CNN Exclusive: Justin Paperny Analyzes Sam Bankman-Fried's 25-Year Prison Term

Transcript from CNN Interview:
Justin, prosecutors pushed for 40 to 50 years. Bankman-Fried's team had argued for six and a half years, saying that would be appropriate. What does 25 years mean to someone like Bankman-Fried, and how would you advise him to approach it?
"I know it feels like a life sentence. I suspect he'll serve around 18 years in prison, which will get him out around 50 years old. Others have gotten through it. So will he. He needs a plan. He needs to memorialize his journey and ensure that his time is productive. He can complain and excuse his conduct, or he can find meaning on the inside.
You heard a statement there. He said that his useful life is probably over. What do you think about having that perspective going into this?
"That's a common refrain from people going to prison. I felt the same way before I surrendered for an 18-month federal prison sentence. And then you get there and it feels good to have clarity. At least he has a clearly defined release date. He will learn from other prisoners. As I learned from Michael Santos, who was serving a quarter century for a nonviolent drug crime, he will learn from others who have mastered the experience, who don't complain, who use their time on the inside productively to prove worthy of a second chance. Judge Kaplan admonished him. And he should take what Judge Kaplan said to heart, and he should work to create a new record. We hope more prison reform is coming, but for him to benefit from prison reform or an earlier release date, he's got to prove worthy of it. This can turn out to be a positive experience in his life, but it won't happen by accident. He's going to have to work hard on days. He would rather do anything else but work hard in federal prison."
The judge here saying he would recommend that Bankman-Fried be placed in a medium or lower security facility. What does that look like with that experience, and how do you think he's going to adjust to that from being, you know, formerly a billionaire with a life with all the bells and whistles.
"Look, going from the detention center in Brooklyn to a low-security prison, which is where I suspect he'll end up at either Lompoc or Terminal Island, will feel like Disneyland compared to that detention center. But it's an adjustment to stand for count, to be warehoused for a very long period of time, to potentially have a job that's scrubbing toilets and showers. I don't like when people feel as if they can't be useful, useful in prison. He can have a productive life there, but it's going to require him to invest the time and do the work and be deferential and humble, and recognize he's moving into an environment where people may loathe him because he was a billionaire. People may admire him, people may hate him. So he needs to study that environment, lay low, adjust, do his job, avoid the prison hustle. Because the primary goal if you go to prison is not. To make matters worse, hardly a day goes by without some prisoner getting caught with an iPhone getting transferred. And if he's lucky enough to go to a low-security prison, his goal is eventually to go from a low to a minimum security camp where I serve time, not get into trouble and get moved up to a medium.
His lawyers, as they were trying to paint a picture of him as someone with a good heart, right? Who should get a lesser sentence. They talked about how he'd been tutoring inmates while he was confined. Is that something that you would advise him to continue, and what might that help facilitate for him in prison?
"If he wants an early release, perhaps through a compassionate release of the First Step Act, he's got to become extraordinary and compelling. So, yes, rather than complain, he should teach. Our nonprofit has a course that's a First Step Act approved program in the Bureau of Prisons called Preparing for Success After Prison. He should teach it or another course, but he has experiences that other prisoners can learn from, and he should use that experience and knowledge to educate and inform and teach those who have not had the benefits that people like him and me took for granted. So absolutely, he can find meaning on the inside, educate and help other people. And I wish he had conveyed more of that to Judge Kaplan today rather than claiming it. He was selfless or not selfish. He should have talked more about the life of meaning or relevance he has found since being taken into custody last August. It was a missed opportunity. He had the wrong messaging for this judge. Most defendants have the wrong messaging in front of their sentencing judge, and in retrospect, he has regret, and it's going to take him time to overcome that regret. He wasn't prepared for today, and Judge Kaplan punished him accordingly."
[e-mail] - 818-424-2220

[@ApplesOranges123]

Great job, Justin. You are excellent and do much good in your work.

[@WhiteCollarAdviceOfficial]

Thank you so much. I appreciate it.

[@unclvinny]

So glad to have stumbled on your channel. I love your compassion and (tempered) optimism about prison, reform, and what inmates can do to improve their lives, prospects and the lives of those around them. I appreciate what you said in another video about how people think barely at all about prison or jail life until it intersects with them personally. I had an acquaintance who went to prison for over 10 years, and hearing from him about what it's like was appalling. I wish we focused more on rehab in this country, instead of vengeance and punishment.

[@WhiteCollarAdviceOfficial]

Thank you for your comment. Finding that balance between directness and maintaining compassion and empathy is essential. As a defendant, I wished someone would have poured a bucket of cold ice on me and then said, "Get it together!" Instead, I was told what I wanted to hear. I paid the price with a longer sentence and more pain for my family. And yes, had I not gone to prison, I would probably still be saying, "Lock them up." I have learned so many valuable lessons, and I am thankful and grateful to have this platform to share them. Best to you.

[@rogergalvin9637]

Great job with this interview Justin! The last couple of years your videos have reached a new level. The message in is on point and the delivery nicely done and so fluid. Not to mention all the people you help. Proud to know you brother! 💪

[@joeunterberger1947]

I totally agree.

