Barry Minkow

[JamesVincent]

While this is an old story I ran across an article about it and figured it was worth sharing. And while it was primarily, and prosecuted as, a Ponzi it had other elements of fraud in it. The article was an interesting read.

Although ZZZZ Best cleaned carpets, most of its reported capital was phony:

In the early days of his company, Minkow faked burglaries at his headquarters to collect insurance and used an illegal strategy called “check kiting” to cover expenses. Some of his early financing came from reputed mobsters.
Minkow’s scheming grew more complex with the creation of the company Interstate Appraisal Services, which sent ZZZZ Best fictitious restoration projects worth millions of dollars that artificially padded ZZZZ Best’s ledgers.
While ZZZZ Best’s carpet cleaning business was legitimate (and successful), the restoration projects made the company appear far larger, drawing investors whose funds could be used to pay off earlier investors, expand the company, and subsidize Minkow’s ostentatious spending.

https://thehustle.co/the-secretary-who- ... ket-newtab

[Burnaby49]

Entirely by chance I'm working my way through the same article right now. It takes me a while to get through online articles because I might have a dozen open at one time and I flit from one to another.

[The Observer]

It is also interesting to note that Minkow has never left his grifting ways behind him. According to the article and a Wikipedia entry, Barry got involved in stock manipulation and shorting as a result of being a paid private fraud investigator. He would target companies for which he would submit public reports claiming that the companies/executives were involved in defrauding customers or investors. In the meantime Minkow would short the stock, then either take a payoff from the company to withdraw his report, or let the stock fall before jumping back in and buying it in anticipation of the stock rising (once his report was out of the public's memory).

He was also involved defrauding the church/members of which he was the pastor. He asked for loans or advances from members to fund projects that he had no intention of initiating, as well as playing fast and loose with the church finances, in diverting funds to checking accounts that he had opened in the church's name but used for his own personal purchases. And, of course, he evaded taxes by failing to report his illicit gains.

This resulted in Minkow getting sentenced to five years in prison for the stock pumping manipulation in 2011 and another 5 years in 2014 for the church fraud. Then there is the $600 million that he owes in court-mandated restitution. He got out in 2019. The Discovery Channel did a documentary on him and his past. Apparently, he appeared and addressed his prior crimes as well as how he is trying to "re-invent" himself. That sounds like Barry is still of the belief that he can fool all of the people all of the time.

And that shouldn't be a surprise given the results of a psyche evaluation that was done as part of his pre-sentencing eval. The report apparently stated that Minkow was narcissistic, had ADHD and anxiety disorder, opioid dependence, anabolic steroid abuse, and migraine headaches. The judge in that trial stated that Barry had "...no moral compass that says 'Stop.'"

Grifters gotta grift.