Economic crime is something that intersects with the work of many practitioners, whether corporate counsel, business lawyers, civil litigators, estate planners, or family lawyers. As many know, the United States Sentencing Guidelines (“Guidelines”) have treated economic crimes with stiff guideline sentences. When the amount of intended loss rises, the sentences accelerate to the level of being extremely harsh. The United States Sentencing Commission has just published the results of their study of sentencing for economic crimes as applied in practice.The Guidelines have been declared to be advisory by the United States Supreme Court in United States v. Booker, 543 U.S. 220 (2005). The Guidelines are to guide the sentencing decisions of judges rather than place more rigid upper and lower ranges and provide for alternative sentencing only with formal “departures.” Since this change in 2005 in the Booker case, a study of actual sentencing practice has shown significant variations from the Guidelines.