Scientologist David Gentile, who had been free on a $500,000 bond following his arrest and arraignment in 2021, has had his bond raised to $5 million. This follows his felony conviction on five counts. Gentile now remains free on a post-conviction release bond issued by the court on May 19, 2025. This follows the imposition of a seven year prison sentence by Judge Rachel Kovner.

Post-conviction bonds allow convicted persons to work on appeals and other motions with their attorneys and put their affairs in order before surrendering themselves to a US prison. This type of bond is typically only granted to nonviolent criminals who do not pose a danger to the community. 

To underscore the seriousness of a $5 million post-conviction release bond, Danny Masterson’s bail on three counts of forcible rape was $3.3 million. 

Gentile’s co-conspirator Jeffry Schneider was granted a $2 million post-conviction release bond following the imposition of a six year prison term by Judge Kovner.

As convicted felons who have been formally sentenced by the court, Schneider and Gentile are now US Federal prisoners who are out on what is called supervised release. As such, they are under the jurisdiction of the U.S. Probation and Pretrial Services system.

Convicts Gentile and Schneider are both seeking lengthy delays before surrendering themselves to US prison. 

Both convicts are appealing their convictions and also seeking sentence reductions. We predict that both will lose on appeal and sentence reduction. The two men are also fighting the dollar amount of forfeiture. The Government has argued for a $97 million forfeiture from Gentile and $56 million from Schneider. Whatever the final amount is calculated, it will be enormous. Forfeiture and restitution orders will impact both convicts after they are released from prison in their 60’s. Part of whatever monies they earn, inherit, or otherwise obtain will go to pay forfeiture and fines.

Jeff Lash, who was charged along with Gentile and Schneider, entered a guilty plea and testified against both of his fellow defendants at criminal trial. As part of his plea deal, he signed a forfeiture order of $3 million. Lash is still to be sentenced. Given his plea deal and cooperation, we think he will likely not serve any time; particularly in view of the extremely lenient sentences Gentile and Schneider received. Likewise, an earlier GPB Capital Holdings defendant named Michael Cohn skated way with house arrest after he cooperated and wore a wire. 

The forfeiture and restitution calculations are based upon the $1.8 billion Ponzi-like scheme of which $1.1 billion was recovered in the liquidation of GPB Capital’s portfolio companies in the last several years. Gentile and Schneider will also have to pay criminal fines and penalties assessed by the court. 

David Gentile’s large “Tony Soprano” style home on Long Island and other assets will predictably be seized as part of forfeiture and restitution. The same holds true with Schneider. In the SEC civil trial against GPB Capital Holdings, we will very likely see clawback of monies from many beneficiaries of the GPB Capital fraud. Among other participants, we are thinking of certain Scientologists in Clearwater whose companies, in our opinion, Gentile massively overpaid for.  We just don’t believe boiler room operations, vaporware, and other minimal value businesses are worth $10 million each.

Gentile and Schneider still have years of civil cases ahead of them. When they are released from prison, both men will serve three years of supervised release.

Post-conviction release bonds come with a very strict set of rules. Below are both the mandatory and standard of conditions of post-conviction bond stated on the Judgement in a Criminal Case document documents for David Gentile and Jeffry Schneider:

David Gentile and Jeffry Schneider had these specific conditions added by the court to their post-convection documents:

Given the financial misconduct of Gentile and Schneider, the additional terms outlined above are extremely serious. If anything gets them a bond revocation it will be any refusal to turn over the financial records as described above. “Co-mingled income” is of particular interest. 

Violations of bond conditions will subject Gentile and Schneider to bond revocation and immediate imprisonment.

The US Government now has complete custody over these two criminals.

According to many former inmates, the post-conviction release phase is quite psychologically brutal because while one is technically not in prison, all of their time, activities, and movements are subject to the complete control of the US Probation Office. The second problem is that prison awaits and is not going away, Delays only postpone an inevitable incarceration of many years. Some inmates have said, in retrospect, that they should have skipped the delays and just went to prison right away to get it over with sooner. Even if Gentile and Schneider delay for 4-6 months, that will simply extend their release date. No credit is given for time served during the post-conviction bond release period. 

The documents: 

Below: David Gentile’s Judgement in a Criminal Case document. Gentile is ordered to surrender himself before 2PM on July 8, 2025. (As we have noted for so long, July 8 is Scientology’s worst day and September is its worst month). The 2PM time is ironic because stats in Scientology are due every Thursday by 2PM. Does the prison have similar weekly stat deadlines for inmates turning themselves in?

Gentile is ordered to surrender himself to the FCI Otisville facility where his fellow Scientologist criminal and OT8 James “Jay” Spina was incarcerated for being the kingpin in an $80 million healthcare fraud.