| Specializing In Stock and Securities Fraud Federal Sentence Reductions |
| Federal Prison Survival Programs & Sentence Reductions |
| © 2009 American Prison Consultants |
| _________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________ |
| 888.558.2151 |
| Going From The Exchange Floor To The Prison Yard? |
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| TESTIMONIALS |
| Larry Levine Prison News Stories |
By Kevin Johnson, USA TODAY
Wealthy first-time convicts are turning to a novel cottage industry: prison coaches with advice
on what it's like inside the big house.
Feeding off of notorious financial scandals, consultants school anxious inmates for fees of up
to $20,000. White-collar convicts such as Martha Stewart and Bernard Madoff sought their
help to learn about inmate life.
"After all, it's not like planning your vacation," Ira Sorkin, Madoff's lawyer, says of the service
that the Wall Street swindler used to prepare for his 150-year prison term.
Madoff and Stewart got their penitentiary insight from the Baltimore-based National Center
for Institutions and and Alternatives. Herbert Hoelter, its co-founder, says the firm waived its
fee for Madoff because his assets were frozen.
At least a half-dozen similar firms have emerged across the country. Steven Oberfest, for
instance, touts himself as an "inmate adaptation specialist" and offers a course in
close-quarters combat.
"I can prepare you to go into hell," says Oberfest, an ex-convict who opened his firm after the
2002 Enron collapse.
Oberfest and his competitors are unapologetic about their business models, which play on
the fears of first-time offenders sometimes going from lavish penthouses and estates to dank
cellblocks and prison yards.
Larry Levine, a Los Angeles-area consultant, this year changed his company name from
American Prison Consultants to Wall Street Prison Consultants.
Levine, who served 10 years for drug trafficking, securities violations and distribution of
machine guns, says his "Fedtime101" course covers it all. He says he helps offenders avoid
assault, cope with the "daily grind," decode prison lingo and even avoid "bad prison jobs."
His website has photos depicting the harsh transition "from the exchange floor to the prison
yard." Last week, the New York Stock Exchange Group demanded that Levine drop the
references, arguing that they tarnish the exchange's image.
Wealthy first-time convicts are turning to a novel cottage industry: prison coaches with advice
on what it's like inside the big house.
Feeding off of notorious financial scandals, consultants school anxious inmates for fees of up
to $20,000. White-collar convicts such as Martha Stewart and Bernard Madoff sought their
help to learn about inmate life.
"After all, it's not like planning your vacation," Ira Sorkin, Madoff's lawyer, says of the service
that the Wall Street swindler used to prepare for his 150-year prison term.
Madoff and Stewart got their penitentiary insight from the Baltimore-based National Center
for Institutions and and Alternatives. Herbert Hoelter, its co-founder, says the firm waived its
fee for Madoff because his assets were frozen.
At least a half-dozen similar firms have emerged across the country. Steven Oberfest, for
instance, touts himself as an "inmate adaptation specialist" and offers a course in
close-quarters combat.
"I can prepare you to go into hell," says Oberfest, an ex-convict who opened his firm after the
2002 Enron collapse.
Oberfest and his competitors are unapologetic about their business models, which play on
the fears of first-time offenders sometimes going from lavish penthouses and estates to dank
cellblocks and prison yards.
Larry Levine, a Los Angeles-area consultant, this year changed his company name from
American Prison Consultants to Wall Street Prison Consultants.
Levine, who served 10 years for drug trafficking, securities violations and distribution of
machine guns, says his "Fedtime101" course covers it all. He says he helps offenders avoid
assault, cope with the "daily grind," decode prison lingo and even avoid "bad prison jobs."
His website has photos depicting the harsh transition "from the exchange floor to the prison
yard." Last week, the New York Stock Exchange Group demanded that Levine drop the
references, arguing that they tarnish the exchange's image.
| July 15, 2009 |
