In the three-page memo filed Tuesday afternoon, Goldsmith said that Stenger should be sentenced at the high end of the range. Goldsmith upped his request from Friday, when he simply asked for a sentence within that range. Goldsmith wrote that “the actual harm” is “difficult, if not impossible, to quantify,” in a case involving a corrupt politician.

In Stenger’s guilty plea hearing, he admitted that the loss amount due to his crimes was between $250,000 and $550,000. He admitted directing others to help Rallo and his partners purchase two parcels of land in Wellston for millions of dollars less than the county had paid to prepare them for sale. The St. Louis County Port Authority says there were at least $399,000 worth of contracts that “produced little or no benefit” linked to Stenger or his co-defendant and former port authority head Sheila Sweeney, plus $5 million in “unnecessary and ill-conceived grants” and at least $250,000 in consulting, auditing and legal fees due to Stenger’s frauds.