He since has. After being released in 1995 for model prisoner behavior, he cofounded the Fraud Discovery Institute in 2001, a company that uses auditors and ex-cons to identify ongoing financial misdoings and report them to the FBI. This year alone, FDI’s uncovered six frauds totaling $1.1 billion. Meanwhile, Minkow’s become a pastor, growing San Diego’s Community Bible Church from 140 members to more than 1,000. “My view was that he had no moral compass,” says James Asperger, the lawyer who prosecuted him. “But now it appears he’s turned his life around.” Though a judge lifted his restitution order in 2002, Minkow continues to pay back $7 million to the Union Bank of California, his one remaining victim. If his story sounds like “Catch Me If You Can II,” that’s because it very well may be. Minkow is currently in talks for book and movie deals.
