{"version":1,"type":"rich","provider_name":"Libsyn","provider_url":"https:\/\/www.libsyn.com","height":90,"width":600,"title":"The Judge Asked If He'd Ever Earned a Living Lawfully","description":"I've attended more than 1,500 sentencing hearings. This one was a guy who graduated college, went straight for an MBA, and built a business raising money to make investments. Three good quarters, then a bad quarter. Instead of telling his investors he lost money, he covered it up and told himself he would make it back. It became a Ponzi scheme, about $7 million, friends and family. I spoke with him 17 months ago and asked what he thought his judge would want to see. He told me he had an MBA, that he got it. I have a degree from USC. So what. That was me at 26, a broker at Bear Stearns thinking I was big time. I told him to wait tables, pick up trash, come to my club and pick up the balls, do something that shows he can earn a living as a law-abiding citizen paying taxes, and build the record he had yet to build. He didn't. At sentencing the judge asked him if he had ever done anything lawfully, if he had ever earned a living that didn't involve cheating and scheming and stealing. Same question I asked him 17 months ago. Six years. I'm angry because he has great parents and a loving family who wanted him to do more. ","author_name":"White Collar Advice","author_url":"http:\/\/WhiteCollarAdvice.com","html":"