White Collar Roundup - November 2013

85 Years for Fraud

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit upheld an 85-year prison sentence in United States v. Stitsky over the defendants' claim it constituted "cruel and unusual punishment." The defendants had been convicted of fraud for their role in the scheme, in which 352 victims lost more than $23 million. During the approximately three-year scheme, the defendants allegedly misrepresented their firm's history and assets and failed to mention prior criminal history. (Notably, one defendant was in prison for a prior fraud conviction when he hatched this scheme and was on supervised release when he engaged in it.) After their hefty sentences were imposed, the defendants appealed, claiming the length violated the Eighth Amendment's ban on "cruel and unusual punishment." The Second Circuit disagreed, noting, "While the district court's sentence is severe, the facts it identified in support of its within-guidelines sentence adequately bear the weight