:: Preacher helps find an alleged con man ::

Ex-swindler aids feds in the arrest of a former Freeport man accused of fleecing the elderly of $16M

BY ROBERT E. KESSLER
robert.kessler@newsday.com
June 19, 2007

Barry Minkow rides again.

The boy California confidence man-who turned into an evangelical preacherand tracker-down of confidence men in his spare time - has helped federal agents catch another alleged area swindler.

This time Minkow - who as a teenager masterminded a $300-million swindle and now heads a church in San Diego - recently assisted the U.S. Postal Inspection Service and FBI agents in highlighting the activities of an alleged confidence man, Wilson James Baston Jr. of Manhattan , who formerly lived in Freeport .

Baston, 45, was arrested last week on charges of fleecing victims, many of them elderly, out of $16 million. The charges are based partly on a report Minkow prepared on Baston's activities.

According to Michael Garcia, the U.S. attorney in Manhattan , Baston operated a Ponzi scheme, promising his victims returns of up to 30 percent, supposedly by buying, rehabilitating and reselling undervalued or "distressed" homes on Long Island and in Queens, Brooklyn and Manhattan . In fact, what little money the victims got back came from the money given to Baston by later investors, according to postal inspectors.

Baston operated out of an office on Court Street in Brooklyn from 2002, under the name of Will James Equity Partners, according to the inspectors quoted in court records.

Helping to unravel the alleged scheme was "particulary satisfying," Minkow said, because many of the victims were elderly and mortgaged their own homes to invest in it.

One of the alleged victims was Gerie Stanko of Avon , Conn. , who said last week she had given Baston $228,000 with the hope that his technique would make a significant sum of money for a charity she supported that provided medical care for children suffering from cancer.

Stanko said the alleged fraud had shaken her trust in people, but she supposed it was "a bump in the road" and that she "would get over it."

Baston pleaded not guilty at arraignment in U.S. District Court in Manhattan last week and was scheduled to be released to home detention after posting $5 million in bail. His attorney could not be reached for comment.

In 2005, Minkow was credited with helping FBI agents on Long Island in arresting and convicting Derek Turner. Turner was running a multimillion-dollar swindle out of offices in Melville and the Bahamas , claiming he could earn investors in his "hedge fund" returns of up to 40 percent.

In addition to his ministry at the Community Bible Church in San Diego , Minkow runs the Fraud Discovery Institute, which investigates complaints about possible confidence schemes and turns the results over to federal agents.

Minkow, who calls himself "a liar and a thief spared by the grace of God," spent seven years in prison in the 1980s for masterminding the $300 million ZZZZ Best stock fraud. ZZZZ Best, which Minkow started in his parents' garage when he was 16, was supposedly a successful carpet cleaning service.

A federal judge released Minkow from prison three years earlier than his sentence called for, saying he had reformed and could help fight fraud.

Baston faces up to 10 years in prison if convicted on charges of wire and mail fraud.

Copyright 2007 Newsday Inc.