White Collar Advice

Hosted by Justin Paperny

Business Education

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300

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Aug 2026

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About the show

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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60 recent

August 21, 20261 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, 20261 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, 20261 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, 20261 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, 20262 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, 20261 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, 20261 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, 20261 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, 20261 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, 20261 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.