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White Collar Advice

Justin Paperny

Whether you're a defense attorney, a criminal defendant, or someone eager to learn about sentencing, federal prison, and white-collar crime, our podcast is an excellent resource. It's never too soon or too late to begin preparing for a government investigation, and here's why:

Statistics demonstrate the potentially life-altering consequences of encountering the criminal justice system. Beyond the initial indignity of an arrest or the notification of a criminal investigation, those targeted by law enforcement face additional challenges:

How will this situation impact my career and earning capacity?
What changes will my life undergo if I receive a federal prison sentence?
How will my family members be affected by my term of confinement?
In the face of such complex challenges, consulting with a competent defense attorney is crucial (please note we are not lawyers and do not offer legal advice). A skilled attorney will guide the criminal justice process and help individuals navigate these difficulties.

At White Collar Advice, our dedicated team focuses on assisting those seeking to learn how to:

Avoid charges or get the shortest sentence possible.
Serve their sentence in a federal prison camp or a facility with the lowest possible security level.
Establish meaning and confidence while in federal prison.
Transition back into society and pursue a new career path.
Create a record that leads to increased liberty during supervised release.
Our podcast offers more than just generic information through a quick internet search. We prioritize delivering insightful and personalized content to our audience.

As the host, I bring a unique perspective to the table. As a successful stockbroker at Bear Stearns and UBS, I specialized in representing professional athletes and hedge funds. My journey through the criminal justice system, including a felony conviction for securities law violations, has given me valuable insights. For an in-depth account, grab a free copy of Lessons From Prison at WhiteCollarAdvice.com.

White Collar Advice has also become a trusted resource for numerous media outlets, including Dr. Phil, The New York Times, CNN, Fox News, The Washington Post, Fortune, The New York Post, BBC, ABC, and NBC.

If you have questions or inquiries, please contact us at Support@WhiteCollarAdvice.com or call 818-424-2220.

I appreciate your interest in our podcast. We look forward to sharing valuable knowledge and empowering you with the information you need to navigate the complexities of the criminal justice system.

