As a general public service announcement, anytime a reporter talks about federal "maximum sentences", you know they are an idiot.
See the following from a former federal prosecutor:
Crime: Whale Sushi. Sentence: ELEVENTY MILLION YEARS.
As an aside, I said a few posts ago that federal prosecutors go slowly because they can... I was right.
So since people here would probably love a number here is how it would roughly break down:
1) Assuming she hasn't hid previous felonies she would be in criminal history "Category 1."
2) The base for "wire fraud" is 8 points. It really doesn't matter how many counts there are.
3) She will get hammered for the amount of loss, lets say in the plea agreement they settle on $100M, that adds 26 points.
4) Everyone pleads guilty, so subtract 3 points for that.
That adds up to 31 points. Check the handy chart,
2016 Chapter 5
and that gives a guideline sentence of 108-135 months. The judge can go higher or lower, but they usually stay in the guidelines.
So when all is said and done, if she pleads guilty, which 99.999% of people facing federal charges do, she is probably looking at a sentence of between 10 and 15 years.
(Why do people plead guilty? Look at the chart again. If she goes to trial and is found guilty, when it comes to sentencing the feds could ague $1B+ in losses, and she was a leader, and sophisticated means, and who knows what else and the offense level could go to 43 which in the absence of the statutory maximum would be a life sentence.)
www.wsj.com
