C. sentencing hearing Friday .

☆ Russian opposition figure found guilty of "fake information" about army - agencies
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-09 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

[1/6] Russian opposition leader, former Moscow's municipal deputy Ilya Yashin gestures in a defendants' glass cage prior to a verdict hearing at the Meshchansky district court in Moscow, Russia, December 9, 2022. Prosecution requested nine years in prison for Yashin for spreading fake information about the Russian army. Yuri Kochetkov/Pool via REUTERSDec 9 (Reuters) - Russian opposition politician Ilya Yashin guilty was found guilty on Friday of spreading "fake information" about the army, Russian news agencies reported. Prosecutors were seeking a nine-year sentence for Yashin, a Moscow district councillor. Reporting by Reuters; Writing by Mark Trevelyan and Jake Cordell; Editing by Kevin LiffeyOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ More Cases, Policy Changes Are on the Horizon, DOJ’s New Fraud Section Chief Says
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-30 | by ( Dylan Tokar | ) www.wsj.com time to read: +4 min

The fraud section has at least two bribery-related settlements with corporations that it plans to finalize in the coming weeks, Mr. Leon said. Justice Department settlements typically require companies to undertake compliance reforms over a set period of time. A company’s chief executive and chief compliance officer will be required to sign at the end of that period the certification document, stating that the company’s compliance program is “reasonably designed to prevent and detect” future violations. A veteran of the fraud section, Mr. Leon previously served as a supervisor in its securities fraud unit beginning in 2011 and then briefly as its deputy chief before departing in early 2014. More policy changes are on the horizon, Mr. Leon said, including an update to the fraud section’s FCPA corporate enforcement policy.

☆ Sentencing Elizabeth Holmes to 11-plus years for Theranos fraud was way too much
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-18 | by ( Andrey Spektor | Andrey Spektor Is A Litigation Partner At Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner | A Former Federal Prosecutor In New York. | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +8 min

A federal judge sentenced former Theranos CEO Elizabeth Holmes to 11 years and 3 months in prison Friday — too harsh a punishment considering the crime and the defendant. Anyone who claims Holmes received more or less than what she was “supposed to get” does not understand federal sentencing. Federal sentencing can seem arbitrary, but at bottom, it requires a humane and common sense result: Defendants must not be punished more than is absolutely necessary. Most people who are first exposed to federal sentencing — including lawyers — are bewildered by its unpredictability. Anyone who claims Holmes received more or less than what she was “supposed to get” does not understand federal sentencing.

LOS ANGELES — Former Los Angeles Dodgers player Yasiel Puig will plead guilty to lying to federal investigators who were probing an illegal sports gambling operation, prosecutors in Southern California said Monday. Puig, 31, will plead guilty to one count of making false statements, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Central District of California said in a statement. Puig will also pay a fine of at least $55,000, the prosecutors’ office said. Puig was charged and a plea agreement was filed Aug. 29, but the case was unsealed Monday, according to court records. Neither the statement from federal prosecutors’ office nor court documents say that Puig gambled on baseball.

☆ ‘Sweetie Pie’s’ star Tim Norman found guilty in nephew’s shooting death
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-16 | by ( The Associated Press | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +4 min

ST. LOUIS — A federal jury on Friday convicted a former star of the St. Louis-based reality TV show “Welcome to Sweetie Pie’s” of arranging the shooting death of his nephew. The jury deliberated about 17 hours over three days before reaching its verdict in the murder-for-hire case against James “Tim” Norman, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported. He was charged with conspiracy to commit murder-for-hire, murder-for-hire and conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud. A customer picks up food from Sweetie Pie's owner Robbie Montgomery, center, and Montgomery's son James Timothy Norman, right, at Sweetie Pie's in St. Louis on April 19, 2011. Former Sweetie Pie’s employees and other character witnesses testified that Norman and his nephew had a close relationship.

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