Barry Boss, co-chair of the firm's White Collar Defense & Investigations Practice, Rebecca Brodey, a member of firm's White Collar Defense & Criminal Investigations Practice, and Emily Gurskis authored this article in The Enforcement MAZE, Over-Criminalizing American Enterprise. In this article, the authors argue that if an increase in individual prosecutions results from the release of the Yates Memo, this is likely to exacerbate the current crisis regarding “disproportionate and irrational” sentencing of white collar offenders. To address this problem, the authors advocate for sentencing reform. In particular, they discuss the “Shadow Guidelines” set out by the ABA as a starting point and suggest that less focus in white collar sentencing should be placed on the loss amount. Instead, loss should only be one of several factors considered, shifting the focus to overall offender culpability.
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