[@WhiteCollarAdviceOfficial]

It made me so happy to read your name. Thank you so much for your message. You’ve always been so kind and supportive of my work. So good to hear from you. Thank you.

[@ScottyCarper]

Look forward to hearing you speak more on this issue. EVERYONE can relate to SBF feeling of hopelessness. I hope he rallies and finds his path. I wish him luck.

[@WhiteCollarAdviceOfficial]

Me too. I’m grateful you’re on our team.

[@newhorizon4066]

That guy doesn't feel "hope" therefore neither "hopelessness." As usual people try to attach humanity to folks who have none.

[@joeunterberger1947]

You speak so clearly with such conviction and passion. Thanks for the work you do.

[@WhiteCollarAdviceOfficial]

Appreciate your note. Thank you.

[@nawarmasood]

I love how positive Justin always is and how honest he is!

[@WhiteCollarAdviceOfficial]

I learned from someone who conquered 26 straight years in prison. He had a plan, his dignity and the right attitude. If Michael Santos can do it, so can Sam Bankman-Fried!! And thank you!

[@madmad4769]

Proud of you and the work you do Justin

[@WhiteCollarAdviceOfficial]

Thank you for saying that. Thank you.

[@yosnake49]

Fantastic work Justin hopefully one day, you will interview Sam Bankman-Fried

[@zachbills8112]

In circumstances where you need to assign a dollar value to a human life for policy considerations the number is typically 10 million dollars. In this sense his crime was kind of like killing a thousand people. By that standard his sentence was lenient. Obviously you can't take this model too literally, but what SBF did was really bad.

[@govindagovindaji4662]

2:03 Omg! Now THAT frame of SBF may be speaking volumes ~ (or it could just be something or someone he was looking at intently, ha ha).

[@othmanabdullah8440]

congrats

[@WhiteCollarAdviceOfficial]

Thank you!

[@joseguzman6988]

I think most of us are shocked that he didn’t get a much longer sentence

[@WhiteCollarAdviceOfficial]

Longer? My god.

[@abseiduk]

When he comes out he will have few billion $$ waiting for him?

[@newhorizon4066]

Yes, the judge is too lenient, considering how this criminal behaved post-arrest, both in and out of court. Anyway I am going to count on how he will behave in prison.

[@pierre-yveschauvet5136]

@@WhiteCollarAdviceOfficial Aren't we talking about billions stolen to people? How much jail time should someone stealing a car should get, according to you?

[@richardshirley2786]

Sounds like BF feels sorry for himself.

[@johnwick6444]

Hi i got a question,im on pre trial release right now for a fraud case,can i just revoke my bond and go to jail until sentencing?Feels like i'm wasting my time rn,i would like to start and serve my time now.

[@WhiteCollarAdviceOfficial]

Yes

[@internetpolification]

The fact is, his parents will most probably be dead by the time he gets out. I wonder if they will reflect on this when they consider his father’s castigating him for “only” paying him $250,000 a year instead of the one million dollars promised……which SBF then agreed to. Or his mother’s asking for huge amounts of cash for her various projects. They are both accomplices in the 25 year sentence imposed on their son and I have no sympathy whatsoever for any of them. Greed

[@newhorizon4066]

Actually I think they will hang on to dear life just to see him walk out of prison. Then both will immediately implode like the bad guys in the 1st Indiana Jones...

[@govindagovindaji4662]

00:41 Yes, his "useful life was over" whenever he determined he was too clever for anyone to ever figure out his elaborate yet simple scam and when he trusted others would go along with him for the duration, no matter what he did, because he was just too cool ~ I'm supposing here. I obviously do not know the man or how his mind works. But we are not really useful while we are in the process of scamming no matter how good it looks on the outside or even to oneself. Yet I have to wonder how a person could possibly think and believe this scam could work for very long. Did he have imaginings on what it would look like when it came to a halt~? Did he ever live in nervousness of riding it so long or engage fearful thoughts of a sudden exposure~? Or did he think he would algorithm his way right back out of it before it was noticed by anyone~? I mean these questions had to have gone through his head, no~?

[@pierre-yveschauvet5136]

Yes, it's true, he can educate inmates on how to steal money on a much larger scale, for example.

[@WhiteCollarAdviceOfficial]

So cynical.

[@pierre-yveschauvet5136]

@@WhiteCollarAdviceOfficial What do you expect from such a crook who pleaded not guilty and never recognized any wrong-doing?

[@jeanieq6153]

I find it interesting that he lamented the loss of being useful. That’s not something I expected from a fraudster. If the comment came from him and he’s not just repeating what an attorney told him to say there may be some hope for him.

[@ekaterinavalinakova2643]

Sam did everything he shouldn't have done. Maybe if he wasn't messing around he would get 12 instead.

[@WhiteCollarAdviceOfficial]

Even less, I know

[@newhorizon4066]

Nah, one thing his mom must have taught him was never stoop so low as to acquire some humility. Hold your head up, the way mom did hers every day outside the court house.

[@marvinbrando722]

CNN needs to get people from the social media, KZbin. Otherwise, no ones watches them

[@donniefenwick5642]

Adoption day for SBF, he will be getting a new Daddy soon.