SBF sentencing: some thoughts. SBF got no favoritism

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2024-04-03 20:30:07

The 25-year sentence is the midpoint of my prediction of 20-30 years, and and his political donations were of no avail, as I wrote:

I think he’ll likely get 20-30 years. Despite his Democratic donations, there is nothing to gain by showing favoritism, as his image is tarnished, and showing toughness on crime is always popular or the safe bet.

25 years is the midpoint between the prosecution’s request of 50 years and defense’s request of 5-6 years. This means he will be 52 or so by the time he is free and clear. So unlike Madoff or Ross Ulbricht, he does have his eventual freedom to look forward to. Unfortunately, this means we can expect his comeback and redemption ark, which will certainty get media attention. This is how a justice system, in theory, is supposed to work: even the most contemptible of individuals should be allowed the opportunity to be rehabilitated–or having otherwise shown contrition for their actions or repaid their debts to society–be absolved of guilt and allowed to reenter society.

This was a very fair sentence. Not too harsh or too lenient, and commensurate with other large-scale white collar frauds. Jeffery Skilling of Enron received 24 years. Ken Lay faced up to 45 years, but died before he could be sentenced. Bernie Ebbers, the CEO of the $11 billion WorldCom fraud, was sentenced to 25 years, but released early on compassionate release and died soon after. Elizabeth Holmes got 11 years for the billion-dollar Theranos fraud.