Bill Reynolds - Life Real Loud - John Lefebvre, Neteller and the Revolution in Online Gambling

And, as with Lawrence’s sentencing, Castel drops in a comment about the ruinous nature of gambling before sentencing: “The court has seen firsthand how gambling addictions, gambling endeavors, have led to unfortunate consequences in the lives of many other people. Based upon all of the foregoing, I believe a sentence of forty-five days imprisonment, one year supervised release, and a fine in this case of $750,000, is sufficient but not greater than necessary to achieve the purposes of Section 3553(a).”

There it is, the same sentence as Lawrence, except Lefebvre gets to keep 250 grand, a nice wheel of cheese, in his man purse. The court dates were separated but the sentence itself remains parallel. Castel asks Marella if he has any objections. He doesn’t, but wonders if his client might be able to get credit for time served. There was that cock-up at FTC Oklahoma to account for.

Castel says the United States Bureau of Prisons is the organization that normally calculates any credit a defendant may receive, so what’s it got to do with him? Marella says fine, but could the judge recommend that the BOP do so? “Tell me more about it,” says Castel. “This was in U.S. custody?” And “On this charge?” And “How long?”

“I believe it was for eight days, Your Honor.”

“If that’s the case, he is entitled to that credit,” Castel says. “You will have a transcript of this proceeding, and I certainly hope he gets credit for every moment that he’s entitled to.” Marella thanks Castel, who then asks Velamoor if he has any objections. Velamoor doesn’t.

Castel says,

All right, the defendant will please stand and the court will impose sentence. John Lefebvre, it is the judgment of this court that you are hereby remanded to the custody of the United States Bureau of Prisons to be imprisoned for forty-five days.… The mandatory drug testing condition is suspended based on the court’s determination that the defendant poses a low risk of future substance abuse.… If you are released within this country, then you shall report to the nearest probation office within seventy-two hours of release from custody, and in that case you may be supervised in the district of your residence. It is further ordered that the defendant shall pay to the United States a total special assessment of $100, which will be immediately. I am imposing a fine in this case of $750,000, and that sum is due within sixty days of the date of the judgment in this case in full. With regard to forfeiture, is there any objection to the proposed forfeiture order which has been presented by the government?

Marella says no, and Castel says, okay, he can sign the order. Then he realizes it’s been signed and docketed already. Castel mentions to Lefebvre that he has the right to appeal the sentence. Lefebvre says he understands that. Castel says Lefebvre, like Lawrence, is a flight risk and remands him to the immediate custody of the marshals. Velamoor says the government has nothing more to add. Marella says he has nothing more to add.

Just before calling it a wrap, the judge says something genuinely surprising:

All right, Mr. Lefebvre, have a seat for a moment. It’s apparent to me that there’s a lot of good that you’ve done in your life, and I suspect that at bottom you are a good person. And I sincerely believe that you have made real efforts to get past this chapter in your life. You will succeed in that endeavor. You have a job to do for the moment, which is to repay a debt through the brief prison term that I have imposed on you, and then you’ll get on with your life. And I wish you and your family the very best in that endeavor. We are adjourned.

Three days later, on Friday, October 28, around 11:30 in the morning, Jim Hoggan is still in New York but leaving in two hours. He’s been trying to see Lefebvre, but they’re telling him he can’t just walk in. He has to get the correct form. He has to fill out the form. He has to send in the form. When they receive the form, they have to run a background check on him. If that goes well, they’ll contact him. Then he’ll be able to apply to see the prisoner. Okay, well, so much for that.

Hoggan’s secretary, back in the Vancouver office, has ordered a bunch of books from Amazon. They should arrive today, which is good because Lefebvre is the kind of guy who can tuck into a book no problem. He’s been remanded to Manhattan jail, not Brooklyn. My wife ordered him two of her favorite books, Middlemarch and Anthony Bourdain’s memoir, Kitchen Confidential . Lefebvre didn’t seem to know much about Bourdain or his reputation, which is good. He’ll appreciate that the chef turned author turned television star has a Lou Reed — of-the-chef-world persona, and the memoir has a certain Hunter S. Thompson gonzo flair.

Marella and Gluck have done their job. They made sure Castel wouldn’t see the previous drug bust, which left Lefebvre with no priors. That was key. The narrow miss on the L.A. urine test back in July 2009 now looms large. The good news for Lefebvre is there will be no drug testing during probation. The other news he can take solace from is that he’ll serve less time than the sentence imposed. Marella’s bit of squawking about Lefebvre’s little Con Air adventure to FTC Oklahoma shaved four days off the sentence. His third go in the slammer is down to forty-one days, close enough to break out the old Humble Pie hit from the early seventies. Add ten days to the original title and start belting it like Steve Marriott: the seeds and dust that he got bust on, “forty days in the hole.”

The Silent Fridge

Now it’s February 2012, a couple of months after Lefebvre’s release from the Manhattan prison. We’re sitting on two folding chairs in his new, still-unfinished abode on Sunset Drive, Salt Spring Island. He had his contractor gut the original Sunset Drive house, recycle all reusable materials, and then build a new home to his specifications. The west side of the house is entirely windowed, so our view is IMAX wide. We look out onto the Strait of Georgia. The sun’s embers start to fade back over the mountains, and darkness shrouds the landscape. It is peaceful. Extreme peace, you might call it. No electronic equipment plugged in, no computers save for the iPhone that records the conversation, no hum, nothing.

The concern for silence, especially after the racket he endured in prison at the MCC in Manhattan, led Lefebvre to hide his Sub-Zero behind a wall and a door. He wants serenity so badly I’ve heard him talk about how much he enjoys classical music now, his antidote for the indignities of New York. He’s also mindful of something he hasn’t talked about — his tinnitus. He is not enthralled with loud music these days. When we sat down to goof a bit on guitar and drums in his small Stonehouse studio, he implored that I use the soft sticks on the snare, hang back, and keep basic time — no drum rolls or fills — while he strummed, plucked, and sang. I was only too happy to do so, as I could barely remember how to play after twenty years.

The tinnitus issue is a big deal for a guy who has wanted his entire adult life nothing more than to focus on his music. The law career could not derail this passion. The FBI could not derail this passion. But now, irony of ironies, when he is free of the DOJ, albeit with a much diminished fortune, when he could be sitting on the beach, building rock sculptures, waiting for a new melody or lyric to hit him, it is tinnitus that could derail forever his ambition to play his music in front of audiences. Lefebvre started to notice aural discomfort during rehearsals for the Don Felder tour. It wasn’t like a ringing in his ears, he says, more like white noise with odd burps and pops erupting here and there, a bit like the way the old dial-up modem connection to the internet used to sound back in the nineties. But it was more than irritating, it was scary. At the time, he’d decided to go through with the three concert dates and then reassess the situation after Vancouver. That was a year ago. The tinnitus was indeed real and it was not going away.