My friend's business just got busted. How much jail time is he looking at?

[gegef]

He was involved in a lot of things:

Selling copyright software super-cheap
Spamming social media for money
Taking standardized tests (SAT, AP, etc.) for others using fake IDs
Making thousands scamming people on the Internet (selling useless scam products)

Oh, and he's also a heavy user of marijuana.

Is he looking at jail time? Will he get drug tested at his arrangement? Will the marijuana use hurt his case? Should he get an attorney? Will I still be able to visit him in prison???

[garrytoo]

Unless he just wants say guilty then he does need a lawyer. As far as how much time he may get it depends on whether he is charged with each criminal action or all together it could be a long time. If he is suspected of doing drugs he could be tested. Whats the use of visitation if hes in forever. When you do the crime and get caught you will do the time.

[bcnu]

Depending upon how he packaged his illegally copied software, he could be facing millions of dollars of fines and year in federal prison for each one of those. For instance, if he distributed 50 different titles of copyrighted software, that would be 50 separate counts, $50,000,000 fine, 150 years in prison...