Federal investigators accused Hu of running a "fraud assembly line." He was sentenced Friday afternoon, and given far less time than the four and a half years federal prosecutors had asked for.
By being sentenced to a year and a day, Hu will be able to take advantage of a quirk in the federal sentencing guidelines. It allows Hu to reap the benefit of the "good time" statute, meaning he will likely serve only about 10 and a half months of his sentence. Had he been sentenced to an even one year he would have been ineligible for the good time reduction and would have to serve the full 12 months.
In addition to the prison time, U.S. District Judge Amy St. Eve fined Hu $100,000. He has already paid more than $1 million to the state of Illinois in restitution for unpaid taxes.