Wall Street Prison Consultants

Corruption runs rampant on Wall Street, so much so that "wealthy first-time convicts are turning to a novel cottage industry: prison coaches with advice on what it's like inside the big house". Of course most of the big time financial crooks will never see the inside of prison walls, not until mass arrests are made on members of Congress.

Meet Larry Levine, a Los Angeles based consultant who served 10 years for drug trafficking, securities violations and distribution of machine guns. His "Fedtime101" course covers it all: coping with the daily grind of prison, avoiding assaults, decoding prison lingo, and even an inside scoop on what the best prison jobs are. Levine is one of "a half-dozen similar firms [that] have emerged across the country, according to USA Today's Kevin Johnson. Johnson says Levine's website has photos depicting the harsh transition "from the exchange floor to the prison yard." and that last week, the New York Stock Exchange Group demanded Levine drop the references, arguing that they tarnish the exchange's image -- an image Congress lauds as they praise Goldman Sachs for manipulating the stock market for profit.

At least a half-dozen similar firms have emerged across the country, says Johnson. Steve Oberfest, who opened his firm after the 2002 Enron collapse, calls himself an "inmate adaptation specialist" and offers a course in close-quarters combat. "I can prepare you to go into hell," says Oberfest. The fees for these prison coaches go up to $20,000, and clientele includes the likes of Martha Stewart and Bernard Madoff. Johnson says Madoff and Stewart got their penitentiary insight from the Baltimore-based National Center for Institutions and Alternatives. Herbert Hoelter, its co-founder, says the firm waived its fee for Madoff because his assets were frozen.

What an indictment this is of the hopelessly corrupt American political system, a system that serves as nothing but a front for thieves, liars, cheats, cons, and confidence men, with the main stream media serving as their obedient stenographers. The fact is, in most prisons in America, all the wrong people are in jail. Most prison inmates are petty criminals compared to the grand theft of America Wall Street and Congress are pulling off.