Danny Keating, the Louisiana attorney who admitted paying for 31 staged tractor-trailer crashes, was sentenced Thursday to 32 months in federal prison — more than the two years prosecutors sought.

U.S. District Court Judge Nanette Brown also ordered three years of supervised release and $657,405.34 in restitution. Keating must report to prison by January 11, 2027.

The sentence closes, at least for Keating, one chapter of "Operation Sideswipe," the sprawling federal case over intentional collisions in the New Orleans area. Cars packed with participants swerved into other vehicles — usually tractor-trailers — to manufacture injury claims.

For trucking, the scheme was a direct cost hit. Plaintiffs Keating represented collected roughly $1.5 million in payouts from the staged collisions, according to the U.S. Attorney's office. Keating kept about $358,000 of it.

Why Keating's role mattered

Prosecutors in the office of the U.S. Attorney for Eastern Louisiana described Keating as one of the most significant participants in the operation. In his 2021 plea, he admitted paying fellow ringleader Damian Lebeaud for 31 crashes while simultaneously representing 77 plaintiffs who claimed injuries in those collisions.

Keating pleaded guilty in June 2021. He remains the only attorney in the case to cop a plea. Since then he has cooperated with prosecutors, serving as a key witness in the successful prosecution of fellow attorneys Vanessa Motta and Jason Giles, who were convicted in March. Both await sentencing; earlier dates were delayed indefinitely while the two sides litigate motions.

His sentencing, too, was repeatedly scheduled and postponed before finally landing Thursday.

What did the courtroom argument look like?

According to NOLA.com, Keating's attorney Brian Capitelli asked Judge Brown for probation, citing his cooperation and poor health.

He didn't get it. And the 32-month term exceeded the 24 months prosecutors requested — though it sits below federal sentencing guidelines of 57 to 60 months.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Brian Klebba, arguing for the two-year term, said: "when faced with a choice, Mr. Keating chose to admit to his misdeeds, forfeit his law license and tell the truth about the crimes that he and others committed."

Where the wider case stands

Keating did not testify in the recent mixed verdict for several defendants charged in the murder of Cornelius Garrison. Garrison had agreed to cooperate with federal prosecutors in 2020 after pleading guilty, and was shot dead in his home soon after. The key murder charges ended in a hung jury, with no new trial scheduled, though the court returned other convictions.

Lebeaud, who also cooperated with prosecutors, is set for sentencing December 3 after numerous delays of his own.

Where Keating serves his time

Keating's attorneys on Friday asked the U.S. Bureau of Prisons to designate him to the minimum-security satellite camp at FCI Beaumont Low in Texas. A court filing says Keating suffers from "Common Variable Immunodeficiency ('CVID') and also has two spinal cord stimulators."

"Due to CVID and the spinal cord stimulators and his medication requirements, it is requested that he be designated to a Federal Medical Facility," the filing said. The Beaumont facility can treat those ailments, his attorneys argued.

With Motta and Giles still awaiting sentencing dates and Lebeaud's hearing set for December 3, the Operation Sideswipe docket will keep generating headlines — and reminders for carriers of what fraudulent crash claims cost the sector.