Madoff Talks: White Collar Week with Jeff Grant, Podcast Ep. 06, with Guest: Jim Campbell

Jeff Grant - White Collar Week
9 min readAug 1, 2020

White Collar Week with Jeff Grant: A Podcast Serving the White Collar Justice Community

Limited 10-Episode Run: Summer 2020. It’s the Isolation that Destroys Us. The Solution is in Community.

Podcast Ep. 06: Madoff Talks, with Guest: Jim Campbell

Today on the podcast we have Jim Campbell, a radio host and journalist based in Greenwich, Connecticut, who hosts a nationally syndicated business affairs show, Business Talk with Jim Campbell. He also hosts another show, Forensic Talk, that dives into the world of financial crimes. It’s probably not surprising that Jim and I are friends, and that he has interviewed me on both of his shows.

Today we turn the tables and Jim the interviewer becomes Jim the guest, as we talk about his upcoming book, Madoff Talks: Uncovering the Untold Story Behind the Most Notorious Ponzi Scheme in History. Jim’s book will be published next year (McGraw Hill). He is now putting the finishing touches on his multi-year dialogue with Bernie Madoff in prison, Bernie’s wife Ruth Madoff, and Bernie’s late son Andrew Madoff, as well as government investigators, lawyers, witnesses, and most importantly, the victims. While Jim has culled over 400 pages of actual emails with Bernie Madoff — and presents Madoff’s words verbatim — he never accepts any of it at face value. Jim investigates the truth behind the man, the family, the fraud, and the systemic breakdown of the SEC, big banks, and every watchdog that had the obligation and opportunity to stop the fraud before more people got hurt. But failed.

The Bernie Madoff story was, and remains, one of the biggest tales of grandiosity and greed that Wall Street has ever known, and certainly the largest Ponzi scheme in history. And we have an inside, up-close look on today’s podcast.

So, coming up, Madoff Talks, with our guest Jim Campbell. On White Collar Week. I hope you will join us. — Jeff

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Past Episodes:

White Collar Week Podcast 05: A White Collar Mom goes to Prison, with guests Jacqueline Polverari and her daughters, Alexa & Maria. Link to article and video/podcast here.

White Collar Week Podcast 04: One-on-One With Tipper-X, Tom Hardin, the prolific informant who helped bring down 20 other insider traders in Operation Perfect Hedge. Link to article and video/podcast here.

White Collar Week Podcast 03: Compassionate Lawyering, with guests Chris Poulos, Corey Brinson, Bob Herbst & George Hritz. Link to article and video/podcast here.

White Collar Week Podcast 02: Substance Abuse & Recovery, with guests Trevor Shevin & Joshua Cagney. Link to article and video/podcast here.

White Collar Week Podcast 01: An Evening with Our White Collar Support Group, 16 members tell their personal stories. Link to article and video/podcast here.

Information About our White Collar Support Group…

If you have a friend, family member, colleague or client with a white collar justice issue, please forward this email; they can reach us anytime — day or night! Our contact info here.

Guests on this Episode:

Since 2008, Jim Campbell has been the host of the nationally syndicated radio show: “Business Talk with Jim Campbell”, over the Biz Talk Radio Network which has 350 affiliated radio stations in the U.S. He is known for “Taking on Wall Street and Washington from the Radical Center” with interviews of leading figures from the worlds of business, politics and sports. The show features challenging, in-depth interviews and “deep dives” on matters of global importance, tackling big issues without the extremist distortions of so much talk radio. His subjects have ranged from crime on Wall Street to Kremlin intrigues in Putin’s criminal state of Russia, to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, to major CEOs, and leading authors of books on business, politics and sports.

He’s known for “firsts” — the first extensive interview with former NY Governor Eliot Spitzer after his resignation. The first interview with former TYCO CEO Dennis Kozlowski after his release from prison. The first broadcast interview with one of the major participants in the biggest insider trading scandal in Wall Street history — Roomy Khan of the Raj Rajaratnam case — after her release from prison.

New York Times Chief White House Correspondent Peter Baker, calls Jim: “The gold standard in broadcasting”. His nationally renowned guests consistently call his interviews among the best they’ve ever had.

He’s also the host of the crime show: “Forensic Talk with Jim Campbell” — on 1490 WGCH Greenwich, covering Fairfield County, CT and Westchester County, NY. The show features inside looks into financial crimes; unsolved high profile murder cases; international political crimes and other major scandals — with the same attention to unbiased facts and forensics he’s known for on “Biz Talk with Jim Campbell”. In other words, a brand extension into the ever popular world of crime shows.

He is Assistant News Director at 1490 AM Greenwich, CT radio.

He has a book coming out from McGraw Hill: “Madoff Talks: Uncovering the Untold Story Behind the Most Notorious Ponzi Scheme in History.”

He has a BA, Magna Cum Laude, from Tufts University, and an MBA from the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth. Jim Campbell can be reached at jimcampbellradio@gmail.com.

You can find all episodes of our podcast “White Collar Week with Jeff Grant” on our website prisonist.org, our Facebook page, Podbean, YouTube (video), SoundCloud, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, LinkedIn, Instagram and Twitter.

Information About our White Collar Support Group…

What is White Collar Week:

Podcast Ep. 00: White Collar Week with Jeff Grant: What is White Collar Week?:

Welcome to White Collar Week with Jeff Grant, a podcast serving the white collar justice community. It’s the isolation that destroys us. The solution is in community.

