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"Calculating Loss Under the Guidelines"

By Douglas A. Berman

The title of this post is the title of this new article in the New York Law Journal by Robert Morvillo and Robert Anello.  Here is how this effective piece starts and ends: Prosecutors sometimes appear to vie for placement in the Guinness Book of World Records for the longest sentence in a white-collar case. They are aided by the amorphous concept of loss calculation under a sentencing guidelines structure that equates jail time with often-inflated assessments of loss caused by the crime. In one recent case in Connecticut, the government argued for a finding of a $1.4 billion loss based on a fraudulent transaction that had no monetary impact on the earnings or revenues of the corporation in question. In a securities law setting, loss calculation for public corporation cases can be complex, requiring the retention of experts and incorporating such abstruse concepts as leakage, corrective disclosure, event studies and efficient markets...continue to full post

Full post as published by Sentencing Law and Policy on October 08, 2008 (boomark / email).