Cahill Partner Sam Enzer Extensively Featured in Media on Sam Bankman-Fried Sentencing
Date: 04/02/24
Partner and chair of Cahill’s Cryptocurrency & FinTech practice Sam Enzer has been featured and quoted as an expert in the cryptocurrency area on numerous programs and podcasts to discuss the sentencing of former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried, including Fox News Radio, Unchained Crypto, Unchained Crypto Podcast, The Block, and The Daily Mail.
To view, listen to, or read Sam’s coverage, please click below:
- Fox News Radio – March 29: 25 Years Behind Bars For The Former Crypto King
Former federal prosecutor and Cahill partner Sam Enzer rejoins FOX Business’ Kelly O’Grady to react to the sentence, analyze what message it sends to others in the crypto industry, and discuss how SBF compares to other notorious white-collar criminals like Bernie Madoff.
- Unchained Crypto Podcast – March 29: Epsiode 626: How ‘a Criminal Choice’ Got Sam Bankman-Fried a 25-Year Prison Sentence
Sam Enzer joined Unchained to unpack the sentencing, discussing the fairness of the length, explaining how the $11 billion forfeiture would work and how it’s different from the bankruptcy proceedings. Additionally, Enzer provided insights into the kind of prison SBF would end up in and into the three-year supervised release SBF will face after his prison term. The conversation further delved into the broader impact of the sentencing on the crypto industry, suggesting it could signify the end of a dark chapter.
- Unchained Crypto – March 29: Is Sam Bankman-Fried Really Expected to Pay Off an $11 Billion Judgment?
Speaking on an episode of Unchained, Sam Enzer, a partner at Cahill Gordon, explained that in cases of fraud, the government has the power to seize any and all assets held by the perpetrator, even those that are unrelated to the fraud, for its behalf. “If that’s in his name and it’s still out there, [the government] could seize it, sell it, and use the proceeds to compensate victims,” Enzer said (in fact, the penthouse has already been seized by the bankruptcy estate since it was bought in part with customer funds). In Bankman-Fried’s case, Enzer said that rather than seizing Bankman-Fried’s assets for itself, the government has elected to return the funds it recovers to the victims of the fraud.
- Unchained Crypto – March 28: FTX Founder Sam Bankman-Fried Sentenced to 25 Years for Historic Fraud
“This sentence balances the need to punish SBF for a fraud of epic proportions and deter others from emulating his crime, while at the same time giving SBF a light at the end of tunnel—an opportunity to be redeemed and return to society at an older, and hopefully wiser age,” Sam Enzer, a partner at Cahill Gordon & Reindel, told Unchained.
Enzer also said he felt the sentence was an important moment for the crypto industry as a whole.
“The sentence puts behind us a dark chapter and shows that our society has taken meaningful steps to purge the cryptocurrency sector of bad actors like SBF, to clear the way for the many honest entrepreneurs and technology developers seeking in good faith to innovate and build a brighter future for all of us with the transformative promise of blockchain technology,” Enzer said.
- The Block – March 27: Legal experts outline what to expect at Sam Bankman-Fried's hearing Thursday
The first thing that will happen Thursday morning is Judge Lewis Kaplan will confirm that he has received relevant materials, including victim letters, the government's and Bankman-Fried's sentencing submissions and a pre-sentence report by the U.S. Probation Department, which calculates and recommends an "advisory U.S. sentencing guideline range," said Samson Enzer, partner at Cahill Gordon & Reindel LLP. Enzer is a former federal prosecutor in the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York.
- Daily Mail – March 26: Inside the California medium-security prisons where FTX's Sam Bankman-Fried may live out his crypto fraud sentence as he's jailed this week
Another prediction about Bankman-Fried's the length of Bankman-Fried's prison sentence came from Sam Enzer, a former SDNY attorney and chair of Cahill Gordon's [Cryptocurrency & FinTech] group. He told the Unchained podcast that he expects 'a sentence north of 20 years.'