Justin Paperny

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August 22 · 1 min
The FBI Told His Wife About the Loans
Eighteen months ago a man told me the FBI betrayed him, destroyed his life, and ruined his marriage. He had lied on some forms to get a loan, then began cooperating, and he decided the FBI were his friends because he was helping them. They don't care about your family, your values, or your kid's Little League. They care about victims and prison. He also hid from his wife that he had put her name on the loan documents to get the fraudulent loans, and he figured she would never find out, until the FBI told her that her husband put her name on the loans, that they had to interview her, that she should get a lawyer, that she might be in trouble too. She was cleared. She told him she knew about the investigation, but he lied to her about this, and they could have gone through it together, and she was disgusted, and she was leaving. My only advice on that call was that he would be happier and more successful when he stopped living as a victim. They both called me today. She thanked me and I asked what for. She said her husband no longer lives as a victim. They're still together. He's still going to prison. The feds are not your friends. Don't be naive and don't live as a victim.
August 22 · 1 min
He Lied, Pled Guilty, and Got Probation
Judge Wilson told me at my sentencing that he was tired of salesmen turning the other way for money, that most don't get caught, that I did, and that he was going to make an example out of me and send me to prison. The truth is I did much worse than turn the other way. I aggressively facilitated a fraud at Bear Stearns and then UBS, and I schemed with my colleagues so the commissions would keep coming. I'm flying up north to see several people in our community. One of them is a young kid who worked in healthcare, obstructed an investigation, got nervous and scared, lied, was indicted, pled guilty, and got probation. Here's my policy idea. I earned every collateral consequence that followed my terrible decisions. I should no longer sell stocks. You can argue prison should have been part of the sanction, and a good dude, probation officer Isaiah Murrow, oversaw me for three years. Should this kid carry the same consequences I do? There should be varying levels of consequence for a felony. How is he fired from Bank of America? How can you be Bank of America and fire felons? Should he be denied a license? Should he have the Department of Justice press releases, because in an out-of-character moment he lied and responded poorly? He's a felon and he's enduring the consequences, but should it last forever? Mine should be much more severe because of what I did. I don't think the same should follow for him. Do you agree or disagree?
August 21 · 1 min
The Best Time to Start Was Five Years Ago
Five years is a long time to deal with a white collar case, and finally getting clarity is a good thing. An executive facing sentencing has done his best to show why he's a candidate for leniency, but he keeps missing the message because he focuses on himself. On our call I asked him who the hero of this story is. He said no, who? Five years in and he didn't know. The hero is the executive during COVID who didn't cheat, who has a wife and children and a business, and who didn't submit fraudulent applications. He found a way around it. That's who you have to identify with, because that's the only thing your judge is going to be thinking about, that same husband and father who didn't cheat when you did. You're not the hero. They are. You've had five years to embrace the message and you failed. The best time to start was five years ago. The next best time is right now. He said, wow, you're right.
August 21 · 1 min
Go to Your Computer Right Now and Purge
An FBI agent left a card on an executive's front door, and I told him this on my way home from dinner with my good friend Lawrence. Don't make matters worse. You make it worse by lying and by reaching out to people you shouldn't reach out to, and it's easy to want that because you need comfort right now. Focus on what you can and cannot control. You don't know yet if you're a witness, a target, or a subject. Too many people at this stage play director in their own mind, jump straight to the worst case, can't function, and make really bad decisions. So before I refer you to three lawyers I trust tomorrow morning, go to your computer right now and purge. Speak openly and honestly to yourself in a recorded transcript. Who did you know? When did you begin working there? What were your communications like? Everything you did while working for that company. If an agent left a card asking you to call, you can presume they've been speaking with people. The FBI agent who arrested me told me that when they show up at your home, we're in the bottom of the eighth. What the defendant does next sets the tone.
August 20 · 1 min
They Want It All. This Is a Total Disaster.
An executive texted me: they want it all, this is a total disaster. Earlier this week I did a live YouTube video on how to communicate with the government, starting with their perspective. Eighteen months ago this guy chose not to plan and not to put himself in the shoes of a prosecutor who wants it all. As a defendant you can make moves financially, transparently, without risk of getting in trouble. You can invest in real estate and disclose it. They could still take the real estate, and it's harder for them if it's illiquid. But if you pled guilty, you created victims, and you tell them you're sorry, you'll make amends, you'll do better, hold you accountable, all the clichés and buzzwords they've heard 800 times this year, and then they come across a million dollars in liquid cash, of course they want the money. So when he asks how he keeps the money, or gives them as little of that liquid cash as possible, and still gets a shorter sentence, it tells me he doesn't understand how government investigations work. I can't change what he didn't do 18 months ago. I don't chase. You either believe in mitigation and planning or you don't, and I'm not going to convince you.
