CHICAGO (AP) – A federal appeals court upheld the probation sentence Friday for the billionaire creator of Beanie Babies, rejecting arguments by federal prosecutors that he deserved prison time for hiding millions of dollars in a Swiss bank account.
H. Ty Warner was accused of evading $5.6 million in U.S. taxes by concealing assets. He pleaded guilty, made full restitution – and paid a nearly $54 million civil penalty.
But when the trial judge sentenced him to two years’ probation, prosecutors – who were pushing for at least a year in prison – took the rare move of appealing the sentence. They argued that the toy maker got off too easy given the lengths to which he went to conceal his crime.
The 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said the district court did not abuse its considerable discretion with the sentence.
“While incarcerating Warner undoubtedly would have sent a stronger message, the message sent by his existing sentence is, in our view, strong enough,” the judges wrote in the Friday ruling. “Even without a prison sentence, Warner’s payment of a $53.6 million penalty already provides a measure of deterrence.”