But before that, Hellerstein mused about how hard it is to get a sentence right. There is “nothing harder than a conviction,” the judge said, adding that he never felt he had done it “just right.” Taking away someone’s freedom “is disheartening, but I have to do it anyway,” he said.

Hellerstein told Hwang that the amount of losses caused by his conduct “was greater than the losses I have faced as a judge.”