President Of Conman Barry Minkow's 'Fraud Discovery Institute' Apologizes Following 'Weekly' Article On 'ZZZZ Best' Mastermind's Latest Lies

By Dennis Romero Fri., Jan. 7 2011 at 2:37 PM

Carpet cleaner, liar, corporate swashbuckler, Barry Minkow

By Beth Barrett

The president of conman Barry Minkow's Fraud Discovery Institute (FDI) has apologized to "friends" and other followers, saying the company had "fallen away from our mission and our credibility and our sweat equity that we worked so hard to earn."

The statement by FDI President Juan Lopez, transmitted via Twitter, came after LA Weekly reported that a Florida judge had found that Minkow lied, withheld or destroyed important documents and concealed key witnesses in a libel and extortion lawsuit filed by Lennar Corp., a giant home-building company headquartered in Florida. Lopez linked the Weekly article to his Twitter account.

Minkow is the supposedly reformed Los Angeles conman who served time in federal prison after defrauding investors in his 1980s-era ZZZZ Best carpet-cleaning company out of as much as $100 million. After his release from prison, Minkow billed himself as a corporate fraud buster and a man of God.

In recent years, Minkow began making allegations of wrongdoing by large businesses -- and he profited when the news sent their stock prices down.

Lennar was among those Minkow targeted.

The company filed its lawsuit after Lennar's stock plummeted 20 percent, $500 million, on the heels of unsubstantiated allegations by Minkow and FDI in January 2009. When Lennar lawyers pressured Minkow in court to prove that his allegations were true, Minkow lied and deceived, Judge Freeman found.

The apology by Lopez contrasts with the comments Minkow made to a Florida business publication about the court finding. Reached in San Diego at Community Bible Church, where he is senior pastor, Minkow told the Daily Business Review that the judge "ruled against me personally but allowed FDI to continue in the case, so FDI is still alive in the case. ... We will have a chance to pursue the case and prove that [my findings] were true."

The Weekly was unable to reach Minkow and Lopez on Friday. An FDI staff person said Lopez was out of the country, and Minkow was also not immediately available.

Joshua Entin, who represents Minkow and FDI, called the judge's ruling disappointing and said the sanctions, in the form of Lennar's attorney and investigative fees, were excessive. He said Minkow will appeal.

"We disagree with her findings to the extent she rendered a decision Barry should be defaulted and not be able to defend (himself) against the allegations. As to the liability, we also believe that to be in error," said Entin, of Rosen Switkes & Entin in Miami Beach.

Should Minkow lose on appeal, he will face a potentially ruinous hearing on compensatory damages in the libel case Lennar has estimated at up to hundreds of millions of dollars.

Tags:

Barry Minkow, Conman, Fraud, Juan Lopez, Los Angeles, Scam, Scandal, ZZZZ Best

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Franktho1

I am a minister and long time consumer advocate. I had wrote Barry off many years ago because of his sociopathic behavior and completely forgotten about him. I did a google search and was brought up to date on his latest situation.

I am emotionally crushed to see what damage he has done to many good people, especially to those who have dedicated themselves to expose and uproot real fraud and corruption.

I must live with the fact that I didn't share my misgivings about Barry years ago. Lord forgive me.

Lori Patton

not only did Minkow defraud large companies. He also defraud people in his Church congregation. I know this maybe after the fact but this happened during the same time that he started his investigation with Lennar. He had a Staff member who was kicked out of her home with children one that was a special needs child that unfortunately passed away. But she was locked out with nothing. They threw away everything, would not let her in to get her childrens' food or clothes or medicine for her youngest special needs child. You would think that his church would assist or come to her rescue but in fact. He threw her out of the church left her homeless with no money. She received no assistance and was told be him and the other staff members including founding pastor that she could no longer be on staff or even come to church. She had no clue what happened except that she was locked out of the apartment, literally and that when she tried to sue him and his lawyer threatened her that she left the state...to where her youngest special needs child had more seizures and unfortunately died from that...that she has not recouped or trusted another church or pastor again...i spoke to her and I told her that she may still be able to sue...she stated that barry said the statute of limitations too old....hahahaha. he has never changed...she should still sue, right?

tex2

Here's someone worse than Minkow: http://texsquixtarblog.blogspo...

miere de albine

The article is very interesting, but some issues still remained less affected. I hope that a future article and will reveal things behind the scenes, things that show us the true face of this.

forjustice

Great article, but it looks like Juan Lopez is not sorry any more. He deleted the tweet recently. It can be stiil seen on the bottom of the following page http://www.laweekly.com/2011-0...It looks like Mr Lopez is not just a "President Of Conman Barry Minkow's Fraud Discovery Institute".He is a conman himself and does not really mean what he says.This saga is getting more interesting every day.