Back in the 1980s, California teenager Barry Minkow apparently had it all: a Ferrari, a mansion and a carpet cleaning business valued at almost $300 million. He started Zzzz Best at age 16 in the cellar of his mother and father ‘ San Fernando Valley home, at last hiring them to work for him. He appeared on Oprah, in his own TV commercial and became a young entrepreneurial darling of Wall Street. Check out finra arbitration barristers list.
“The banks threw money at him and the investors threw money at him,” asserts previous U.S. District Court Judge Dickran Tevrizian. Former Fed. prosecutor Gordon Greenberg recalls “Barry made it simple for people to believe strongly in him. He had that unique ability of getting people focused, and it was audacious.”
Brazen because, according to court records and Minkow’s own acknowledgments, almost 90-percent of Zzzz Best’s business was fraudulent. He was accused of engineering a large Ponzi scheme where he used fake contracts for carpet cleaning jobs , as well as fire and water damage repair in large commercial buildings, as security for bank loans.
“The roles were pretend roles. They did not exist,” related former U.S. Lawyer Robert Bonner in 1988, while exclaiming Minkow was being indicted on 57 counts of crime. He was convicted the subsequent year, given 25 years in jail, and released for good behavior after a bit more than seven years.
“It started with spraying water rather than Scotchgard on carpets, and it began with a $200 theft of a money order out of a spirits store when I could not make payroll at age 16,” Minkow told CNN in an interview in 1996, right after his release from prison. “I spent 87 months in jail with south central L.A. Gang members. My roommate was in for murder. I didn't get away with anything. I paid a heavy price for my crime.”
He sprang from jail professing to be a changed man, with college degrees and a conversion to Christianity. He agreed to help the FBI and bankers catch other con men, gave lectures, wrote books and hosted a fraud-busting radio show. One of his guests was the prosecutor who helped put him in gaol.
“I really had high hopes for him. I truly wanted him to be reformed,” Greenberg says. “But my tum, it was worrying because I was worried that he had a personality type that we call sociopaths.”
Minkow married, had a family and became preacher of Community Bible Church near San Diego. He probably did supply info that helped authorities expose other cons. He also started several companies, including the Crime Discovery Institute, which at first targeted penny shares. Minkow would expose reports of claimed fraud on the internet and report them to authorities.
“I’ve been asked what I like to think of Barry Minkow and I've always said the jury is still out,” related Tevrizian, the judge who sent Minkow to jail in 1989. “Well now the jury has come back and Mr. Minkow is at it again.”
Minkow’s Crime Discovery Institute commenced targeting larger corporations, including Miami-based homebuilder Lennar. But prosecutors say, this time, Minkow wasn't exposing crime, he was committing it. According to court filings, Minkow spread false info about Lennar online while gaining profits from short sales of the company's stock, which at one time lost more than $400 million in value. In March, Minkow accepted a plea bargain? Pleading guilty to a single count of conspiracy to commit instruments fraud. He is anticipated to be sentenced to nearly five years in jail Thursday. He must also cooperate with authorities examining his crimes.
Minkow, thru his solicitor, would not comment on the case, or the declarations of other purported victims, including a lady we’ll call “Mary,” a regular worshiper at Community Bible Church, the church Minkow pastored before resigning earlier in the year. Mary claims she lent Minkow nearly $300,000, mostly from her home equity line of credit, to help finance a few business ventures, including a production about his life. “I knew his background as far as what happened with ZZZZ Best, but he seemed like he had reformed,” she said. “Since it's a loan and it was the preacher, I felt like I could trust him.”
Now Mary says she's left with meaningless promissory notes and checks from Minkow, and she fears she may lose her home.
“He’s an excellent con man. He’s awfully credible. He was my chum, I thought.” Still, Mary said she doesn't have any plans to sue.
Why did so many people, over such a substantial period, believe strongly in Barry. Minkow?
“He was in a position to take folks, no matter their background and interests, whether it was giant law companies, accounting firms, even folk who were on the border of arranged crime, and make them accept that he cared about them and that he would do what was in their best interest,” Greenberg says.
It would appear Minkow may have tried with the judge who sent him to prison, autographing a book he wrote with this message: “Dear Judge Tevrizian: You're the best judge ever seated on a Fed. bench. You have my love and respect always. Do not be confused by all the good press. I'm a liar and a thief saved by God’s grace. “.
This post is related to finra attorney and finra lawyers . The author is Vinz Arenas.