Barry Minkow

Barry Jay Minkow (born March 22, 1966) is a former American businessman, pastor, and convicted felon.

While still in high school, Minkow founded ZZZZ Best (pronounced "Zee Best"), which appeared to be an immensely successful carpet-cleaning and restoration company.

However, it was actually a front to attract investment for a massive Ponzi scheme.

For instance, a major shareholder, Maurice Rind, had been convicted of securities fraud in 1976.

Minkow was also a business partner with Robert Viggiano, a convicted jewel thief and reputed loanshark.

After graduating from high school in 1985, Minkow devoted all of his time to ZZZZ Best.

Short of cash despite the recent expansion, he got a loan from Jack Catain, a Los Angeles businessman who had ties to organized crime.

Catain later sued Minkow for not paying him his share of the company's profits, but Minkow claimed Catain was a usurer.

At the suggestion of a friend, Minkow took his company public in January 1986, garnering a spot on NASDAQ.

The accountant who audited ZZZZ Best before it went public did not visit the insurance restoration sites himself.

Had he done so, he would have discovered they were mailboxes located throughout the San Fernando Valley.

Minkow retained a fifty-three percent controlling interest in ZZZZ Best, making him an instant millionaire on paper.

Going public seemingly offered him a way to cover up his fraudulent activities.

Under securities law at the time, he had to retain his personal shares for two years.

ZZZZ Best collapsed in 1987, costing investors and lenders $100 million in one of the largest investment frauds ever perpetrated by a single person, as well as one of the largest accounting frauds in history.

The scheme is often used as a case study of accounting fraud.

After being released from jail, Minkow became a pastor and fraud investigator in San Diego, and spoke at churches and schools about ethics.

The suit was still working its way through the courts at the time of Catain's death in 1987.

Other organized crime figures turned up as Minkow's advisers, which unnerved his employees.

He planned to sell a million shares to the public in January 1988, believing this would give him enough money to pay everyone off and go completely legitimate.

In order to obtain more financing, Minkow was persuaded to raise $15 million of capital through an initial public offering of ZZZZ Best stock.

This came to an end in 2011, when he admitted to helping deliberately drive down the stock price of homebuilder Lennar and was ordered back to prison for five years.

Three years later, Minkow admitted to defrauding his own church and was sentenced to an additional five years in prison.

He is subject to restitution requirements totaling $612 million.

Barry Minkow was born in Inglewood, California, to a Jewish family, and was raised in the Reseda area of the San Fernando Valley.

When he was nine years old, his mother got him a job as a telemarketer with the carpet-cleaning business where she worked.

At the age of 16, while a sophomore at Cleveland High School, Minkow started ZZZZ Best (pronounced "Zee Best") in his parents' garage with three employees and four phones.

In the early days, he had to rely on friends to drive him to carpet-cleaning jobs since he did not have a driver's license.

At first, Minkow struggled to meet basic expenses.

Two banks closed his business account because California law of the time did not allow minors to sign binding contracts, including checks.

He was also plagued by customer complaints and demands for payment from suppliers.

At times, he found it difficult even to make payroll.

Faced with a shortage of operating capital, Minkow financed his business via check kiting, stealing and selling his grandmother's jewelry, staging break-ins at his offices, and running up fraudulent credit card charges.

Soon after, Minkow branched into the "insurance restoration" business.

With the help of Tom Padgett, a claims adjuster, Minkow forged numerous documents claiming that ZZZZ Best was involved in several restoration projects for Padgett's company.

Padgett and Minkow formed a fake company, Interstate Appraisal Services, that verified the details of these restorations to Minkow's bankers.

Flush with loans from these banks, Minkow expanded ZZZZ Best across Southern California.

While most Ponzi schemes are based on non-existent businesses, ZZZZ Best's carpet-cleaning division was very real and won high marks for its quality.

However, its insurance restoration division, which eventually accounted for 86% of company revenues, was fraudulent.

Minkow raised money by factoring his accounts receivable for work under contract, as well as floating funds through several banks in an elaborate check kiting scheme.