Today, Garrett Bauer left behind his life in New York to begin serving a 9 year prison sentence for insider trading. Bauer pled guilty last December for his role in a 3-man ring that used confidential information on publicly traded companies. While Bauer was the man who executed the trades, Matthew Kluger was the source of the information from the law firms where he worked. Kenneth Robinson was the middle man who passed the information between the source and the trade, allowing the scheme to go undetected for 17 years. Kluger, who also pled guilty reported to prison last week to begin his 12 year prison sentence, while Robinson will report to prison for his 27 month sentence in September. Robinson cooperated with authorities by providing information and recording phone calls which led to the arrests of both Bauer and Kluger.
 

Bauer checked in to the federal prison camp today in Montgomery, AL on the grounds of Maxwell Air Force Base. It has been just over 6 weeks since U.S. District Judge Katharine Hayden in New Jersey handed down two of the longest sentences for insider trading (Bauer’s and Kluger’s) in U.S. history. In addition, Bauer forfeited all of his assets, which authorities have estimated to be about $25 million. Convicted insider trader Raj Rajaratanam, hedge fund manager who went to trial last year and was found guilty on all charges, got 11 years.

Bauer’s life has been on hold since his arrest in April 2011. To be productive and make amends for his illegal actions, he acknowledged his faults to not only the prosecutors in New Jersey, but to students around the country through campus visits and Skype presentations. No audience was too small as Bauer told students, “My hope is that you will never cross the line that I did.” From his first presentation at the Manhattan Jewish Experience at the Fifth Avenue Synagogue last September, to his final presentation at Fairleigh Dickinson University in Teaneck, NJ just days before his prison sentence, Bauer was on a mission to right his wrong through sharing his story. However, Judge Hayden did not see it that way and the 147 presentations that Bauer conducted over 9 months did not help his cause, but it did make a difference in many peoples’ lives. Hundreds of letters sent to the judge from faculty and students reflected the power of Bauer’s speech.
 

The past 6 weeks were painful for Bauer. His bank accounts were seized upon his arrest and he subsequently relinquished his apartment to the government as part of his settlement with them. He had stopped paying his mortgage, property taxes and HOA fees because he had no money. It was an odd existence living in a 5,000 sq.ft. apartment in Manhattan but only living off the cash in his pocket. The only money he was allowed to keep, and live on, came from selling personal belongings and furniture, which he slowly sold off on Craigslist and Ebay.

Once his prison sentence was handed down on June 4, he began to accelerate the packing and sale of his belongings. By July 4th, the apartment was empty and his few remaining items from his life were boxed and stored in a basement of a friend’s home on Long Island. ”I look at all my stuff in boxes in that basement and think, ‘This is all that’s left of my life,’” he told me in an interview last week. ”I find myself taping up boxes and thinking that when I undo this tape that my life will be so much different years from now.” Bauer, who turned 45 last Saturday, spent the last few weeks living with friends in New York and then staying with family in Florida.

Bauer told me, “For the past 2 weeks I’ve eaten more barbecue ribs and ice cream than I have in my entire life.” With regard to the emotional toll this has taken on him he said, “I’ve had my moments of crying but the more that I’m around people, the better I’ve been. I just am having a hard time believing that this is the way it turned out for me.”

Bauer’s older brother met him at Atlanta’s Hartfield-Jackson airport on Monday to drive down I-85 South to Montgomery, AL. ”I want to scope out the town so that I get a feel for where I am. I’ve never been to Alabama.”

This morning I received a final text from Garrett Bauer, “Going over there now! I’m nervous, but not scared.”

With good behavior, Garret Bauer will be released from federal prison in January 2020.