Barry Minkow

Passions

Vocation

Notable

American swindler who formed a totally bogus company, the ZZZZ Best Co., at the age of 21 and in the next few years sold stock through the stock market. He first started ZZZZ at the age of 16 as a legitimate carpet cleaning business that he ran out of his parent's garage. Eventually the business matured into a total investment scam and he ultimately cheated investors and banks out of over $100 million. He was able to deceive lawyers, accountants, bankers and investors before the entire operation fell apart. On 3/27/1989 he was sentenced to 25 years in Federal prison, but was released on 12/14/1994 after serving less than one third of his sentence. While he was in prison he earned his B.A. and M.A. through correspondence courses. In jail he also converted to Christianity and promised that he would devote five years to repaying his victims, including the payment of profits from his new book, "Clean Sweep," 1995. After his release from the Lompoc Federal facility, he went to a half-way house in Los Angeles for a few months of transition between prison and society. On 4/12/1995 he was released from rehabilitation and started a national book tour while also speaking on the topic of fraud prevention. Link to Wikipedia biography