In summary, Hansmeier was greedy, arrogant, devious, mendacious, and consistently positioned other people to be damaged by his conduct, even as he enjoyed the proceeds of the scheme he orchestrated. Even now, Hansmeier continues to accept responsibility only in conditional terms, hoping to convince the appeals court that his shocking abuse of his position of trust as a Minnesota attorney, and an officer of its courts, was somehow legal.

Position on Sentencing Memorandum by USA as to Paul R Hansmeier

Paul Hansmeier

Paul Hansmeier, who pleaded guilty to two counts of the indictment a year ago, has been sentenced to 14 years (+2 years of supervised release) by Judge Ericksen today (the government recommended 12.5 years). Also, the judge set the restitution amount to 1.5 million. He has to report on July 9.

His partner in crime John Steele pleaded guilty two years ago and has been cooperating with the government since. His sentencing is set to 7/9/2019, and the government recommended prison term of 8-10 years for him.

While Steele has been in the mea culpa mode since the indictment, Hansmeier was defiant, and he still is: just two weeks ago he filed a motion to remain free during his planned appeal, in which he still insists that he didn’t do anything wrong. The government replied on Wednesday arguing that prison is a more appropriate venue for Hansmeier to watch his appellate loss. The judge denied Hansmeier’s motion today.

While the Prenda chapter of the shameful history of lawsuit abuse is about to end, Prenda’s spiritual heirs continue using federal courts as an ATM machine today, wrecking lives and eroding respect for the judicial system. I have no doubt that the current porn copyright trolling conspiracies will be given the Prenda treatment one day. However, it won’t happen tomorrow: Hansmeier’s sentencing is taking place long 6 years after Judge Wright asked the DOJ to investigate the troll and today’s trolls are not as reckless as Prenda.

Coverage

Updates

06/27/2019

Hansmeier, predictably, appeals.

07/10/2019

According to the BOP website, Hansmeier is reported to the FCI Sandstone located about 100 miles north of Minneapolis.

Followup

The end of Prenda saga: John Steele sentenced to 5 years