August 20 · 1 min
Call Me a Strict Parent
Two things happened in the last 30 minutes. Three kids, about 17, no helmets, on their iPhones, riding e-bikes, ran me off the side of the road and I ended up in a bush. On the way in I thought, if I die, I'm glad my family is taken care of. A little dramatic, since it was a bush, but that's what goes through your mind. Will the wife remarry? Hard to find someone as witty, but in time, perhaps. The point is I had insurance. You prepare for the worst outcome. Right before that I got a call from a doctor in Texas facing sentencing in three weeks who told me his lawyer said it's time to begin preparing. He would have been stronger had he started before he saw his name versus the government, and certainly right after, not three weeks out while trying to persuade a judge he's a candidate for leniency. He's going to give a message that judge has heard 300 times since January. Alyssa and Jason, I love you. Call me a strict parent. You ain't riding no e-bikes.
August 19 · 2 min
Michael Santos Told Me About Roman Fabrizi
July 9th, 2008, four or five months into my sentence, around 3:45 in the afternoon just after mail call. Michael Santos asked if I knew the new prisoner who had transferred in from another prison, about 20 feet away, loud, showing off, telling everyone there's no deal he can't close, the jets he flew on, the models he slept with. I said no. Michael said that's Roman Fabrizi. Walking the track that afternoon he told me Roman Fabrizi isn't a person, it's a type of prisoner: the one who mocks other prisoners who are willing to try and build, and who cozies up to staff hoping for a benefit, more halfway house time, getting home earlier. He used the phrase putting on airs. I didn't know what that meant. He said it's acting superior when we're not. We're human beings and we can all become better. I wrote about it in my prison journal the next day and it hangs in my office. It connects to CZ, who said in an interview this week that guards asked him whether they should invest in Bitcoin. He probably knows. If he had answered the way they wanted, they might have sent him home early or given him some benefit. He said I don't know, walked back to that antiquated prison computer, and kept writing Freedom of Money. If one of the richest and most successful men in the world can say I don't know, so can you. Don't be Roman Fabrizi. Don't put on airs.
August 19 · 1 min
Pity Was Worse Than Any Day in Prison
I was working late with Breaking Bad on in my office, season two, episode six, and when Gretchen told Walter she feels so sorry for him I stopped and filmed this. When I was a defendant I took terrible care of myself. In-N-Out four nights a week. A thing of Red Man chewing tobacco every two days. My teeth would bleed and I wouldn't stop. I was punishing myself because I felt like I deserved it, and I got so used to the pain that I didn't even try to get better. Right after I was sentenced I played in a charity golf event at El Caballero Country Club in Tarzana, and an old friend, a retired athlete, came up and said he knew I was going to prison, that he was sorry, that he felt so sorry for me. It was sickening then and it's sickening now. Pity, with the opportunities I had and the way I responded to them, as if I couldn't handle it. That was worse than any day in prison, and it's exactly what Gretchen said to Walter. I stopped living as a victim in 2008. Prison was the best thing that ever happened to me because standing for count for 388 days forced me to look inward and finally get it together. We don't need anyone to feel sorry for us. We need to begin engineering a better outcome.
August 18 · 1 min
Don't Pack Anything You're Not Prepared to Lose
He called 90 minutes before surrendering to the camp at Fort Dix and wanted to know what to pack. I told him the longer you stay on the wrong train, the more expensive it is to get home. He said he didn't want to talk about the train, he wanted the packing list. So here's my story. Three days before I went to prison I looked at the Taft commissary list, saw white Reebok shoes and a Timex watch, drove to Big 5, bought them, and surrendered wearing them. They told me I could donate them or send them home. I think they went to the correctional officers trust fund. Don't pack anything you're not prepared to lose. Bring your medications, some money, your contact list, and your release plan. If they don't let you bring the money in, your family can send it through Western Union or to the drop box in Iowa. Share the release plan with your case manager, who may throw it in the trash because he's testing you, and share it with your probation officer. More importantly, don't complain and don't lament. You're moving into a place where men have lived for weeks, months, years, and decades. Today is a great day because you're one day closer to home. I kept trying to get him talking about getting off the train and onto the right track. It totally failed.
August 18 · 1 min
How Do I Leave Prison Better Than I Went In
