Free Republic

Barry Minkow has been a teenage millionaire, a convicted con artist, a fraud investigator and a religious leader - and now he can add 'church thief' to his list of vocations. On Wednesday, Minkow, 46, pleaded guilty to embezzling funds from the San Diego Community Bible Church over the course of nearly 10 years, a U.S. attorney's statement said. He was already serving a five-year sentence for a securities fraud conviction in Florida and could get five additional years when he is sentenced for the new conviction April 7. Under the plea deal, Minkow admitted that he opened unauthorized church...

MIAMI — Barry Minkow has made many names for himself: as a boy-wonder entrepreneur, as a Ponzi schemer who served seven years in prison and then reinvented himself as a fraud-detection specialist, government informant and pastor. His life took another turn when he was charged Thursday with conspiracy to commit securities fraud against the Lennar Corporation, one of the nation’s largest home builders. The United States attorney’s office in Miami accused Mr. Minkow and an unnamed California-based conspirator of trying to extort cash and stock from Lennar after Mr. Minkow said the home builder operated “like a Ponzi scheme” that...