Sam Bankman-Fried sentencing underway: Here's what you need to know

Joining us this morning from our DC Bureau, former SEC prosecutor Jacob Frankel. Jacob, it’s great to see you again. Good morning. Good to see you again. How are you? Good to see you. Yeah. A lot of things that the judge has to consider the the, the perjury element, the deterrence element. You think it’s going to be something more like 30. I think it’s I think we’re looking at at least 30 years for the judge to come out as he did basically open opening saying perjury, you know, not, you know the jury came back in hours. I mean you know the the defense argument not being taken as credible. I think it clearly portends in my mind a 30 plus year sentence. The other thing we have to keep in mind is this is a criminal case. So there are two components, One is punitive, punishing Sam Bankman freed for what he did. The other is deterrence and that is there’s a crypto enamoured generation that is paying close attention to what this judge does and he really is going to want to send a message as well which is there will be a long sentence if you commit fraud regardless of what is the type of currency or what is the security. So on on that note, compare and contrast for us that the scale of his crime and punishment versus Bernie Madoff. Is there an element as you kind of alluded to there that they want to make a bit of an example out of him? It’s a, it’s a it’s a great question, but I really don’t see Madoff Embankment Freed as as comparable because because I really viewed Madoff as the ultimate Ponzi scheme here. You’re talking about as the government characterized that this was a fraud. You know basically he took money, used it for himself, used it for other purposes and lied to investors about it. I think it’s really more in some respects A generational prosecution. And that’s why I think we’re, I think the judge is also very much going to have in mind the level of attention that’s going to be paid to you know, to a sentence. There’s no way he’s going to return to a impose a sentence of 100 years or something outlandish as as was imposed on Bernie Madoff as we talked about here many years ago. But I do think it’s going to be substantial because of the scrutiny and the attention this decision is going to get. But at the same time, it’s going to come down well below the federal sentencing guidelines because the judge also knows he needs to build the perfect record for the appeal because the sentence as long as as well as the verdict will be appealed. What about the defense argument that the FTX victims did not suffer major losses? Is that likely to work? Is that true? I I, I. Well, number one, I think it I, I think a speculative argument, you know, is not going to impact the judge’s decision whatsoever with respect to sentencing that that’s my prediction. The other thing is it’s not as if Sam Bankman Freed actually provided restitution, you know, to the to the victims. We’re talking about what may happen as a result of the bankruptcy. The judge is going to look at the conduct at the time for which he was prosecuted. So I don’t think that defense argument is going to hold water with this judge. How about characterizing the performance of the prosecution and the defense, Jacob? Did the defense ever have a shot? Well, whatever shot they had, they lost when Sam Beckman free took the stand because as we heard already from the judge that you know the judge’s view and clearly in the in the view of the jury, he perjured himself. So usually that is make or break. That’s the ultimate desperation move. The government in my opinion did exactly what it needed to do in trying this case, not let itself get get go down the rabbit hole of crypto crypto issues. Crypto complexity instead focused on follow the money, take the money, it was stolen. These were lies and and that will that’s what the case was about. And as quickly as the jury returned the verdict in this case, that’s exactly how the jury perceived it. I think the government did a great job trying the case. I think the defense did the best job with what it had, which was very little, so the government clearly gets high marks in this prosecution.