Now that he has been ordered to serve 18 months in prison, Evan Greebel's defense team at Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher is promising to appeal the verdict and will move for bail pending appeal later this week.

If that fails, Greebel—the ex-partner at Katten Muchin Rosenman and Kaye Scholer accused of conspiring with former pharmaceutical executive Martin Shkreli to commit fraud—must surrender himself Oct. 17.

While his lawyers try to forestall any prison time, Greebel is facing a sentence that is far shorter than the government sought.

The U.S. Attorney's Office and the Probation Department each recommended five years for Greebel, who was convicted last December of felony charges.

U.S. District Judge Kiyo Matsumoto of the Eastern District of New York said on Aug. 17 that the sentencing guideline range for his crimes were 103 to 135 months, or at least eight and a half years in prison. (Greebel himself asked for no jail time.) Shkreli was sentenced to a seven-year prison term.

While Matsumoto ordered a sentence for Greebel that is a fraction of the time prosecutors sought, she also ordered him to pay more than $10.4 million in restitution (the figure proposed by the prosecution) to San Diego-based Retrophin Inc., where Shkreli was CEO, and to forfeit $116, 462.

Reed Brodsky, Greebel's attorney and a partner at Gibson Dunn, declined to comment about the sentence.

For its part, the government issued a strongly worded statement after Greebel's sentencing hearing, with U.S. Attorney Richard Donoghue of the Eastern District of New York stating the “sentence reinforces our message that attorneys who facilitate crimes will be held accountable for their actions.”

'Not Naive'

The judge's careful and thorough approach was evident in the sentencing hearing itself on Aug. 17, a proceeding lasting about four hours.

Matsumoto on Aug. 17 said Greebel, who was a partner at Katten Muchin when he represented Retrophin, was an experienced and “highly intelligent” attorney who knew what he was getting into when he served as an adviser to Shkreli and his business interests.

“He is not reckless, he was not naive, he was not inexperienced,” Matsumoto said. “He was not led astray by a young, brash CEO.”

Greebel, 45, was practicing at Kaye Scholer at the time of his arrest in December 2015.

He was mostly expressionless during the hearing and looking at the table in front of him, though while reading a brief written statement to the court prior to the sentence, he removed his glasses and wiped his eyes.

“I will regret every day of my life, the day I met Martin Shkreli,” he said.

Greebel was convicted of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and conspiracy to commit securities fraud when representing Retrophin; he received an 18-month sentence on each count, to run concurrently. Shkreli himself was found guilty of securities fraud in a separate trial last year.

Federal prosecutors said Shkreli and Greebel schemed to defraud Retrophin by using its assets to pay off Shkreli's debts to investors in hedge funds he created, MSMB Healthcare and MSMB Capital, through sham settlement and consulting agreements. Greebel was also accused of working with Shkreli and others to manipulate the price and trading volume of Retrophin's stock.

Greebel had argued that probation was sufficient and a prison sentence would harm his wife and children. His legal team also claimed that Greebel played a “minor” role in the conspiracies. In arguments prior to the sentencing, Mylan Denerstein, a Gibson Dunn partner and member of Greebel's defense team, argued that he was punished by the fact that he will likely be disbarred due to his felony convictions.

Prosecutors, in urging a five-year sentencing for Greebel, had argued he “embraced” his relationship with Shkreli and sought to profit from it by earning more at his law firms through his relationship with Shkreli. Prosecutors also claimed that Greebel abused his role as Retrophin's outside lawyer to gain board members' trust.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Alixandra Smith said on Aug. 17 that the government recommended the sentence to send a message to the legal community about the consequences for an attorney who abuses their position and to “protect the public from corrupt lawyers.”

“The legal community is watching this case very closely,” said Smith, a former associate at Cravath, Swaine & Moore and Jenner & Block. “Leniency would send the wrong message.”

In his statement, U.S. Attorney Donoghue said Greebel “leveraged his legal training and the trust placed in him by Retrophin's board of directors to commit serious crimes, including the theft of millions of dollars in cash and stock from the very company he was hired to represent. In doing so, Greebel broke the law and violated the ethical duties he owed to his client.”

In a letter to Matsumoto just two days before his sentencing, Greebel said he wanted to publicly apologize to his family, friends, former colleagues and clients.

“From the beginning of this case, it has sickened me that anyone would believe that I would act or conspire to harm a client in order to benefit either myself or anyone else. I am devastated and ashamed by my criminal conviction and this is a burden that I will carry with me for the rest of my life,” he wrote.

Going forward, Greebel, of Scarsdale, said he has been working with others in launching an in-patient drug and rehabilitation facility in the Catskills after seeing that many facilities are located in the West and southwestern regions of the country. He said the new facility will be open by summer or fall of 2019.

Just days before his sentencing, Matsumoto, in a 177-page decision, denied Greebel's request for an acquittal or to order a new trial.

“The jury reasonably concluded that Mr. Greebel conspired with Mr. Shkreli and [Retrophin CFO Marc Panoff] to commit wire fraud … by causing Retrophin to enter into the settlement and consulting agreements, with the specific intent of defrauding Retrophin of shares and funds in order to pay off and silence” hedge fund investors and “to protect Mr. Shkreli,” the judge wrote.