Sole Backdating Convict to Serve Two Months

Northern District Judge Charles Breyer.

For all the government’s bluster on stock-option backdating, the net result could be 60 days in a minimum security prison camp about an hour away from the sole convicted defendant’s house.

Ex-Brocade HR chief Stephanie Jensen came up for resentencing today. Jensen, you’ll remember, was convicted on a books and records count related to backdating. Her boss, former CEO Gregory Reyes, had his securities fraud convictions thrown out last year, and is headed for a retrial.

Still, a felony is a felony, and U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer of San Francisco gave Jensen four months the first time around. The Ninth Circuit reversed part of that sentencing calculation — but let her conviction stand — so Jensen and her lawyer, Keker & Van Nest partner Jan Little, appeared before Breyer once again. Little asked for zero time, while Assistant U.S. Attorney Adam Reeves urged Breyer to stick with four months.

Breyer, who is tough on white-collar sentencing, settled on two months, saying a message must be sent to corporate executives that they can’t roll over when asked to do something illegal. Little asked Breyer to recommend a halfway house, but the judge said no. Emphatically.

“I think that’s wrong in this case,” he said, adding: “I feel strongly that somebody who commits a white-collar offense, they go to jail.”

— Dan Levine

Comments

[backdating stock]

.., "felony is a felony"... i must agree with you... if someone is proven guilty then be it...but there are also cases on where the person is not proven guilty in some way...

[Roary Maxwell]

If she is actualy guilty then yes. But, what if it is a case of the Government just trying to have something to say that their investigation netted something. Look at this site:

http://www.usgovernmentlied.com/recent-court-cases/judge-throws-out-stock-fraud-charges-against-broadcom-co-founder-ex-cfo.html

I don't know if i can trust anything that prosecutors say in this case.

[Denise]

If Breyer feels so strongly about people that commit white collar crimes, why are the prosecutors walking free after lying to the court?