25 years for SBF 'doesn't surprise me in the least,' says former Madoff attorney

Let’s back bring back in a partner in law firm Mints and gold Ira Sorkin, firmly Bernie Madoff’s attorney. What’s your reaction to the number, Ira? Well, it it doesn’t surprise me in the least because there are two factors that I think Judge Kaplan focused on. One, it’s not likely that he’s the defendant. Bankman Freed is ever going to do this again. So the the factor of you know he’s the possibility that he’s going to be a recidivist is forget about it. I think the two factors that weighed in with respect to the judge’s decision is deterrence. And the fact that I had since said earlier to one of your reporters, the perjury that Judge Kaplan found that bank and Freed committed when he testified at trial, The whole business of cyber bitcoins, block chains and alternative, we’ll call it investments is still up in the air. It’s a very, still a very confusing area and I think that it hasn’t been resolved by legislators or the regulators. And I think what Judge Kaplan was referring to in, to a very large extent is the deterrent factor. This is an area that needs to be dealt with. And I think a sentence of 25 years is a significant deterrence. Ira, do you think the sentence will have an impact on the construction of regulation? It should. But, you know, having been doing this for decades, every time you increase the penalty, the expectation is it’s going to have a deterrent effect. In most cases it hasn’t. But I think this is a message that is going to be sent by the regulators, in this case, the US Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York and perhaps the SEC and perhaps the CFTC. And whichever regulator is found to have been enmeshed in this area, it will, I think, have a deterrent factor as to straighten out what the heck this whole world involving bitcoins and block chains is all about. Well, the statement from the judge was damning. You know, the prosecutors were asking for 40 to 50 years, IRA. So I So it’s not the 6 1/2 that the defense was, was hoping for, but it was somewhere in the middle. I guess it could have been worse. Well, it could have been worse. But he’s a relatively young man and I think Judge Kaplan focused on the fact that he’s going to see the light of day. But again, I keep coming back and forgive me for being redundant. It’s deterrence. It’s those who are involved in this world of bitcoins and blockchains and cyber and the like that a message is being sent to them that the government is going to take a serious look at this type of conduct and that the penalty is to use the kids words humongous.