Eighth Amendment circumvented through plea bargaining

“Pius Kampfen, a retired Swiss banker living in California, became a US citizen in 2006, has agreed to pay a penalty of 1.5 million on a high account balance of $2,930,785. Tax owing to the US was minimal ($4,945 according to the government’s reckoning). The penalty is thus 300x the damage to the government in uncollected taxes. Jack Townsend comments, ‘With the indicated tax loss, and the reference to the tax loss table for setting the base offense level, the sentence seems to be not out of line with other sentences. But, I wonder why the Government would have prosecuted the case with such a small tax loss. Certainly, probably his role as a Swiss banker himself probably was in the mix.'”

http://isaacbrocksociety.ca/2013/10/09/eighth-amendments-no-excessive-fines-clause-circumvented-through-plea-bargaining/