Latest / Nightmare Success In and Out / Private Equity COO risks it all then prison: The Mark Varacchi Story

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Private Equity COO risks it all then prison: The Mark Varacchi Story · Nightmare Success In and Out

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What happens when your worst fear becomes your reality?
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Hi, I'm Brent Cassidy, welcome to the Nightmare Success In and
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Out podcast where we explore how to overcome your fears and
0:11
nightmares that set yourself free.
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We're going to be exploring this topic with guys that was in
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Leavenworth with and others who survived their own nightmare.
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These stories can be inspiring, sometimes sad, there's some
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humor, but hopefully you can come away with a nugget of
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something that'll help you knock down some of the prisons you
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built up in your own mind. All right.
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Welcome back, Nightmare success that are not listeners.
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This is where you come from. What happens when your worst
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fear becomes your reality? How do you adapt, survive,
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overcome? Set yourself free.
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Don't forget to follow, subscribe, like, comment, share
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all those good things because it helps the show.
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OK, folks, I've got I've got a great got a great guest again.
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Just keeps coming, just keeps coming guys.
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All right, so I've got a guy Mark Barachi, who he 20 years of
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experience in the hedge fund private equity industry.
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Mark was charged with securities and wire fraud Southern District
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in New York. And it's interesting because,
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you know, he took complete responsibility for everything
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that happened. But it's interesting because his
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world, you know, he spent in his hedge fund world and his
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industry that he was in, he built systems and processes and
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softwares for the hedge fund as the chief operating officer.
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And his job was building identifying flaws and risks in
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those systems, which in turn kind of helped him do what he
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was doing when he got caught for the crimes he was committing.
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But the other thing that I think is interesting is, is that he is
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a speaker now that actually talks to people because of his
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brain that thought that way. He lets them in his brain to to
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let them know how to see inside that world, to be able to
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investigate. So, you know, he speaks to
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compliance professionals, financial investigative
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organization. So I think it's really
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interesting and he was just telling me that, you know, he,
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he has a kind of a unique relationship with one of the
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guys that brought him down that was in the United States
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attorney's office. So and his his other job that's
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a passion of his is the federal prison consultancy that is
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bringing people from before pre sentencing, pre sentencing
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through prison and re entry and everything that you need.
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And you know, his whole thought is, you know, the fear is the
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unknown. And so he, he tries to break you
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into the known so that you're not as fearful.
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And, and he's walked all those steps and, and I love everything
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that Mark's doing. Can't wait to jump into all
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Autoplaza direct telling Brent from nightmare success sent you
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Mark Uraci. Welcome in my man.
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How are you? Brent, I'm very good.
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Thank you very much for having me on.
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I appreciate it very much. Well, I am, I'm so glad that we
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were able to, to meet up, connect.
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I'm very interested in your story just because of how you've
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handled the whole situation, because there's so many
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different ways that people handle their nightmare.
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You know, they're and, and you know, there's really no book of
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OK, here's your nightmare. Here's how to handle it.
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But I think how you've been able to work your way through and how
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you found what you're doing now and what you're helping with on
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both sides of the fence is, is really interesting.
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But I, I, I'm curious, Mark, take us back to your world.
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Growing up as Mark Little Mark what?
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What was that world? Sure was.
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You know, I would say a middle, middle class experience in in
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Long Island, good school district grew up in Garden City.
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Parents divorced when I was about 12.
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So I spent, I was one of those kids that got to spend weekends
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in Manhattan, every other weekend in Manhattan.
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And you know, it was. Was that a big deal?
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When I mean, it usually is. It depends I guess, too, when
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your parents get divorced. You know, my parents got
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divorced when I was like, in my 40s, and it seemed like even a
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big deal. But being 12 years old, was that
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a life changer or did you kind of just move with the flow?
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Look, I, I don't think at that time you're looking at it kind
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of in that, in that context as a life changer, but I, I think it
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was not necessarily for the negative.
