A lot of prisoners get released after about half their sentence when they become eligible for parole, so 12 years is really 6 (and life is really 20) in a lot of cases. Fraud is a white collar crime and basically everyone gets out on parole first or second try.

The only ones who don't are murderers, gang members, drug dealers or whistleblowers. The American legal system judges crimes on how far from "normal behavior" they are, not how much harm they cause.

I don’t know about this particular case, but sentences are usually reduced to 3/4 or 2/3 depending on a bunch of factors referred to as good behavior. Unless a judge or a law explicitly disallows that depending on the crime or the sentencing. The amount varies by state or court type and judges usually account for that when deciding on the sentencing

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