Ippei Blamed Shohei in His Letter to the Judge

Someone new to our community asked how Ippei got 57 months while his co-defendant, Matthew Boyer, got a year and a day. I told him it's not the right comparison. Ippei stole $16 or $17 million, and even if Shohei is the greatest athlete in the world and a billionaire, he's still a victim, and the case did real damage to his brand. But look at how the two men responded. Ippei blamed Shohei in his letter to Judge Holcomb; I read that letter and made a long YouTube video about it. Matthew treated it as an evidence challenge instead of a legal one. He built a narrative about what he would do going forward, volunteered with Prison Professors, and spoke at business schools including USC about the consequences of cheating. I attended both sentencing hearings and filmed a video right after Matt's, reciting what Judge Holcomb said. Judge Holcomb is cynical. He expects defendants to say one thing and do another.