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Comment by FridayoLeary | Hacker News Reader

>>“If everything had worked out, everyone makes out like a bandit,” he said. “The stockholders make money, the income tax people collect taxes, three or four thousand people get jobs, America gets its carpets cleaned.” Instead, Minkow was convicted on fraud charges, sentenced to 25 years in prison, and forced to pay back defrauded investors $26m in restitution. The prosecutors used Swanson’s notes as evidence during the trial.

I'm not sure how i feel about it. Obviously it's a good thing to put a fraudster away but the way it's framed, it sounds like he was planning on going straight until a journalist went and ruined his life. Maybe i'm being naive, but i'm wondering if everyone might have been better off had the whole affair been swept under the... carpet?

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It's an incredibly common thing for con artists to claim they were just one thing away from going straight. This one big con, deal, whatever. There's absolutely no reason to believe them. There's always that next big con, next opportunity to rake in even more, an addiction. They always have some kind of justification or another.

Even after having been found guilty of fraud, serving time, Minkow did it again. There was no need for him to do it then, he didn't have those business loans going on. He'd gone "straight". Pastor, fraud investigator.

"Grifter gonna grift". These kinds of people are sociopaths and likely can't help themselves.

After release from prison (the first time), he becomes a pastor and defrauds his congregation. So no, he was not just about to go straight.

The article mentions cooking the books with fake revenue, check kiting, deliberate overcharges, intimidation, assault, and so on. He's just a straight up bad actor, there wasn't a plan where he was going straight. More resources would have just fueled more crime.

> until a journalist went and ruined his life.

That's a very strange way to describe a violent criminal finally being held accountable for years of theft.

Given that Mr Minkow would continue to engage in fraud after his release, in 2009, likely not . He would find some way to screw things up again, but bigger.

> three or four thousand people get jobs

Many of those people already had jobs cleaning carpets for KeyServ (or Flagship Cleaning Services Inc. as it appeared to be called at the time according to the WSJ article). They weren't going to suddenly gain new ones from a change in ownership.

> the income tax people collect taxes

Again, they're already collecting those taxes from the employees of KeyServ.

> America gets its carpets cleaned

Already getting them cleaned by KeyServ, and many other independent companies.

I guess the stockholders would have indeed made money though. At least they got a write-off from the loss though.

My man Minkow pleading Too Big to Fail before it was cool! Truly ahead of his time.

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