Barry Minkow was sentenced at age 23 for the textbook fraud case study known as the ZZZZ Best Co., a carpet-cleaning company.
After taking the company public, he claimed a net worth of $90 million, drove a red Ferrari with a “ZZZZ BEST” license plate, and appeared on Oprah as a financial wunderkind.
After it was all exposed, Minkow headed to prison for nearly eight years. Though Jewish, he claimed to have found Jesus while jailed. And when he got out, he embarked on what was by many accounts a miraculous transformation.
Minkow earned a master’s degree in divinity from Jerry Falwell’s Liberty University. Then he became pastor of Community Bible Church in San Diego.
He also wrote a book called “Cleaning Up: One Man’s Redemptive Journey Through the Seductive World of Corporate Crime.” He served as an informant for law enforcers and a source for journalists. A 2018 movie, “Minkow,” tells his life story.
Minkow founded what he called the “Fraud Discovery Institute” to take on corporate fraud.
Over time, Minkow won the praise of his former prosecutor and even Judge Dickran Tevrizian. “He has done some good things,” Tevrizian told CBS’s “60 Minutes” in 2005. “He’s uncovered several hundreds of millions of dollars worth of frauds. And I give him credit for that.”
Unfortunately, Minkow would bet against the companies he targeted as a fraud investigator, taking short positions in the stock market. He claimed he always disclosed this practice – making it legal.
He traded stock options of Lennar in 2009 while he accused the Miami-based homebuilder of financial fraud. His accusations caused Lennar’s stock to plunge more than 20%. Lennar fired back with a lawsuit accusing him of libel and extortion.
Lennar eventually won a $584 million judgement against Minkow. He was also found guilty on criminal charges for manipulating Lennar’s stock and sent back to prison for another five years in 2011.
But that wasn’t enough. “Pastor Barry” also stole $3 million from his church and borrowed hundreds of thousands of dollars from church members. For this, he earned yet another a five-year prison sentence in 2014.
Minkow has since served his time. Discovery+ released a three-part docuseries, called, “King of the Con,” exploring how he manages to reinvent himself after serving prison terms.
Minkow is again operating as an informant. He recently blew the whistle on a Secaucus, N.J.-based real estate fund National Reality Investment Advisors whose chieftain was sentenced to prison 12-years in prison in 2024.
Minkow has a personality disorder, according to court records, and he lives with the constant risk of backsliding. But as long as he’s out, it’s sure got to hurt scammers when their Ponzi schemes are exposed by a guy who once ran an even flashier Ponzi scheme.