Along with the 14-year prison sentence, U.S. District Judge James B. Zagel fined Rod R. Blagojevich $20,000 and issued a special assessment of $1,800.

But it could have been worse.

Blagojevich faced the possibility of a $250,000 fine for each of his 18 convictions.

"Many times when a judge imposes a lengthy prison sentence, they tend — unless it's a person of really enormous wealth — to reduce the fines," said Mark L. Rotert, a former federal prosecutor who now represents defendants as a partner at Stetler, Duffy & Rotert Ltd.

"If you're taking the primary breadwinner out of a household, putting a heavy fine on there is creating more financial pressures. What I suspect we see here is Judge Zagel concluded it was appropriate to part downward and get down below the suggested fine range and put this in an area that wouldn't impose as much of a financial hardship on the governor."

To calculate the fines they impose, judges review a probation department document that's not available to the public, said Randall Arthur Samborn, spokesman for the U.S. attorney's office.

The probation department analyzes a defendant's financial state to provide the judge with insight of the defendant's ability to pay. In addition to a fine, judges also issue a mandatory special assessment of $100 for each felony conviction — which totaled $1,800 in Blagojevich's case.

But this doesn't mean that the former governor must start making payments today. It's possible that he could wait until he's released from prison.

"It's kind of up to the defendant," said Michael Dobbins, clerk of court for the Northern District of Illinois. "If he or she has the money now and they want to go ahead and pay it, certainly we'll take it."

"If they don't have any income and they have to wait until they get out … and they're able to be employed, then they can start making payments to us."

Dobbins said defendants can be placed on payment plans to pay the fines, which go to the U.S. Department of the Treasury. As long as defendants pay something and aren't suspected of hiding assets, they typically won't face collection action from the U.S. attorney's office, Dobbins said.

"As you can imagine, there are defendants fined a lot of money who don't have it," Dobbins said. "You're talking about somebody who's going to (prison); they're not going to make a lot of money. It can't be that we just reach out and grab something. That's not something me, as the clerk of court, can do."

Along with the potential that he could permanently lose his currently suspended law license, Blagojevich expects to lose a state pension due to his convictions. A spokeswoman for the Illinois attorney general's office said her office is preparing a response to a request from the state retirement system about how to handle Blagojevich's state pension.

Blagojevich appears to still be eligible for a pension he earned as a six-year member of the U.S. House of Representatives. Published reports estimate that annual pension between $13,000 and $15,000.

Speaking about federal cases in general, T. Markus Funk of Perkins, Coie LLP said fines usually get calculated based on the likelihood that a convicted defendant will pay.

"Oftentimes in a large number of cases, the judges will waive a fine. They'll basically find that a defendant is and will be unable to pay," said Funk, a defense attorney who used to be a federal prosecutor.

"But in some cases, there's a perception that they will be able to make money, write a book down the road. … In those cases where fines are imposed, it's rare to see a fine that goes up to what the statutory maximum is — except sometimes in white-collar cases where there are substantial assets."

Zagel ordered Blagojevich, who turns 55 on Saturday, to report to prison on Feb. 16.

Blagojevich's convictions stem from allegations that he tried to trade the appointment to a U.S. Senate seat in exchange for $1.5 million in campaign contributions or other benefits; requested that a chief executive of a children's hospital contribute $25,000 to his political campaign in exchange for increasing pediatric reimbursement rates; delayed approval of legislation to benefit the state's horse racing industry to try to obtain $100,000 in campaign contributions; and lied to the FBI.

Blagojevich's prosecution was part of Operation Board Games, which began in 2003 and secured convictions against 15 defendants.