UNDATED (CNN) -- Living in luxury on the wrong side of the law. In New York, a former independent day trader profited for nearly two decades from insider trading. But then the FBI caught up with him and his illegally gotten millions.
For 17 years, Garrett Bauer traded on tips he got from his friend, Ken Robinson. Bauer says, "That happened once or twice a year, those type of phone calls. But I did talk to Ken probably 5 days a week, so normally we'd talk almost every single day, about things, about other stocks not necessarily the illegal stocks."
Robinson got his tips from Matthew Kluger, a Washington lawyer who would steal confidential, non-public information about mergers and acquisitions from his firm's email servers. The trio shared the profits, a total of more than $32 million, according to court documents. Bauer says, "The whole idea really was for me to do all the trades so there'd be no connection to him, and his connection to the lawyer, then he started doing some of these trades when I said I didn't want to do them anymore. So it was really at that point where I assume the FBI and SEC investigated him".
When the FBI came for Ken Robinson, he turned in Garrett Bauer. Bauer says, "After about a month or so I stopped being angry and started dealing with what I did, which was illegal, Ken didn't force me to do anything, you don't always know what you're getting into. You do know the information is illegal, but just like I thought, most people think they're just not gonna get caught, and I'm trying to let people know that people do get caught."
Bauer and Kluger pleaded guilty in December to securities fraud, conspiracy to commit money laundering and obstructing justice. They could face prison sentences of up to 20 years. Robinson pleaded guilty on two counts of securities fraud and one count of conspiracy and could get a more lenient sentence, possibly avoiding prison time.
Neither the prosecution nor the FBI would speak on camera about any matter currently before the courts. But in a statement, the FBI told us "securities fraud remains a top investigative priority."
Bauer says, "You know you're crossing the line when you're getting the information from someone who has a responsibility not to give you the information. And I knew that the lawyer had a responsibility not to give me, not to give it to Ken, who in turn gave it to me. I also didn't understand the variances, that, my information, it's very serious the crime, the penalty. What I'm facing, 10 years in prison, I'm losing everything I have, is pretty serious."
That includes millions of dollars in fines and civil penalties. The government has already seized all of Bauer's bank accounts and property, including the apartment he bought for $6.6 million in cash in 2009.
When asked, "Do you care about losing this apartment?" Bauer says, "Not that much... Really I don't. I just lived here like 2 or 3 years, and it's not even fully done, and it really is too big for me. One of my friends was concerned if I take you around the apartment it's not gonna show you who I really am."
While he awaits sentencing, Bauer is keeping busy, giving speeches to groups of law and business students. Trying to prevent others from doing what he did. Bauer says, "The worst days are just thinking about not even being able to start fresh when I get out, that's sort of overwhelming to know that I'm going to owe all this money when I do get out of prison. And how am I gonna ever pay that money back".