If you are interested in this podcast, then you are probably already a member of the white collar justice community — even if you don’t quite know it yet. Our community is certainly made up of people being prosecuted, or who have already been prosecuted, for white collar crimes. But it is also made up of the spouses, children and families of those prosecuted for white collar crimes — these are the first victims of white collar crime. And the community also consists of the other victims, both direct and indirect, and those in the wider white collar ecosystem like friends, colleagues, prosecutors, defense attorneys, judges, law enforcement, academics, researchers. Investigators, mitigation experts, corrections officers, reentry professionals, mental health care professionals, drug and alcohol counselors, — and ministers, chaplains and advocates for criminal and social justice reform. The list goes on and on…

In this very eventful summer 2020, our mission is to introduce you to other members of the white collar justice community, to hear their very personal stories, and hopefully gain a broader perspective of what this is really all about. Maybe this will inspire some deeper thoughts and introspection? Maybe it will inspire some empathy and compassion for people you might otherwise resent or dismiss? And maybe it will help lift us all out of our own isolation and into community, so we can learn to live again in the sunshine of the spirit.

Along the way, I’ll share with you some of the things I’ve learned in my own journey from successful lawyer, to prescription opioid addict, white collar crime, suicide attempt, disbarment, destruction of my marriage, and the almost 14 months I served in a Federal prison. And also my recovery, love story I share with my wife Lynn Springer, after prison earning a Master of Divinity from Union Theological Seminary in NYC, pastoring in an inner city church in Bridgeport CT, and then co-founding with Lynn in Greenwich CT, Progressive Prison Ministries, the world’s first ministry serving the white collar justice community. It’s been quite a ride, but I firmly believe that the best is yet to come.

So I invite you to come along with me as we experience something new, and bold, and different this summer — a podcast that serves the entire white collar justice community. I hope you will join me.

Blessings, לשלום

Jeff

Rev. Jeff Grant, J.D., M.Div. (he, him, his)
Co-founder, Progressive Prison Ministries, Inc., Greenwich CT & Nationwide
Co-host, The Criminal Justice Insider Podcast
Host, White Collar Week
Mailing: P.O. Box 1, Woodbury, CT 06798
Website: prisonist.org
Email: jgrant@prisonist.org
Office: 203–405–6249
Donations (501c3): http://bit.ly/donate35T9kMZ
Psychology Today: https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/therapists/jeff-grant-woodbury-ct/731344
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/revjeffgrant
not a prison coach, not a prison consultant

Thank you for listening to White Collar Week.

Please subscribe, rate and review the podcast if you loved it — it helps others suffering in silence find us if they need us!

Want to be a guest on the Show? Have a connection you’d like to make?

Email us! info@prisonist.org

Credits:

Host: Jeff Grant, J.D., M.Div.

Audio Engineering: George Antonios: https://georgeantonios.com

Video Engineering: Todd Nixon

Art Direction: Greyskye Marketing, LLC: https://greyskye.com

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Progressive Prison Ministries, Inc. is the world’s first ministry supporting the white collar justice community. Founded by husband and wife, Jeff Grant and Lynn Springer in Greenwich CT in 2012, we incorporated as a nonprofit in Connecticut in 2014, and received 501(c)(3) status in 2015. Jeff has over three decades of experience in crisis management, business, law (former), reentry, recovery (clean & sober 17+ years), and executive and religious leadership. As Jeff was incarcerated for a white-collar crime he committed in 2001, he and Lynn have a first-hand perspective on the trials and tribulations that white-collar families have to endure as they navigate the criminal justice system and life beyond.

Progressive Prison Ministries, Inc. is nonsectarian, serving those of all faiths, or no faith whatsoever. To date we have helped over three hundred fifty (350) individuals, and their families, to accept responsibility for their actions and to acknowledge the pain they have caused to others. In accordance with our commitment to restorative justice, we counsel our members to make amends as a first step in changing their lives and moving towards a new spiritual way of living centered on hope, care, compassion, tolerance, empathy and service to others. Our team has grown to over ten people, most with advanced degrees, all of whom are currently volunteering their time and resources.

Progressive Prison Ministries’ goal is to provide spiritual solutions and emotional support to those who are feeling alone, isolated, and hopeless. We have found that these individuals are suffering from a void but are stuck, and don’t know what to do about it. Our objective is to help them find a path to a healthy, spirit-filled place on the other side of what may seem like insurmountable problems. Many of those we counsel are in a place where their previous lives have come to an end due to their transgressions. In many cases their legal problems have led to divorce, estrangement from their children, families, friends and support communities, and loss of a career. The toll this takes on individuals and families is emotionally devastating. White-collar crimes are often precipitated by other issues in the offenders’ lives such as alcohol or drug abuse, and/or a physical or mental illness that lead to financial issues that overwhelms their ability to be present for themselves and their families and cause poor decision making. We recognize that life often presents us with such circumstances, sometimes which lead us to make mistakes in violation of the law.

All conversations and communications between our ordained ministry, and licensed clinical relationships, and those we serve fall under state privilege laws. This is one reason that attorneys often allow and encourage their clients to maintain relationships with us while in active prosecution or litigation situations.

If you, a friend, family member, colleague or client are suffering from a white collar criminal justice issue or are experiencing some other traumatic or life-altering event, and would like to find a path to a healthy, spirit-filled place on the other side of what seems like insurmountable problems, please contact us to schedule an initial call or appointment.

Copyright 2020, All Rights Reserved, Progressive Prison Ministries, Inc.

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Jeff Grant - White Collar Week

Jeff Grant is a Private General Counsel/White Collar Attorney at GrantLaw in NYC and w/ co-counsel & criminal defense counsel throughout the U.S. GrantLaw.com