As most people know at this point SBF had his sentencing hearing on Thursday and his sentence has disappointed a lot of people, myself included. The more I have looked into it though and the more I read the fine details the more my mind is changing. I think we all need to remember that essentially this was the first court case like this in the world in the sheer size and complete catastrophe it turned into. Not only did it cross-jurisdictions but it involved everyone from the smartest people in the world to average individuals. In several ways what he did went above and beyond what the king of the Ponzi scheme Bernie Madoff did.

Under the charges he was convicted of he faced a maximum of 110 years in jail. His lawyers argued that he should serve no more than 6.5 years while the U.S. government countered with 40-50 years. Before the judge announced the number of years that he was going to be facing he did mention several HUGE things that will carry weight going forward. In his comments, he stated that SBF perjured himself during his testimony as well as committee witness tampering when trying to reach out to FTX counsel. He was never charged with these and I am not sure if he can since the judge already said he took this into consideration. There was one thing about SBF that I was scared could have resulted in him getting significantly less time, his diagnosis of autism. Due to how people can react when finding out mental health things like this how it affected the judge was going to be huge. The judge noted his understanding of his condition and how people with it can achieve great great things but in SBF's case, he used his genius to try and become immensely popular and powerful in the United States political world.

These statements by the judge helped limit his ability to appeal due to his thorough statements. I was still shocked though by the 25 years especially because right before announcing it the judge did state he was concerned that SBF would be in a position in the future to do something very bad. As I then went and looked at both recent and historical white crime convictions I was pretty shocked to realize that SBF ranked second, only behind Madoff, in the length he was sentenced to. He was also sentenced to a medium-security prison which is much harsher than what others have been sentenced to. A recent and similar company collapse was Theranos and the two founders were sentenced to less than 13 years each as well as minimum security prisons.

Essentially, SBF has been hit with the biggest punishment since Madoff. While I still disagree with the sentence it turns out that this sentence does send not only a message but ups the ante for those who might try to do similar things. SBF is expected to appeal which is not surprising but based on how the judge not only handled the whole case but also his explanations with sentencing SBF has a rather limited lane to appeal. There is also the chance that if he gets the whole case thrown out and redone the likelihood that his sentence would be less is extremely low and could blow up in his face. Due to the judge's stated risk of SBF engaging in illegal activity again, it will be extremely hard for him to get much more than a couple of years shaved off his sentence considering he will want good behavior to count. From what I have read and talked to people about he is highly unlikely to be able to get his sentence under 20 years putting him in jail then until the age of 52 or 53.