Sam Bankman-Fried faces up to 100 years in prison. What is fair?

After a month-long trial and about four hours of deliberation, a jury convicted FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried last week of seven counts of fraud and conspiracy. He was accused of stealing billions of dollars from the customers and investors of his cryptocurrency exchange, and funneling the money into his investments and extravagant spending.

Now Judge Lewis Kaplan of the Southern District of New York will decide how many years in prison, if any, these crimes warrant. The looming conviction raises age-old questions about the appropriate punishment for economic crimes.

The maximum term is more than a hundred years for Bankman-Fried, who will turn 32 in March, the month in which he is sentenced. But federal sentencing guidelines, intended to ensure consistency among courts across the country, also provide flexibility. Penalties for the same crimes can vary widely depending on factors such as the severity of the crime, the cooperation of the convicted person and the inclinations of the judge.

White-collar crime is generally punished less severely than violent crimes. because perpetrators do not pose a physical threat to society. In 1990, Michael Milken, known as the “junk bond king,” pleaded guilty to six counts of fraud and conspiracy and was sentenced to 10 years in prison. He was released within about two years after cooperating with the government, and President Donald Trump pardoned him in 2020. Bernie Madoff, who pleaded guilty to 11 criminal counts over a 30-year, $64 billion fraud, was sentenced in 2009 to 150 years in prison. He died in custody in 2021. Elizabeth Holmes, the founder of Theranos, went to trial and was sentenced last November to about 11 years in prison after being found guilty of four counts of defrauding investors. Her recommended sentence range was 11 to 14 years, with a maximum of 20.

What is fair? That partly depends on how a judge views the purpose of the sentence. There are three classical theories:

• Deterrence: Harsh penalties send a message to potential criminals and prevent crimes. “If you want to deter, you have to reach an audience,” John Coffee, a law professor at Columbia University and an expert on white-collar crime, told DealBook. Bankman-Fried’s case is a “rare case” that receives significant media attention, he said, so millions will hear about his sentence, which serves a deterrent purpose.

• Retributive justice: Misconduct should always be punished. Advocates argue for harsh punishments that are exactly what they consider appropriate revenge.

• Rehabilitation: The goal is to rehabilitate offenders so they can reenter the community. That generally means less severe penalties and, for economic crimes, perhaps higher fines and restitution to victims, all based on the idea that people can be acquitted if given the chance.

Coffee said SBF’s economic crimes may be second only to Madoff’s in severity. which justifies an extended sentence, although he considers Madoff’s sentence unjust because it could not be served in his old age. The professor said he thought 50 years would be appropriate for Bankman-Fried, given his age, his offending and the media attention his sentence will undoubtedly receive. He said Judge Kaplan was known for being “very fair” but was not “overly lenient.”

First-time white-collar offenders rarely receive harsh sentences, let alone the maximum penalty. said Jennifer Taub of Western New England University’s law school, author of “Big Dirty Money: The Shocking Injustice and Unseen Cost of White Collar Crime.” She believes Bankman-Fried could be sentenced to about 25 years and released much sooner if he is of good behavior. Taub noted that the maximum sentences outlined in the guidelines do not reflect the ultimate punishment in most cases, although the grim possibilities could convince suspects to make a deal with the government. Bankman-Fried’s former colleagues at FTX and its sister firm, Alameda Research, who pleaded guilty and testified against him, may serve little or no prison time.

Imprisonment for economic crimes has an ‘expressive value’ Taub said. Financial fraud causes real harm, she said, “so you need the threat and reality of jail time.” Too lax an approach would undermine confidence in the justice system and suggest that the wealthy and well-connected had an unfair advantage, Taub said, but financial offenders also owe fines and compensation to victims, so locking them up for a long time is may not be the case. always serve justice. Bankman-Fried was obsessed with calculating risk; an effective punishment would signal to others like him that it’s not worth rolling the dice. – Efrat Livni

We want to hear from you: How should judges handle convictions for white-collar crime? Let us know here.

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT

President Biden got a boost after a poor run of polls. Democratic candidates did well in votes in Virginia, Kentucky, Ohio and Pennsylvania on Tuesday, winning re-election and polling well in votes on abortion rights. The results were good news for Biden after a Times/Sienna poll showed him trailing Donald Trump in key battleground states ahead of the 2024 election.

