(For whatever reason, it’s selling much better than those “Just Turn State’s Evidence, Homie” T-shirts. Pic: DiazBros.com)
One more bullet dodged for the fighter you love to hate: Chael Sonnen will do no time for his role in a money laundering scheme in his home state of Oregon, according to MMAFighting.com. A US District Court judge sentenced Sonnen to two years probation, a $10,000 fine and the loss of his real estate license on Friday after the UFC middleweight pleaded guilty to federal mortgage fraud charges in January.
As part of the plea, Sonnen admitted he was party to “a financial transaction that was conducted or designed to disguise the ownership of funds due to wire fraud,” according to the report. Though he got off a lot easier than two other defendants who have already been sentenced in the case, Sonnen still faces some obstacles to restarting his MMA career, if his recent public spat with Nevada State Athletic Commission executive director Keith Kizer is any indication.
The terms of Sonnen’s probation are not yet known. As soon as they are he’s expressed interest in resuming his athletic career, as his suspension for testing positive for elevated levels of testosterone at UFC 117 also recently lapsed.
Mortgage broker Marty Folwick took the brunt of this little run-in with the law, getting 63 months (a little more than five years) in the slam for orchestrating “as many as 70 fraudulent loans and taking nearly $900,000 in kickbacks.” A bank loan officer charged in the case also got two years in the slam. Federal prison too, we assume, which ain’t no joke.
The original charges brought against Sonnen carried a possible sentence of up to 20 years in prison and a $500,000 fine, so he probably made the right call here.
Sonnen was sentenced in the case by Judge Michael W. Mosman in Portland.
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It is obvious that CP “Loves to Hate” Sonnen.