Crime Pays for Advisor to Felons
Ron Cohen has some advice for Andrew S. Fastow should Enron Corp.’s former chief financial officer land in jail: “Get humble real quick.”
Cohen knows what he’s talking about. A convicted stock swindler, he has done four stints in federal prison -- almost 11 years in all.
Nowadays, Cohen, 56, is trying to make his crimes pay: He runs Client Advisory Group Inc., a Dallas consulting business that prepares white-collar convicts for their stay behind bars.
Business has been looking up lately. In October, Fastow was indicted on charges of masterminding a fraud that led to Enron’s collapse. Other executives indicted this year include L. Dennis Kozlowski, former chief executive of Tyco International Ltd., and Samuel D. Waksal, former CEO of ImClone Systems Inc.
“His services will be very much in demand,” said David Irwin, a defense attorney in Baltimore who has referred two clients to Cohen.
For $150 an hour, Cohen tells prospective inmates what to expect inside federal pens, how to reduce their sentences and how to adapt to life as ex-cons.
“Ron Cohen is the Mobil Travel Guide of prisons,” said Dan Guthrie, a Dallas defense attorney and former assistant U.S. attorney who recently referred a client to Cohen. “He knows the system so well that he can tell you where the accommodations are the best.”
During the ‘80s, Cohen, a onetime stockbroker, ran a pyramid investment scheme that eventually landed him an 11-year sentence on money laundering, theft and other charges. He served 4 1/2 years of that sentence. He also has done time for passing a bad check, laundering $15,000 for a convicted drug dealer and fleecing investors again in the early ‘90s.
“He’s making a fraction of what he once did, but it’s a hell of a lot better than being in the penitentiary,” said David Moore, a former district attorney investigator who helped prosecute Cohen in 1984.
