Welcome to Black Sheep, a spin-off publication of my serialized memoir. SMIRK. While SMIRK was a deep dive into my unusual personal and professional relationship with one unique white-collar fraudster— Martin Shkreli — Black Sheep takes a broader view and tells the stories of a wider range of business crimes and failures.
This publication will examine cultural themes and motives that contribute to lying, cheating, stealing, and related self-inflicted disasters; the impacts of those events; and the characters who play starring roles in these dramas. I find these tales both cautionary and fascinating; I hope you will, too.
When Jordan Belfort ruled the stock hustling scene in the early 1990s, pushing penny stocks required a veneer of respectability.
Stock peddlers had to get offices, secretaries, regulatory licenses, and business cards….