A crypto executive, married with two young children, emailed me. He's going to prison for 37 months for money laundering and mail fraud, and he asked how he can leave prison better than he went in. Four things. First, what is the next right thing for you to do? The consequences of a conviction are overwhelming, and plenty of people, including him until he went to jail, never start. Maybe you want to engineer an earlier release, so begin answering that. Second, why are you going to prison? There was a breakdown, a fracture, that compelled you to go rogue, to launder money, to break the law. Invest the time in good literature and philosophy, the dead thinkers, and understand what led you here, because then it never happens again and you're in a position to share your story appropriately. Third, it isn't enough to say it in your mind. We're our own best producer. You have an idea, you convince yourself why it won't work, and you never start. Write out what you intend to do, deliberately and methodically. That's work, and if you don't see value in the writing you'll stop on your first bad day. Fourth, and most important, never play the victim. Don't take the bait that it was the judge, the lawyer, or the DOJ looking to make an example out of you. You pled guilty. Own it. The people who own it and never play the victim have much better lives, because claiming the victim turns a 37 month sentence into a life sentence. I don't want that for you or your young family.
August 17 · 1 min
My Son Asked If Prison Was Kind of Fun
My young son asked me if I'm happy I went to prison. I asked him why he would ask that. He said it seems like it was kind of fun. I told him I'm not happy I went, and I don't want him to go. I speak about it favorably because I learned so many valuable lessons. Here's a small one. I had a great trip in Billings, Montana, I'm flying home, and terrible weather in Denver has me delayed two hours, then another two. I'm not complaining. I'm sitting here alone listening to a Jim Rohn audiobook. I'm not standing for count. I'm not doing a fire drill at 2 a.m. When I share those details with my son I'm not glorifying prison, and I'm not glad I went. I'm talking about the perspective I found. If you go through this experience, I hope you find that perspective too.
August 17 · 1 min
Start Thinking Like the Underdog You Are
About six months ago a former accountant who served 15 months for payroll protection fraud called me with one question: how do I disclose my felony conviction to potential employers. He didn't take the advice, because he called me today with the same problem while I'm in Montana still trying to get home. I reminded him that prison doesn't change the fact that he ran a successful business for more than 20 years and holds an undergraduate and a master's degree. He owned the conviction and accepted responsibility for it, but he isn't thinking like an underdog. Malcolm Gladwell wrote about that in David and Goliath. As a convicted felon looking for work, he's the underdog. So own it, talk about what you learned, say you're a better executive now because you understand the collateral consequences, and don't just talk about it. Write it. Build it out. Document it. There's also value in learning to tell your story. Go to business schools, USC, Stanford, the places I went. Accounting professors will welcome you. Educate young minds on the consequences of cheating, and you never know what comes from a professor who is now in your network. He says he's going to take the advice this time. We'll see.
August 15 · 1 min
Matt Cox on the Fry Machine and Freedom
Matt Cox on the guys who won't take a job because it pays a hundred dollars a day instead of 300 or 400. Work five days at a hundred and you have 500 you didn't have before. He says they would rather stay in prison than do something beneath them, and he asks what's beneath you when prison is where you already are, at the bottom. If he's working the fry machine at a fast food place, he still gets to watch YouTube, watch Netflix, turn the channel, meet a girl, order his own food. All of that is an improvement. The worst day out here is better than the best day in prison. They don't see it that way, and that's why these guys keep coming back to prison.
August 15 · 1 min
He Told Me His Lawyer Wouldn't Let Him
A doctor back east called me. I spoke with him about nine months ago and he told me his lawyer wouldn't let him do the work. I said he could have a different conversation and try to engineer something different. He said no, he won't let me. So now he has a probation interview that isn't correct, a sentencing memorandum he never reviewed, and the longer sentence he absolutely knew was coming, and he's blaming everybody else. The lawyer is an opponent. The prosecutor is an opponent. The judge is an opponent. I told him how he gets back on track, and telling people what they don't want to hear doesn't always help the sale. He has to own his bad strategy. Not holding his lawyer accountable and not preparing properly for the probation interview and for sentencing is his own failure. Learn from him, do better, or live with continued regret.
August 14 · 1 min
Instagram Followers Don't Make You a Lawyer
I'd rather be in prison than on a fast boat in the ocean, but my kids love it and I love my kids. When I got off the boat in the Bahamas I had a kind text from a guy who scheduled a call with me for Monday. He asked me to review his indictment and his potential plea agreement before we talk. I won't, and here's why. A consultant in Florida who has been to prison twice told someone he might as well go to trial, because if he loses the sentence is the same either way. That guy got nine or 10 years. Another guy, apparently because he has some followers on Instagram, told a doctor to take the deal since he would get the mandatory minimum of two years for identity theft. The doctor got four years. We're not lawyers. I have a degree from USC and I teach from 17 years of lived experience, much of it learned from my partner Michael. Nobody but your lawyer should be reviewing your indictment or your plea. That's why they went to law school and that's why you hired them. What you can influence is the process. Be vested with your lawyer. Make sure they understand the facts, and stop telling half truths, minimizing, and dodging. I don't want you signing a plea you don't agree with because you didn't work well with your lawyer. Ask better questions, like why haven't the Dodgers won in August, and what are you doing to work better with your lawyer.
