There are few details in the story, so I can't say this for sure, but 16 years is probably greatly exaggerated. That sounds like a "press release" sentence. DoJ press releases when they indict someone greatly exaggerate the potential sentences, and the press uncritical reports those exaggerated sentences. They are often off by up to an order of magnitude from what is realistic.

See the article "Crime: Whale Sushi. Sentence: ELEVENTY MILLION YEARS" at Popehat for a good explanation of how this happens.

[1] https://popehat.com/2013/02/05/crime-whale-sushi-sentence-el...