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We had a really good kind of nuclear base.
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And, you know, that time with my dad probably got me to spend
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more time with my dad than necessarily when he was home, he
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was always working. He was always out and you know,
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you know. Doing What'd he do doing
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Manhattan? He was a, he was an architect
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and he was the, for a while, he was kind of king of the office
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furniture, office furniture industry in Manhattan.
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It's a big world. And yeah, you know, I, I at some
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point I had to make the decision and look, did I want to be John
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Veraci's son in the furniture industry would be what did I
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want to go make my own way? And he was very, very supportive
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and, and, and appreciative. But you know, being his son in a
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place where I felt like he was king, it was, it was something.
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Where I wanted to go which? May have been my which may have
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been my first mistake. Looking back, did did you have
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siblings? I have a.
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Younger brother and then and through the years I've I've had
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step siblings and I have a a younger sister.
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OK, so there's three of you. So the the lead us into what was
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school like for you in that, because it sounds like you had
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kind of this middle class all American world kid.
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It was good. No, I mean no, no real issues.
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Kind of sports growing up. I always tell people when they
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ask me, you know, what sports I played, I don't really tell them
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how many years ago I played it. I tell them how many pounds ago
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I played. I wrestled about 100 lbs ago.
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That's really how this goes, right?
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So, and everybody, nobody, nobody questions it.
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Everybody kind of understands. Exactly.
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Yeah, they get that. Sure.
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So it was a like I said, it was a good existence.
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It was a great education. Garden City is a great place to
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grow up. I went to the University of
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Bridgeport up here in Connecticut and I got my BS in
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banking and finance, you know, ran the whole gamut.
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Played a little tennis there again about 100 lbs ago.
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And and, you know, back in the days when Minute Bowl, who's
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played there actually and you know, was in a fraternity, kind
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of did, you know, ran the whole gamut.
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When I came out, it was kind of a a little bit with dad and then
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a little bit to go find my way in finance.
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And eventually finance became the can't became the the only
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choice at that point. So Mark, was that just something
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that felt natural to you, the whole finance thing?
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And, and because I mean, you were you, you later get deep
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into systems and processes and things that, you know, for
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someone like me, that comes from like the sales world and
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marketing and, and that, that that's so scary to me.
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You know, I'm, I'm how you did what you did.
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Was that something you like? Were you as a kid that just kind
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of like putting puzzles together and doing all that?
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Was it something that just came to you?
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Look, I, I solving problems was obviously something I enjoy
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doing, but I have to say, I think most people looked at me
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also. And even though I was a numbers
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guy and I had my finance degree, and obviously you have to, you
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can't kind of fake it, you know, along those lines, you know,
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sales was also something that, you know, I love chatting with
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people I love, you know, you know, finding something and
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being able to talk to people about it.
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So it was kind of a mix between the two, not necessarily
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something adverse in the, in the hedge fund industry even though
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I was in the systems, you know, I had to well.
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Everything is sales, right? Yeah, I just sit down in front
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of a lot of people through my career and a lot of investors
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and explain, you know, my process in order to, you know,
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the same time a portfolio manager has to go in and say how
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they pick stocks. What I would like to say is my
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world was everything after the trade was made.
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So once the trades made all those aspects, they do matter to
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investors because a mistake on that and can also lose money
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just like a bad stock pick can. So you know, I kind of had to,
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you know, I was still dealing in sales.
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Whenever you're raising money, you're, you know, you're, but
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during the day, obviously during the day it was kind of the
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systems and the, and the processes and, you know, a
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couple meetings. A week?
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Well, Elita said. Mark, you know, how does how
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does one get into the hedge fund world?
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Sometimes it's luck, sometimes you know, you have someone that
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you know that gets you an opportunity.
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I think the opportunities can come.
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You know, having a degree there obviously helped, but I knew
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someone who had worked at the, the largest firm in at the time,
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which is a firm called Tiger Management, which is a very well
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known hedge fund. And I got an opportunity to get
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an entry level job there after there.
