During the settlement discussions, the prosecution asked for $1.5 million in restitution payments. Fortunately, Federal law required the court to take into account my ability to pay, so even though Judge Pfaelzer surely wanted to come down hard on me, she had to take my potential earnings into consideration. Because of my onerous conditions of release, the Probation Office calculated that I would be able to get only a minimum-wage job like flipping burgers. So Judge Pfaelzer based the amount of my restitution on the Probation Office’s projection of my earning minimum wage over a three-year period. Instead of the millions proposed earlier, I was ordered to pay $4,125.