The sentencing Guidelines continue to dictate the course of most federal criminal cases. As in the past, the guidelines commission made changes in 2001 that will be significant in many white-collar cases. However, the transference of power to the prosecutors is largely unabated and undebated. The guidelines generation of prosecutors and judges is now well upon us and recollection of pre-guideline justice (and its attendant compassion) has all but disappeared.
The 2001 amendments consolidate the theft, property destruction and fraud guidelines and adopt a unified sentencing table for these economic crimes.[1]� The amendments adopt an expansive definition of loss which encompasses the loss the defendant intended to impose, regardless of whether such loss was likely to occur, but also includes all reasonably foreseeable harms regardless of whether or not they were intended. Although fraud defendants sentenced at the lower end of this table may receive slightly lower sentences than under previous versions of the guidelines, most fraud defendants will receive higher sentences under the amended guideline.
