PRELIMINARY STATEMENT

Stephen Richards respectfully submits this Memorandum regarding his re-sentencing. The purpose of this submission is to highlight pertinent developments in the lives of Mr. Richards and his family members in the four years since the Court originally imposed a sentence of 84 months imprisonment. Mr. Richards has been incarcerated for 43 months. He has earned all available “good time” credit, which brings his total time served to 49 months. Certain events since his incarceration were unanticipated at the time of sentencing, and others demonstrate Mr. Richards’ rehabilitation to an extraordinary degree. These events are described below and are fleshed out in greater detail in letters and related documents contained in a separately-bound collection of Sentencing Letters and Supporting Materials. We respectfully ask the Court to weigh these intervening developments when fixing a term of incarceration that is “no greater than necessary” to achieve the factors listed in 18 U.S.C. § 3553(a). We respectfully submit that under all the circumstances the statutory purposes of sentencing would be satisfied by a sentence of 60 months.

BACKGROUND

Beginning in the mid-1980s, the corporate headquarters of Computer Associates International, Inc. (“CA”) instituted a fraudulent practice of premature revenue recognition. The so-called “35-Day Month” involved keeping CA’s books open for several days after a quarterly reporting period so that software contracts could be finalized and recognized as revenue for the already completed quarter. In 1988, Mr. Richards joined CA at age 23 in New Zealand, where he was born and raised. He rose through CA’s operations in New Zealand and Australia, and first moved to CA’s United States headquarters in 1998. He attained the position of Head of North America sales in 1999,