Hollywood studios and actors reached an agreement to end a tough strike. The SAG-AFTRA union tentatively agreed to a new contract with studios that could end the union’s longest work stoppage ever. The deal includes higher rewards for streaming content, better healthcare and limits on the use of artificial intelligence.

Women dominate this year’s Grammy nominees. SZA, Billie Eilish, boygenius and Taylor Swift are among the artists up for awards. SZA leads with nine nominations, but Swift could set a record by becoming the first artist to win four times in the album of the year category.

Google’s antitrust battle with Epic Games went to court. The tech giant is accused of unfairly pushing Android users to its Google Play app store, which developers say costs too much commission. Epic says the tactic hurts “competitors, innovators and customers,” but Google says Epic “wants the benefits of Android and Google Play without having to pay for them.”

The hunt for white truffles is becoming more expensive

Gram for gram, the white truffle is one of the most expensive delicacies in the world. In Italy, fresh white truffles cost as much as 4,500 euros per kilogram (or almost $2,200 per pound), according to Coldiretti, Italy’s largest agricultural trade group. As soon as they are shaved onto a plate of risotto or roasted quails in the best restaurants in the world, the price will multiply again, underlining their reputation as ‘white gold’. Acquerello in San Francisco offers a $495 truffle tasting menu (excluding wine and tax). Trufflephiles in London and Dubai can expect an equally expensive check.

With more extreme weather and shrinking forest habitat, sky-high prices will be the norm, truffle experts say.

At an auction last year in Alba, Italy, a one-and-a-half-pound example fetched a record price of €184,000 (almost $200,000). Bidders will converge on Italy’s truffle capital on Sunday to do it all again.

The Tuber magnatum Pico, or white truffle, is difficult to find, which adds to the rarefied price. (Efforts to breed it on truffle farms have led to some breakthroughs from scientists, but these are not enough to meet the rising demand from truffle fans.) In Italy, the truffles grow in selected places and colonize near the roots of oak, beech and poplar trees. They obtain nutrients from and feed on their woody neighbors. Given enough moisture and cool air, they ripen underground and fruit, signaling to dogs and woodland creatures where they are. Truffles are like nature’s little sentinels. If they can’t be found, something is wrong.

A bone-dry summer and autumn drought in central Italy have thrown the truffle trade into disarray. The same can be said of last year and the year before that. “The climate is not good,” says Alessio Galiè, a 38-year-old tartufaio, or truffle hunter, near Amandola in the central Italian region of Marche. (The climate has also been blamed for Italy’s olive oil crisis.)

Meanwhile, demand is as high as ever. The ancients called these aromatic fungi, which appear on the market for a few weeks every autumn, ‘the food of the gods’. Some consider them aphrodisiacs. Michelin-starred chefs design tasting menus around them. “The calls start coming in the summer,” months before the season officially opens in mid-October, says Roberto Saracino, founder of Liaison West Distribution, a Vernon, California-based distributor of Italian truffles whose customers include top restaurants in Las Vegas. Vegas, San Francisco and neighboring Los Angeles. It’s important that he lives up to their expectations, he said. “I don’t have a crystal ball.”

Neither does Gaul. He invited Bernhard Warner of DealBook and Scilla, Warner’s dog, to accompany him and Primo, a determined pointer, on the hunt. The dogs patrolled with their noses to the ground. Every now and then they picked up a scent. The anticipation of a score seemed as thick as the morning mist. But there were no truffles that day, Galiè finally concluded.

Things were even worse last year when the usual spring and autumn rains failed to materialize and yields dropped. The price was €5,000 per kilogram. “Global warming, or whatever we want to call it, is definitely causing a downward trend in the availability of truffles,” Saracino says.

This market dynamic was evident last Saturday at a truffle fair in Amandola. DealBook inquired about one nice copy. The seller took it out from under the glass and weighed it: 16 grams, no bigger than a walnut. Price: €40. She refused to negotiate. Sold!

Recent earnings reports from media giants revealed positive news about their streaming businesses, which they want to make profitable to please Wall Street. (Warner Bros. Discovery succeeded in the third quarter.)

That doesn’t diminish the billions that Hollywood companies — with the exception of Netflix — have lost to streaming, even as they claim it’s an essential part of their future. But the trend lines for the company have improved, to the relief of investors.

Michael J. de la Merced reporting contributed.

Thank you for reading! We’ll see you Monday.

We would like your feedback. Send your ideas and suggestions by email to dealbook@nytimes.com.