Some things to consider, for those interested in objectivity:

• We have basically no background info on Roy Brown (the homeless guy), no idea about prior convictions etc. that may have influenced the sentencing. Bizarrely, the actual crime on the books in Louisiana, where he committed it, has a massive sentencing range, of 3 to 40 years. This seems to be the one and only primary source for this info at all. Also, his was a violent crime,[^2] which tend to carry harsher sentences compared to non-violent, regardless of the type of crime.
• Allen took one of those 'help us fry the bigger fish and we'll go easy on you'[^1] deals from investigators, and as a result, prosecutors weren't even seeking anything close to 15 years. Said bigger fish got 30 years.
• The laws, including sentencing minimums etc., aren't exactly the same in Virginia (Allen) and Lousiana (Brown).

P.S. The Snopes article on this is 15 years old, so imagine the age of the actual screenshot.

[^1]: > Mitigating factors in Allen's sentencing were the fact that the fraud was already underway when he became CEO of TBW in 2003, that his crime was a non-violent one, and that Allen was one of six persons who received credit on their sentences for cooperating with investigators and testifying against Farkas, the mastermind of the fraud scheme. (Farkas himself was sentenced to thirty years in prison.)

[^2]: > Brown admitted walking up to a teller with one of his hands under his jacket and telling her it was a "stickup."