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dereg

It should be noted that SBF is facing 165 years in prison.

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That's a maximum sentence, which is unlikely to match what he's realistically convicted of.[0]

Still, he is likely to spend decades in jail.

https://www.popehat.com/2013/02/05/crime-whale-sushi-sentenc... ctrl-f "guidelines"

Running through the sentencing guidelines on the wire fraud hits 15-life real fast though. The sentence increases with the amount stolen and he stole a LOT of money (so much that the table doesn't cover it! It only goes up to $550 million).

So aside from the totaling the points on sentencing guidelines, wire fraud actually maxes at a 20-year sentence per statute, and like Elizabeth Holmes, convictions for multiple counts are usually served concurrently. SBF fucked up a bit in that wire fraud that affects financial institutions (Counts 3/4) max at 30-years. But as a first offender, it'd be highly unlikely he sees more than half of that.

https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/18/1343

This was said about Holmes, too. It matters what he actually ends up convicted of. Early speculation always runs high.

Not so much. Holmes guideline sentence redlined the sentencing levels too; she got a significantly lower sentence than the guidelines allowed.

I got downvoted yesterday for implying this. Is it true that her sentencing was "right in the middle?"

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33963823

I'm fuzzy on this too. Her sentence was close to what the prosecution asked for, but the prosecution also seems to have asked for something much lower than the guidelines allowed --- so did the PSR.

That's right. Holmes' sentencing guidelines went over the top of the scale (45/43), and the prosecution recommended a variance to lower that. The guideline calculation was 80 years.

- "Through this variance request, the government also acknowledges that the Holmes’ crimes were not motivated by a short-term desire for financial gain. Second, this recommended sentence satisfies the ‘sufficient but not greater than necessary’ standard found in 18 U.S.C. § 3553(a). Finally, the Court will achieve the important sentencing goal of providing adequate deterrence to criminal conduct through a 15-year custodial sentence."

https://www.thedailybeast.com/theranos-founder-elizabeth-hol... (Mitchell Epner)

If this happened before her trial, she might have walked imo.

I thought it was standard federal prosecution practice to put up huge potential sentencing numbers, then negotiate downwards in hopes of securing a swift process, and therefore the initial indictment-implied sentencing number carries very little context?

It’s not even a negotiation tactic, the defendants lawyers know the sentencing guidelines. It’s a news release tactic.

Annoyingly, news outlets just recycle the hype. Tired of everything being exaggerated for attention in modern society, this is one reason faith in social institutions is on the wane.

This is the rare occasion where the hype sentence might actually give you the spirit of how serious the charges are; he's "really exploring the space", as Bruce Dickinson might say, of how severe you can make a wire fraud charge be.

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