Despite being described by his supporters Friday as "delusional," "naive" and having "never made good business decisions," Cohen insisted he could recoup the money if only he remains free. Siding with Del Sontro, who called Cohen's promises of wealth "just history repeating itself," Circuit Judge Howard Coates sentenced Cohen to 14 years and six months in prison. The judge's decision followed lengthy debate over the likelihood that Deutsch would ever recover a semblance of her prior fortune.
Hoffman proposed an alternative. He pointed to Paul Gozaloff, Cohen's longtime associate, who testified Friday that he would hire the convicted felon for a cybersecurity job with the potential for a six-figure salary if he were sentenced to probation instead of prison. Probation would come with strict conditions, Hoffman said: a substantial portion of his income to be paid toward restitution, combined with mandatory treatment for alcoholism and gambling addiction, habits which Hoffman said fueled Cohen's crimes.
He maintained Friday that Cohen has had a reckoning. Now, the attorney said, he is ready to rebuild, and to try β however slowly β to make Deutsch whole. Neither prosecutors nor Deutsch believe that's possible. According to investigators, Cohen met Deutsch in at Blue Martini in Boca Raton and presented himself as a successful businessman. Instead, prosecutors said Cohen laundered the money into his personal checking account, rebuffing Deutsch's requests for proof of the investment and reassuring her that he had taken care of it.
She was forced to sell properties, lost her home to foreclosure, could not afford a necessary tumor-removal surgery for her daughter and pulled her son out of college after she could no longer afford tuition. She has struggled to pay for basic necessities, rationing heat in her Pennsylvania home throughout the winter and surviving on meals of beans and rice.
During his trial in October, Cohen's team of public defenders emphasized the friendship that developed between Cohen and Deutsch and argued that Deutsch loaned the money to Cohen β he didn't steal it. Cohen said Friday that he'd been taken advantage of and manipulated into pursuing bad business deals but apologized to Deutsch nevertheless.
