I recently spoke at a law school class addressing current events in criminal law. The topic of the day was sentencing for “white collar” criminals — perpetrators of financial crimes like securities fraud and insider trading. We looked at the recent sentences handed out to white collar defendants – 15 years, 20 years, and 25 years — and I asked the students if they thought that sentences measured in decades were appropriate for non-violent first offenders. Is there something wrong with the federal sentencing regime, I asked, when fraudsters routinely receive longer sentences than violent criminals? See CNBC report here.
