ZZZZ Best’s Minkow Will Be Transferred to Halfway House

Barry Minkow, the San Fernando Valley entrepreneur who made millions with the carpet-cleaning company he founded in his parents’ garage before being exposed as a fraud, was scheduled to be transferred from a federal prison today to a halfway house after serving more than five years of his sentence, his lawyer and prison officials said Tuesday.

Minkow, 28, will be moved from the Lompoc Federal Prison Camp and sent to a halfway house in North Hollywood, said Randy M. Long, a Reedley, Calif., lawyer who represents Minkow in civil matters. Minkow’s release date from the halfway house is tentatively scheduled for April 12, Lompoc spokesman Dennis Grossini said.

The halfway house is not far from Minkow’s boyhood home in Reseda where he started ZZZZ Best Co. at age 16. He subsequently rode its stock to riches in what became one of the biggest scams ever to hit Wall Street.

Minkow’s scheme--in which the money from one set of investors was used to pay off others--was uncovered in 1987. In 1989, he was sentenced to 25 years in prison.

Minkow was a model prisoner, officials say, which accounts for his early release. While in prison, he completed graduate degrees in religion by correspondence after converting from Judaism to fundamentalist Christianity. He also wrote an as-yet-unpublished autobiography.