Coming Home From Federal Prison Camp
White Collar Advice
What happens when you prepare for federal prison, do the work, come home, and still struggle to open a bank account? I’ve been home since 2009. In this conversation, we talk about earning a living after prison, the shame of a conviction, and trying work you’ve never done before. I share how handwritten prison blogs brought my first phone calls, why I refunded my first paying client, and what I regret about my early days home. We also talk about our families, learning to tell your story, and why preparing for release should begin long before you leave prison. Justin Paperny
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Was It a Mistake or a Bad Choice?
White Collar Advice
I finished Sam Harris's Free Will last night, 1 hour and 14 minutes on Audible, and it made me look again at how I went from USC and Bear Stearns to lying to FBI agent Paul Bertrand. Harris argues we don't choose our thoughts, our genetics, our parents, or our early experiences. That idea is dangerous in front of a judge. If your narrative suggests it wasn't your fault, the court and your victims will hear it that way. What I took from the book is sequence: a financial problem, the concealment, the concealment working, and each next step getting easier. Michael Santos once asked me whether it...
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Isn't What You Do Manipulation? Question 11
White Collar Advice
A journalist keeps hitting me with one question: isn't what you do manipulation? So on question 11, I stop and read her the definition: to control or influence cleverly, unfairly, or unscrupulously. Then I walk through it. Sentencing advocacy is influence, yes, but so is the government's case, the defense attorney's argument, and sometimes a victim impact statement (I've seen people claim to be victims who weren't, including in my own case). Character reference letters can be used to manipulate too. But a defendant cannot shorten a sentence by manipulating a judge, because judges know the...
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Going to Prison Does Not Qualify You to Give Advice
White Collar Advice
A journalist writing about white collar crime sent me about 50 questions before our call. We cut it to 25, and I answered the first three here. Who I am and why anyone should listen to me: going to prison does not qualify you to give advice, and neither does failing. What matters is what you did with the experience and whether you built a record someone can look at. How I went from USC and Bear Stearns to federal prison: not one decision, but pressure, opportunity, and rationalization, convincing myself I was the good guy while I took commissions I was not entitled to. And whether I deserved...
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Why I Told This Lawyer Not to Ask for Probation
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...
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USC vs North Carolina and the Ghost of 1995
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,...
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Her Father's Money Came With Two Conditions
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...
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Just Get Him Home, She Said For Years
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.
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He Called Me Before the FBI Did. He Still Got 6 Years
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.
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Ippei Blamed Shohei in His Letter to the Judge
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...
info_outlineI'd rather be in prison than on a fast boat in the ocean, but my kids love it and I love my kids. When I got off the boat in the Bahamas I had a kind text from a guy who scheduled a call with me for Monday. He asked me to review his indictment and his potential plea agreement before we talk. I won't, and here's why. A consultant in Florida who has been to prison twice told someone he might as well go to trial, because if he loses the sentence is the same either way. That guy got nine or 10 years. Another guy, apparently because he has some followers on Instagram, told a doctor to take the deal since he would get the mandatory minimum of two years for identity theft. The doctor got four years. We're not lawyers. I have a degree from USC and I teach from 17 years of lived experience, much of it learned from my partner Michael. Nobody but your lawyer should be reviewing your indictment or your plea. That's why they went to law school and that's why you hired them. What you can influence is the process. Be vested with your lawyer. Make sure they understand the facts, and stop telling half truths, minimizing, and dodging. I don't want you signing a plea you don't agree with because you didn't work well with your lawyer. Ask better questions, like why haven't the Dodgers won in August, and what are you doing to work better with your lawyer.