August 14 · 2 min
What Chipper Told My Best Friend Over a Drink
I saw Chipper Jones at dinner in the Bahamas and it took me back to 1999. I'm not comparing myself to a Hall of Famer, the second greatest switch hitter of all time behind Mickey Mantle, but it shows what one conversation can do. My best friend Brad Fulmer, who came to my sentencing hearing and visited me twice a month in prison, was in his second year with the Montreal Expos. He finished third or fourth in Rookie of the Year voting the year before, then got off to a bad start and felt the manager wasn't a fan and wouldn't play him against lefties. I was in Montreal watching the Braves play the Expos. Chipper hit a pop fly, Brad dropped it, and Brad had a bad game. He thought he was getting sent down to the minors. That night at dinner in Montreal, Chipper recognized Brad, called us over, and for 10 or 15 minutes told him he was there for a reason, that he was a hitter and a force, to go through the process and stick with it, that these are the ups and downs of baseball. Brad appreciated it. It was a veteran talking to a younger player. When I saw Chipper in the Bahamas with his family I didn't disturb him. He won't remember me. If you have five or ten minutes and something worth telling someone, you never know what it does for them.
August 13 · 2 min
Stop Playing Director in Your Own Mind
Back from the Bahamas, wrecked. I got a text that said please call me immediately, so I opened a Coke Zero and called. He told me I didn't know him, that he was on my live YouTube video two weeks ago and made a note of something I said, and that it proved why his judge gave him an extra two years. What I said was that a judge may give a longer sentence to account for the reductions: a year off from the First Step Act, another year to offset the drug program, and up to 12 months in the halfway house for good conduct. Three years with FSA, RDAP, and halfway house. He said that's exactly what happened, that his judge knew he would get a year from FSA and a year from the drug program, so he gave him the two years. I asked how he knows. He said he just knows, from the way the judge spoke to him and the way the judge listened to victims who had it out for him. My answer was to prepare differently. Recognize the strategy is flawed and isn't working. Write a letter to your judge. Write a letter to the probation officer who will approve your job in the halfway house, and if that job is KFC, nothing wrong with the colonel, though you probably want something else. Ask better questions about what you can create that doesn't exist, instead of playing director in your own mind.
August 13 · 1 min
I Was Just Sentenced, What Should I Do Now
Someone left the courthouse and texted me: I was just sentenced, what should I do now? I don't know if he's married, if he has children, how old he is, or the length of the sentence, so I answered on a macro level for anyone who was just sentenced. Start with gratitude. You will serve time with men who were taken into custody at their guilty plea, remanded that day, and never saw freedom again. You're free, and that's your chance to prepare. Make sure your judgment and commitment order is correct. Did your lawyer ask for a specific prison, not the closest prison to your home, which could be several places or a detention center? Did he ask for specific programming like the drug program? The judge may say it's up to the Bureau of Prisons, but he's happy to recommend it. From his 323 number, his lawyer could have asked for the drug program at Lompoc, but they have it at the low, not the camp, so the closest could be Yankton or Leavenworth. Ask for a specific prison, a specific surrender date, specific programming, and lay out a plan for how you come out of this. In the camps, boredom is what you have to overcome, and then you prepare for the hardest part, which in my case was coming home. You're still free, dude.
August 12 · 30 sec
How to Get Nine More Months in 30 Seconds
A case study in 30 seconds on how to get a longer federal prison sentence, probably nine months longer. Your victim, someone you hurt mentally, financially, and emotionally, is speaking to your very cynical judge who used to run the fraud division. They're describing the damage you caused. Don't shake your head. Don't give a look of disgust, because the judge will interrupt the victim, chastise you, let the victim continue, and then give you an extra nine months in prison.
August 12 · 1 min
He Shook His Head and Got Nine More Months
Did you ever see Animal House? Thank you sir, may I have another. Someone asked me why a defendant would shake his head in front of the judge while the victim was speaking, and why the judge gave him an extra nine months for it. He had had enough. He didn't believe the victim was actually a victim. Think about what was stacked up behind that head shake: a plea agreement he didn't agree with, Department of Justice press releases that were made up, banks firing him, losing his job, losing friends, not working well with his lawyer, not vested in the probation report, the sentencing memorandum, a terrible allocution. It hit him while the victim was speaking and he couldn't take it anymore. Had he identified what success was, he would have kept taking it a little longer. Nine additional months in prison.

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