What’s at stake?
The former tech company leaders are also expected to agree to repay about $115 million.
At a hearing Wednesday, the former Bitwise CEOs pleaded guilty to one count of conspiring to commit wire fraud and one count of wire fraud each before U.S. District Judge Dale A. Drozd.
Jake Soberal and Irma Olguin Jr. – the disgraced CEOs of Fresno’s fallen tech company – changed their original plea of “not guilty” after about seven months of negotiations with the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
Their sentencing is set for Nov. 6. The judge presiding over that hearing is yet to be confirmed.
The maximum sentence each charge carries is 20 years of incarceration, a fine of $250,000 and three years of probation.
The plea deal Soberal and Olguin Jr. agreed to Wednesday recommended the “low end of the applicable guideline range” for prison time, though it’s ultimately up to the judge to decide.
“The defendant is free to recommend to the Court whatever sentence he believes is appropriate under 18 U.S.C. § 3553(a),” the agreement said, “but not less than 60 months in prison,” or five years.
In the plea deal, federal prosecutors also recommended three years of supervised release and full restitution “to all victims affected” by Soberal and Olguin Jr.’s offenses, totaling roughly $115 million.
To that end, the deal demands Soberal and Olguin Jr. disclose all their assets within three weeks of Wednesday’s hearing.
They’re not allowed to sell these assets without the “prior written consent” of the U.S. Attorney, except for personal property with an aggregate value of less than $5,000, until full restitution is paid.
They also have agreed to forfeit “all property, real and personal” they obtained fraudulently.
It remains unclear where Soberal and Olguin will find $115 million to repay their victims.
“How are they going to pay that money?” said Jenn Guerra, a former Bitwise worker, in an interview with Fresnoland Tuesday. “I don’t see it happening, ever.”
Megan Steinert, an ex-Bitwise employee who worked at the company’s Bakersfield office, shared this skepticism.
“Restitution is not possible,” she said in a text message to Fresnoland, “and neither is justice.”
Guerra and Steinert are among the roughly former Bitwise 900 workers who lost their jobs when Soberal and Olguin Jr. abruptly announced across-the-board furloughs in a May 2023 meeting.
Those furloughs were followed by mass layoffs and a Chapter 7 bankruptcy filing for the company the next month.
Many of laid-off workers saw their final checks bounce and lost access to their 401(k) accounts in the wake of the collapse.
Guerra said she doesn’t think five years in jail is enough to make up for their crimes.
“900 families,” she said, “they messed with and lied to.”
“I truly believe they should get the maximum sentence,” she added.
The court isn’t ultimately held to the recommendations from the U.S. Attorney’s Office, and can weigh whether there’s basis for either a higher or lower sentence.
Both Soberal and Olguin Jr. were released under supervision after being referred to the probation office following the hearing at the Robert E. Coyle Federal Courthouse.
Assistant U.S. Attorneys Joseph Barton and Henry Carbajal III prosecuted the Bitwise case.
Olguin Jr. was represented by Daniel Olmos of Nolan Barton Olmos & Luciano.
Soberal was represented by Eric MacMichael of Keker, Van Nest & Peters.
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