<story><title>Elizabeth Holmes is sentenced to more than 11 years for fraud</title><url>https://www.nytimes.com/2022/11/18/technology/elizabeth-holmes-sentence-theranos.html</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>ryoshu</author><text>FTX is over $1 billion and the table maxes out at $550 million, so that should be fun. Lawmakers should revisit that.</text></item><item><author>tptacek</author><text>In a previous thread, I had this at &amp;quot;more than 10 years, less than 60&amp;quot; (yeah, that&amp;#x27;s an easy bet to make!). The core driver of the sentence is probably the guidelines 2B1.1 table, which scales sentencing levels by economic losses. She was convicted for something like $140MM in fraudulent losses, which by themselves ask for a 24-level escalation (the table maxes out in the mid-40s).&lt;p&gt;By the numbers, the court was probably quite lenient here. Not to say that&amp;#x27;s an unjust outcome; the &amp;quot;lenient&amp;quot; option for sentencing on serious federal felonies is still quite harsh.&lt;p&gt;&lt;i&gt;Edit&lt;/i&gt;&lt;p&gt;I tracked down the prosecutor&amp;#x27;s sentencing memorandum; they asked for 15 years. So I guess maybe not that lenient.&lt;p&gt;&lt;i&gt;Later edit&lt;/i&gt;&lt;p&gt;The PSR (the court&amp;#x27;s own sentencing memorandum, which the prosecution and defense respond to) had Holmes at level 43. I hereby claim that I called this. :P&lt;p&gt;But the PSR looks at the guidelines level table, which suggests 960 months for level 43, and instead recommends 108 months. So the court imposed a sentence higher than the PSR, lower than the prosecution asked, and all parties asked for much lower than the guideline maximum for the level.&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&amp;#x2F;item?id=29790880&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&amp;#x2F;item?id=29790880&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;i&gt;Later later edit&lt;/i&gt;&lt;p&gt;I&amp;#x27;m doing the math wrong; the guidelines range at that level is 240 months per charge (usually served consecutively). Still much higher than the ultimate sentence.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>tptacek</author><text>That&amp;#x27;s true, and it does mean that once you hit $550MM, you might as well keep going, but on the flip side, the full sentence accelerator for 2b1.1 at $550MM gets you above 20 years by itself.</text></comment>
<story><title>Elizabeth Holmes is sentenced to more than 11 years for fraud</title><url>https://www.nytimes.com/2022/11/18/technology/elizabeth-holmes-sentence-theranos.html</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>ryoshu</author><text>FTX is over $1 billion and the table maxes out at $550 million, so that should be fun. Lawmakers should revisit that.</text></item><item><author>tptacek</author><text>In a previous thread, I had this at &amp;quot;more than 10 years, less than 60&amp;quot; (yeah, that&amp;#x27;s an easy bet to make!). The core driver of the sentence is probably the guidelines 2B1.1 table, which scales sentencing levels by economic losses. She was convicted for something like $140MM in fraudulent losses, which by themselves ask for a 24-level escalation (the table maxes out in the mid-40s).&lt;p&gt;By the numbers, the court was probably quite lenient here. Not to say that&amp;#x27;s an unjust outcome; the &amp;quot;lenient&amp;quot; option for sentencing on serious federal felonies is still quite harsh.&lt;p&gt;&lt;i&gt;Edit&lt;/i&gt;&lt;p&gt;I tracked down the prosecutor&amp;#x27;s sentencing memorandum; they asked for 15 years. So I guess maybe not that lenient.&lt;p&gt;&lt;i&gt;Later edit&lt;/i&gt;&lt;p&gt;The PSR (the court&amp;#x27;s own sentencing memorandum, which the prosecution and defense respond to) had Holmes at level 43. I hereby claim that I called this. :P&lt;p&gt;But the PSR looks at the guidelines level table, which suggests 960 months for level 43, and instead recommends 108 months. So the court imposed a sentence higher than the PSR, lower than the prosecution asked, and all parties asked for much lower than the guideline maximum for the level.&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&amp;#x2F;item?id=29790880&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&amp;#x2F;item?id=29790880&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;i&gt;Later later edit&lt;/i&gt;&lt;p&gt;I&amp;#x27;m doing the math wrong; the guidelines range at that level is 240 months per charge (usually served consecutively). Still much higher than the ultimate sentence.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>geraldwhen</author><text>I’d wager bankman-fried is going to disappear, or mysteriously die in India.&lt;p&gt;Gerry Cotton had far less money on the table and he supposedly died abroad.</text></comment>