White Collar Advice

White Collar Advice

I got a call from someone new to our community, asking me to speak with his lawyer, a guy with more MVP awards than Michael Jordan, Kobe Bryant, and Magic Johnson combined. Two things stood out. The defendant didn't know his own guidelines were more than seven years, even after signing a plea agreement with points and restitution; how do you sign that and not know your number? And of course, he didn't want to go to prison. We got into what the government wants versus what the defense should ask for, and the lawyer told me, I'll do whatever you want me to do. I told him if the government wants...

White Collar Advice

I look back on playing baseball at USC, where making the travel roster to Stanford felt like a big deal. I remember grounding out weakly against Cal State Fullerton reliever Mark Kotsay, who went on to a 17 year career in the majors, and the years I spent punishing myself over that at bat, a regret that followed me into federal prison. Today USC plays North Carolina for a shot at returning to the College World Series for the first time since 2001; back in 1995, my own USC team lost the national championship game to Cal State Fullerton. I tell this year's team to embrace it, win or lose,...

White Collar Advice

On my way back from Santa Barbara, I stopped near Ojai and met with a woman whose husband had just surrendered to federal prison for ten years. I write about this meeting in my new book, After the Fall, chapter 14. She knew he was under investigation but not how severe; he kept her in the dark, and she expected two or three years, so everyone was stunned when they heard a decade. Every time he calls from prison he tells her he's sorry, but that doesn't help her manage the kids, the bills, the fallout, and the shame. She finally reached out to her father for money. He said yes, but not as a...

White Collar Advice

Every time we spoke, she'd say just get him home from federal prison. Before he went in, her husband blamed the court, the lawyers, the judge, and the co-defendant who cooperated against him. In prison he complained about his bunkie, the food, the commissary, his job, and asked why he was in a camp with no fences when he owed restitution. After he came home he complained about his probation officer, the restitution amount, how she was parenting their kids, and the dinner she cooked. About nine months after his release, she quietly told him: my life was much easier when you were in prison.

White Collar Advice

Nearly three years ago I spoke with a man who told me he was embezzling money. He was not the target of an investigation. I told him to stop the bleeding and not make it worse, and I referred him to five lawyers. He didn't call one. He had convinced himself, the way I once did, that another wire and another quarter would fix it and no one would know. He didn't fix it. The losses doubled. More victims, an indictment, a guilty plea, a conviction, and more than six years in federal prison. When we spoke again, he told me he wished he had taken my advice three years ago.

White Collar Advice

Someone new to our community asked how Ippei got 57 months while his co-defendant, Matthew Boyer, got a year and a day. I told him it's not the right comparison. Ippei stole $16 or $17 million, and even if Shohei is the greatest athlete in the world and a billionaire, he's still a victim, and the case did real damage to his brand. But look at how the two men responded. Ippei blamed Shohei in his letter to Judge Holcomb; I read that letter and made a long YouTube video about it. Matthew treated it as an evidence challenge instead of a legal one. He built a narrative about what he would do going...

White Collar Advice

When I went to federal prison I got the severity of my conduct. Standing for count, the 2 a.m. fire drills, visiting with crying parents. You realize maybe you can do better. When I settled with the Securities and Exchange Commission, really a toothless agency, I didn't get it. I had to go inside. I think that's the case for a lot of people serving time for very small frauds, $10,000 to $50,000 in PPP fraud, and for the many who go to prison for obstruction with no financial loss at all. If you reward bad behavior, if you go to prison and get clemency you didn't earn, you come home and keep...

White Collar Advice

I was on a phone call with a federal defendant and his wife, and twice she said, you got that right. Most people who come into our community went into business with good intentions, then things happened and before they knew it they were in trouble. A small number go into business to steal and do harm, and by this defendant's own admission, that was him. He took shortcuts. He said one thing and immediately did another. He stole and he deceived. It's easy to blame spouses, the ones who love the life and the country club and the lifestyle, but much of the time, and especially in this case, they...

White Collar Advice

What would happen if you went to federal prison and said, I'm going to write 300 words six days a week for the 15 months I'm here? Document what you're reading and why. The lessons you're learning. How you became immersed in a government investigation and why it will never happen again. The steps you're taking to grow your network, develop new skills, and prove worthy of a second chance. You would leave with a body of work so extensive you could share it for weeks, months, years, and generations to come. And at 300 words a day, six days a week, you will have worked your way through the massive...

White Collar Advice

At a sentencing hearing most judges hear I'm sorry, I'll never do it again, I'll spend the rest of my life making amends, I'll pay all my victims back. The judge says, we'll see. Then you serve 24 months. You come home to the bills, the mortgage, the rent, and the rebuilding is hard. You walk to the mailbox and the IRS has sent you a check for just under $10,000. You tell yourself they took your freedom and your reputation and they didn't take this, so clearly they want you to have it. You deposit it. Six months later your probation officer audits your books, sees the deposit, and calls to say...