1/29/2003 -- In anticipation of Robert Keppel's sentencing hearing in federal criminal court this Friday, the U.S. Attorney's Office filed a recommendation with the court yesterday that the owner of the now defunct Cheet-Sheets.com and CheetSheets.com Web sites serve 18 months in federal prison.

Keppel pleaded guilty in August to a felony charge of theft of trade secrets in violation of Title 18, United States Code, Section 1832(a)(2). The charge stemmed from the sale of Microsoft certification exam questions through Keppel's Web sites. It is the first known successful criminal prosecution of a "braindump" site owner in the IT certification industry.

While the crime carries a maximum sentence of 10 years, Assistant U.S. Attorney Annette Hayes told CertCities.com that 18 months is the appropriate sentence based on her office's interpretation of the federal sentencing guidelines.

The guidelines take into consideration many factors, Hayes explained, including the approximate loss to the victim, how much planning the crime took, whether the defendant accepted early responsibility for the crime (as in this plea bargain) and the defendant's prior criminal record (Keppel has none). "We came up with a sentencing range of 18 to 24 months, of which we're recommending the lower end," she said.

At the sentencing hearing, the judge will consider this recommendation as well as one prepared by the probation office and Keppel's defense. CertCities's attempts to reach Keppel's attorney before press time failed. Keppel is currently out on pre-trial release. (EDITOR'S NOTE 1/30/03: Today, Keppel's attorney provided CertCities.com with a copy of the defense's sentencing recommendation. The resulting story can be found here.)

Federal sentencing guidelines are fairly strictly structured. However, when asked if Keppel could get probation, Hayes said that the defense may argue that this case is unique in some manner and that the judge should "downward depart" from the guidelines. "You never know what a judge will do," Hayes said. "I hate to speculate."

Hayes said that Microsoft has not been given access to the sites' customer list, and that the list played no part in the plea bargain or sentencing. Hayes said that for Microsoft to gain access to the list, it would most likely need to sue in civil court. She said that the FBI would probably destroy the list "unless it planned to prosecute those that accessed the material..." but did not specify what charge might apply. She added, "We have no plans to do that at this time."

Microsoft declined to comment on the case or related aspects before the sentencing hearing.

CertCities.com will report the results of the sentencing hearing on Friday. - B.N.