To join The Pros & The Cons, a speakers’ bureau for white-collar criminals, one first must be convicted of embezzling money, committing securities fraud, or simply using company checks to pay off a personal credit card. Members of this exclusive club find that financial crime does pay—up to $5,000 a speech. They give talks at companies, colleges and even churches, recounting their stories for anyone who will listen.
This summer, MarketWatch spoke to six white-collar criminals who work with the bureau, which arranges for them to speak about fraud prevention—on the condition that they own up to every rotten thing they’ve done. Over the last two decades, founder Gary Zeune, 65, has amassed a roster of more than a dozen convicts-turned-demotivational speakers, including a few involved in some of the country’s most widely publicized fraud cases.
