Lengeling told Doty it "felt like we got punched in the gut, quite frankly" when he recently learned prosecutors were asking that Miller spend a year in prison for the penny stock scheme. "It was a bit of a suprise."The one-year sentence, recommended by prosecutors, was markedly lower than the sentence of 30 to 37 months suggested by federal sentencing guidlines for the charge of conspiracy to commit securities fraud.
In giving Miller a day in prison beyond a full year, the judge actually was granting the defendant a sort of break: under federal rules, any defendant who is sentenced to more than a year in prison is eligible to be released after 85% of their term is served. People who get a year or less in jail are not eligible for early release., which has a pending civil complaint against him in connection with the scheme, Lengeling told the judge.
Miller, along with his co-defendants Christopher James Rajkaran and Saeid Jaberian, from 2017 through 2019 used bogus resignation letters purportedly written by the officers of multiple shell companies to seize control of at least four firms.