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It's kind of what you do. They really don't care who
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brought you once you're there and, and, and doing the work.
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And it was a great place for me to have an opportunity to, to
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learn and they dealt pretty much with every financial instrument
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on the planet. And from, you know, from my end,
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I kind of got to touch on them all.
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So it was like I said, it was a, it was a great if you're going
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to make your bones anywhere that was that's probably someone's
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top three pick if they were doing what they were doing in
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the 90s and. The 90s would have been a good
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time to be doing that. It was, it was a, it was a
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pretty good time. You know, like I said, I got to
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do that and grow and then, you know, branched off and dealt
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with some, you know, start up funds and you know, which is a
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little bit of a different aspect when you have a lot less assets
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and you kind of have to, you have to show you can make money
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in order to grow assets. So that's a lot where the kind
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of the building those systems came in, some of those funds
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were absorbed by larger funds. And then when you go to larger
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firms, they're always launching new systems and processes, which
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allowed me to kind of go in. And it's funny, you kind of have
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to wear kind of the hats that I wear now when I'm Speaking of
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financial firms. When you're building a system,
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you have to build it to try to find the mistakes before they
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happen. It's not a mistake if you can
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spackle a hole before anybody sees it.
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But you also now in the fraud space, have to be able to put
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your put the bad guy hat on. And when you're building
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something, you have to build something to be able to either
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keep them out or keep them from using it to their advantage.
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So it, it, it, it was an interesting transition for me to
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keep using the, the, the, the part of my brain that was, you
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know, kind of a, a strength for me to be able to now do it and,
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and do it on How do I say to do it on as a good guy?
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I don't necessarily identify as one, but I try to do good every
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day. About how old were you when you
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kind of started hitting your stride with this?
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I mean, I'd say I was probably in my, you know, mid, mid 30s.
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You know, it takes time to kind of build your way in the
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industry and, and, and be someone that's, you know, you
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know, has a, you know, experience and, and reputation.
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And, you know, until, until the reputation didn't get too good,
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you know, started to go down downhill.
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At the end I had a a good reputation and you know, was
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doing some, some good work in the industry.
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And I I'm sure at that time were you, did you in your 30s get
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married, all that stuff the the with or were kids.
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Later I got married a a a little later in the in the later 30s
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and have two amazing boys that are both teenagers right now and
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certainly, certainly keeping me busy.
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It's a different experience, I think for teenagers than it was
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when I was a teenager. When I was a teenager, I left
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the house when the sun came up and I didn't come home until the
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sun came down. And I don't know, it's a
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different existence for teenagers right now.
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I don't see packs of teenagers. You know, I used to be able to
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go to a park and you used to be able to basically have a, you
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know, 10 on 10 softball game or you used to have a five on five
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basketball game with three teams waiting and the place was
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packed. I don't see groups of kids
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running around. And I, I think that that's so
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unfortunate because I grew up that way too.
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I'm 57. And, you know, we had a
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neighborhood and, and kids picked the teams and you played,
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you know, tackle or touch football and you played
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basketball and you played baseball.
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And like you said, you, you went home when the street lights came
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on and you know, I see now, you know, kids, you know, they're,
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they're, they're taken, you know, to their baseball practice
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for an hour. And then, you know, they bring
14:33
them snacks and then they come home.
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And then they, you know, take them to soccer.
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They, they're there for an hour. They take them when they come
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home. But there's no like just natural
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kids just hanging out, doing whatever.
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And, you know, the kids wanted to be out, you know, they wanted
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to be out in the in the neighborhoods and play and do.
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And it's different now. I don't know how, you know, you
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sound like an old person when you say, you know, those were
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the good old days. But I think those were good old
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days. Yeah, I can't speak, I can't
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speak about that in pounds. I have to say years, yes, I'm
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old. And you know, like I said, it's
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it's just interesting. I think technology, the
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Internet, you know, even gaming, I think it's all less in the
15:14
accountability where if we went out and we had an issue, the
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only way to really tell anybody was to say it in front of them.
