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Comment by john_strinlai | Hacker News Reader

>Akram is charged with one count of conspiracy to defraud the United States and to make and sell counterfeit postage stamps, five counts of making and selling counterfeit postage stamp labels, and four counts of wire fraud.

i would love more insight into how they come up with the number of charges. why five counts of making/selling counterfeit postage stamp labels instead of 1 charge that covers all 5 million, or 5 million charges, etc.

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Prosecutors call these "sample charges". Probably charged based on the five counts with the strongest evidence with dates far enough apart that they constitute separate crimes and the sentences can be run consecutively, rather than concurrently.

The primary aim is to put the defendant in as large a hole as possible, with the minimum of work at the start, such that the case can be disposed of via a plea deal.

They probably distinguish between what they think and what they know. It could very well be they ran a “sting” and made a few transactions through the site and are only charging against those transactions to get extradition started while they assemble the larger case.

Isn't it one count per distinct criminal act? I think they do it to keep things simple and sane. In some cases they'll drop some, or add more depending on how evidence grows and the case proceeds.

that was my understanding. i guess maybe they have evidence pointing to 5 distinct counterfeiting runs (of ~1MM stamps each) or something.

i know they like to throw more at the start for a better plea negotiation position, but 5 just seemed rather random here.

I just looked it up, it has something to do with the ones they're most likely to prove, so maybe they deeply documented at least one or more purchases through the website to document as much as possible about the case? It's possible they could uncover more as they continue investigating. You do raise a good point though, it also depends on how many stamps customers bought.

As I understand, the feds don't bring charges until their evidence is really really solid. Federal prosecutors have more than a 95% conviction rate.

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