The judge accepted material gain may not have been the principal motivating factor and that the sentence would be damaging to other members of his family.
Fraud was a material part of the mortgage collapse, a big factor in commercial property and loan losses and a component in investment banking and private-equity losses that did more damage than acknowledged.
Estimates of injury and damage, it is admitted, could be out either way by a factor of ten: much depends on the nature of the material used and on prevailing weather conditions.