Today's unpublished Ciccolini case is another in a disturbing trend of restitution orders that are just, for lack of a better word, weird. Mr. Ciccolini evidently pleaded guilty to violating tax laws. The district court got creative in sentencing him, giving him one day of incarceration, imposing a $350,000 fine, and ordering him to pay a whopping $3,500,000 in restitution to an organization that may have been harmed by his actions.
The problem? The various restitution statutes don't permit restitution for the crimes Mr. Ciccolini committed. Reversed. Note, however, that it was the government who originally appealed this restitution order. We can presume that this is because the government wanted more "time" and less "creativity" in their sentence. Only Mr. Ciccolini and his accountant can know what he'd prefer.
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