Dreier Sentenced To 20 Years

Marc Dreier was sentenced to 20 years imprisonment yesterday by U.S. District Judge (SDNY) Jed Rakoff. The government had asked for 145 years. Dreier’s attorney, Gerald Shargel, requested 10 to 12 years for his client. With good time, Dreier should do about 17 years and be released at the age of 76. His children, now teenagers, will then be in their mid-thirties. Sobering numbers for those caught up in securities fraud and securities fraud investigations. When the SDNY prosecutors threaten you with life imprisonment if you don’t plead guilty and cooperate, you’d better believe they mean business. Dreier’s case is different since he pled guilty early on and had no higher-ups to implicate. It is unclear from the Wall Street Journal story here whether Judge Rakoff granted a downward variance, but I assume that he did. It is impossible to imagine such a “light” sentence under the old mandatory Sentencing Guidelines regime. This is not meant as a criticism of the sentence. Just a reminder that, even in the age of Booker-Gall-Kimbrough, the odds of receiving a substantial term of imprisonment are high for those who roll the dice, go to trial, and lose.