I have only scanned Doug Cassity’s plea agreement once, but two issues jumped out from that document.  The plea agreement is based on the US Sentencing Guidelines, and Page 28 of agreement explains that the Government and the defendant did not agree as to whether guidelines relating to economic losses should be applicable to Mr. Cassity.   If those guidelines were to be applied by the court, Mr. Cassity reserved the right to challenge any ruling that would extend his sentence beyond 115 months.  The other issue regards a provision titled “Forfeitures” (Page 33).  The Government only has approximately $3.7 million of Cassity assets subject to forfeiture.        

 

How will the court evaluate the fact that less than 1% of a stated loss of $400,000,000 has been seized from Mr.Cassity’s assets, and that he successfully precluded that loss from being included in his plea agreement?   A recent Rueters article suggests that the sentencing guidelines regarding white-collar fraud are often viewed as advisory rather than mandatory.   And, Mr. Cassity has to be uncomfortable with the fact he will be standing near his investment advisor, and Mr. Wulf’s potential sentence of a few hundred years.

 Wikipedia explanation of the US Sentencing Guidelines