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And if they don't like what you said, someone might have gotten
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punched in the nose. And then, you know, it went on
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from there and life went on here.
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There's a lot of ways to do bad things and not be accountable.
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Be anonymous, yeah. And and be totally anonymous.
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It's it's, it's, you know, it's a little, like I said, this
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generation is a little scary when US Xers are aren't around
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to kind of keep the, you know, the toughness.
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It's a little bit of a different thing.
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You know what they say like kind of in, in what is it in, in
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strong people make weak times and weak times kind of make weak
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people. I think we're in a time now
15:58
where we're in that weird flux where there has to be some type
16:02
of some type of accountability and change in, in order to, to
16:06
not have kind of a, a, a rough next, you know, you know.
16:11
I agree. I totally agree.
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Tougher for our youth. So Mark, when, at what point did
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a nightmare start for you? I, because your, your story is
16:23
interesting because you build this up, but then you you kind
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of figure out and, and maybe I should just ask you, when you
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started building these systems out, was, was there like, was it
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in, was the growth intoxicating? So you thought maybe I could cut
16:41
some corners to continue growing or how did things, how do things
16:46
evolve for you to where you actually got in trouble with
16:48
something? Well, look, we had started our
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own fund, definitely did not start the fund with the
16:53
intention to do to do things wrong.
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And then I think it's a combination of things.
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I think there's the that piece of pie that's, you know, keeping
17:07
up with the Joneses. Then there was a piece of pie
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that we had something successful, but it wasn't
17:13
scalable, but it was what everybody wanted.
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So I, I, I, I've told the analogy before that, you know,
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we had something that, you know, there are poker players back
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back in the day that used to say that they used to get into the
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World Series of Poker, but they used to sell 350% of themselves.
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So the buy in was 10,000 and they'd go raise 35.
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And the worst thing could happen because if he won, he didn't
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have the money to go pay everybody because there was only
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100% of the winnings, right? And everybody thought they were
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getting 50%. We kept raising money way past
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our scalability. And then we decided to do other
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things with it in order to make up for that difference during
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that time, paying ourselves, paying for the business, which
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is stealing at, at, at the at the end of the day.
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I don't like to mince words. I used to early on say things
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like misappropriate and all the different words that that make
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up taking something that's not yours.
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And I don't do that anymore. It's, you know, and as you know,
18:20
the press releases and everything that goes out is
18:22
always the worst version of our worst story.
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If people can get past that with me, then I think we're going to
18:27
be OK. But I don't try to talk around
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it and, you know, give them a, a totally different version.
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I'm, I'm, I'm OK with that one. I, I'm worrying about today and
18:38
tomorrow. I'm not worrying about
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yesterday. I like that.
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Well, Lee Lee just said to when when your nightmare happened.
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So look, if you really want to look at it the the correct way
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the nightmare happened when everything started.
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There's always guilt. You always know when you're
18:57
crossing that line. And even though over probably
18:59
the 15 years before I started doing, you know, this myself, I
19:07
had I had been in a Gray area at different firms and sometimes it
19:10
was darker Gray and lighter Gray.
19:12
Some of it may not have been an actual law breaking, but a lot
19:20
of it may have been ethics, you know, from a different
19:24
standpoint, breaking a risk parameter of a position that
19:27
should be much larger than you told investors and doing certain
19:32
things where, you know, it's just, you see things going on
19:35
that just don't make sense, you know?
19:37
And you know, and I was in it. And then when I started to do it
19:41
myself, I would say from the first day it becomes the
19:45
equivalent of, you know, waking up in the morning and lighting 3
19:50
tennis balls on fire and starting to juggle them in a
19:53
pool full of gasoline. And at the end of the day, you
19:56
get to take a break and hopefully you can sleep enough
20:00
to be able to start it the next day.
