Colin Wisbey, a judge at the Calgary court, said that there are many aggravating factors that justify a prison sentence ranging from 10 to 12 years, which was sought by the Crown prosecutor Shelley, Shelley Smith in a fraud case in which Breitkreutz was accused of deceiving and robbing the money of many victims.

Defense lawyer Cal Ellis Toddington had suggested a sentence of 7 and a half years, to which Wisbey responded: "The fraud was deliberate and widespread and adversely affected the lives of many victims."

In his conviction of Breitkreutz in June, the judge noted that the losses created for investors in Base Finance Ltd exceeded 100 million dollars, but the prosecution focused only on a specific period of his operation and indicated that the shipping period from May 1, 2014, to September 30, 2015, corresponds to the last 17 months of Base Finance's decades-long existence. The judge said: "Only the number of victims, more than 100, and the lost money during the indictment period, more than 21 million dollars, were considered."

But Wisbey said that even these figures made Breitkreutz’s crime a major offense, adding: "The large amount of money, the large number of victims, the abuse of trust, the complexity of the fraud operation, are all factors influencing the extended sentence." The judge said: "One of the most malicious effects of Mr. Breitkreutz's deception on the victims is that he deprived them of their faith and trust in others, as our society relies on faith and trust in our fellow human beings. Therefore, Mr. Breitkreutz exploited that, and now his victims, for entirely understandable reasons, find it difficult to trust others."