It could be over 100 years, or just decades

A jury of twelve found FTX founder Sam Bankman Freed guilty of all seven criminal charges against him. But the question of how long he will remain in prison is one that Judge Lewis Kaplan will spend the next few months discussing himself.

The earnest 78-year-old judge is a veteran of the Southern District of New York And he presided Some of the largest cases are before the court at 500 Pearl Street in downtown Manhattan.

Kaplan is straightforward and has no patience for courtroom pomp. If a witness is intentionally avoiding a question, or an attorney is redundant and negligent in his or her questioning, Judge Kaplan is quick to warn the offender and get the conversation back on track. He also has no problem calling out members of the show for chewing gum in the courtroom.

The judge’s lack of patience with Bankman-Fried during the defendant’s four days on the stand was obvious to anyone who was there — or later read the transcript.

The 31-year-old MIT graduate was a sight to behold on the catwalk. Under direct examination, he would sometimes break out into convoluted, repetitive, and contradictory sentences.

“So I should preface this by saying I’m not a lawyer,” Bankman-Fried began one answer.

“I’m not offering a legal explanation for this. I’m just offering, to the best of my ability, what my memory is. And the parts of this that go with that, you know – I’m not trying to give a final legal ruling on what this does or doesn’t say. – I’m not sure I I will answer absolutely yes to the question as I recently phrased it. I will try as much as I can to give the answer that I believe, which is that – as – at least as I remember understanding it at the time, FTX either the same or I believe it actually happened, without FTX as an intermediary, the money would be sent and – in the Lien Section herein, a lien on Alameda’s assets as security for those continuing liabilities, which will be repaid at the direction of FTX in the Returns Section herein, and – and in the Instruction Section paying off.”

Later, during interrogation, Bankman-Fried suddenly screamed, answering “yes” and “I don’t remember” hundreds of times. After dozens of such cases, the government often presented evidence that would either directly refute the defendant’s testimony or provide an answer to the question that Bankman-Fried had evaded.

Several litigants told CNBC that Bankman-Fried’s combative attitude toward Assistant U.S. Attorney Danielle Sasson was not a good look for the jury or the judge either.

Now, the question of prison time is up to Judge Kaplan. Sentencing date is March 28 at 9:30 a.m. ET.

Bankman-Fried was convicted of wire fraud, conspiracy to commit wire fraud against FTX customers and against Alameda Research lenders, conspiracy to commit securities fraud, conspiracy to commit commodity fraud against FTX investors, and conspiracy to commit money laundering.

Yesha Yadav, a law professor and associate dean at Vanderbilt University, told CNBC that the jury’s ability to reach a unanimous verdict within a few hours indicates that they were truly convinced and that there were no naysayers who needed to be convinced.

“This overwhelming consensus should give the judge the confidence to follow through on the jury’s decision by imposing a more severe sentence than the lighter one,” Yadav continued.

In this case, the statutory maximum sentence is approximately 115 years, but there is a sliding scale of sentencing according to recommended guidelines given the extent of the crimes and the defendant’s criminal history.

“I would not be surprised if SBF spends the next 20 or 25 years of his life in prison,” Renato Mariotti, a former prosecutor in the US Department of Justice’s Securities and Commodities Fraud Section, told CNBC.

“The sheer scale of his fraud was enormous. He was defiant and lied on the witness stand, and Judge Kaplan had little patience for his antics while out on bail. He will have more compassion for the victims than he did with Bankman-Fried.” Mariotti added.

In August, Judge Kaplan revoked Bankman-Fried’s bail and sent him back to prison on a witness tampering charge.

“Federal sentencing guidelines are likely too high, but they are just guidelines — and the judge has to take into account all of the circumstances surrounding SBF and his crime,” Mariotti said.

Yadav added that sentencing is governed by guidelines that consider factors such as the number of people affected and the total dollar amount, as well as the seriousness of the harm caused by the defendant.

“Here, there are some factors that could push the judge towards a very long prison sentence, perhaps closer to the 110 years suggested by the sentencing guidelines,” Yadav said.

He added that the sentence will amount to what the judge believes is sufficient to punish Bankman-Fried, deter others, and enhance respect for the law.

Former Assistant US Attorney Kevin J. O’Brienfrom specialized “Since judges have discretion even under the guidelines, I think his sentence will be in the 15 to 20 year range,” agreed, a white-collar criminal defense attorney in New York City.

O’Brien added that given Bankman-Fried’s age, he believes the judge will be inclined to give him a chance to live a full life after his prison term.

The Bankman-Fried case has been compared to that of Elizabeth Holmes, founder of the medical device company Theranos, which went out of business in 2018.

Holmes, 39, was convicted in early 2022 on four counts of defrauding investors at Theranos after testifying in her own defense. She was sentenced to more than 11 years in prison and began serving her sentence in May at a maximum security facility in Bryan, Texas.

But former federal prosecutor Paul Tuchman told CNBC that he expects harsher terms for the former FTX CEO, because “the scale of the losses he has suffered is simply staggering.”

Tuchman compared the Bankman-Fried case to that of Bernie Madoff, who was sentenced to 150 years in prison.

“Like Madoff, a lot of the losses in this case were from small investors. And not all of them were large institutions, which actually tends to create more pressure to get a big verdict,” Tuchman said.

“Sure, there might be some mitigation here,” Yadav said. “Sam Bankman-Fried is very young. The judge might take that into consideration. Bernie Madoff went to prison for 150 years when he was clearly much older — and he only had years left.” Limited productivity. Madoff comparison.

Yadav continued: “Sam Bankman-Fried still has an opportunity to make some sort of positive contribution during his life. Also, his crimes are not violent in nature.”

Another unexpected point is that the Justice Department may file a second, completely different case on separate charges against Bankman-Fried in March. 2024. The government has until February. 1 to let the court know if it plans to continue moving forward.

“Another issue here is that the sentencing will come in March 2024 — which is very close to the second criminal trial that Sam Bankman-Fried faces on charges of campaign finance violations and bribery of foreign officials,” Yadav said. “The prosecution will likely feel very confident in this upcoming trial. In other words, if he is also found guilty of these additional charges, he may see a longer sentence than is worth the several decades of time (at least) he has spent and is currently looking at.”