20:03
That's an incredible analogy, Mark.
20:07
I've never heard that. I wish I'd read.
20:10
It somewhere and I wish it wasn't true, but it it it is and
20:13
the idea is is that every day is game day.
20:16
You know the guys that like you know are nauseous in the shower
20:19
from the moment they get up because they know they got a big
20:21
day. It became that kind of day every
20:23
day wondering which ball or which shoe might drop and trying
20:29
to keep it all together with, you know, multiple people in the
20:32
situation. It just wasn't it wasn't a good
20:35
existence. You know, I was, you know, you
20:39
know, not a good person to be around.
20:42
I was, you know, eating my eating my troubles away and, you
20:48
know, just trying to get from, you know, day-to-day.
20:51
And it when it gets to the point that like when your phone rings,
20:55
you're always worried about it being the call.
20:59
It's a it's, it's, it's like I said, it's not a good existence.
21:02
And you know, no one should feel bad, but it is the description
21:07
of kind of what that's like when you know, it's, it's something
21:11
you know, you're not doing. It wasn't an accident.
21:14
It was something that we knew that we were doing.
21:17
And you know, you also have that rationalization that you are,
21:22
everybody is going to make money when this turns around and you
21:29
don't realize that you're getting yourself a little deeper
21:31
in it every day as opposed to getting closer to getting out of
21:37
it. And then it just becomes a kind
21:40
of a death spiral. And you don't want to believe
21:43
it, but you want to feel like you're working for everybody.
21:47
If you're going to get three or four hours of sleep a night,
21:50
that's the, the crap that you teach yourself to say, I'm doing
21:55
this for everybody. You're not you're, you're,
21:58
you're doing it for yourself 1st.
22:00
And everything might be a, a result of that.
22:04
But if it doesn't happen, what are you doing?
22:07
And are you doing it totally against what you've told your
22:14
investors, your family, you know, you were going to conduct
22:17
yourself on a daily basis. So there's a there's a lot of
22:20
guilt. So did it when it came around,
22:24
did was it customers that were coming at you or was it just a
22:29
knock on the door from the government saying they're
22:33
investigating? We had, we had customers early
22:38
on coming at us, but I, I think that they had a, a little bit of
22:43
a different agenda and they wanted to kind of take control
22:46
and even keep it quiet themselves.
22:50
And we kind of just moved past that and decided that we were
22:54
just going to kind of keep it going.
22:56
But then the wall started closing in and you know, you
23:00
know, if you feel the SEC is sniffing around and it's
23:04
something that, you know, we kind of, we had to make a
23:07
decision of what we were going to do and, and how we were going
23:12
to do it. My decision, no matter what, was
23:15
to go and and and and and come clean and speak about, you know,
23:22
you know what, what I did, what we did and it was it was a, you
23:30
know, like it's a scary decision.
23:31
You don't know we've never you don't know the process right.
23:34
You don't know if. It's no, you don't know the
23:35
process. And I'm curious, Mark, when it
23:37
happened to you and they said, hey, we're investigating you,
23:41
we've got these things we want to talk to you about.
23:43
Did you just go talk to them or did you grab your attorney and
23:46
say, hey, I've got this stuff going on?
23:48
What? Should I do?
23:48
They hadn't come yet. OK.
23:51
We had gotten like a phone call, but a lot of it was very was
23:54
kind of routine, you know, not from, from, not from the FBI,
23:57
but from the SEC. SEC.
24:00
You know it's, it's never great, but it doesn't necessarily, you
24:03
know it is it is civil, right? When you when you want to look
24:05
at it that way, Not that there isn't.
24:07
You know when the headlines come out there, isn't it?
24:10
Sounds bad. Department of Justice ready to,
24:14
you know, act on, on, on some of the things that the SEC is, is
24:17
looking at. And then we just said, look,
24:20
this is, you know, we're not going to be able to keep this,
24:24
this boat afloat. And, you know, we, we, you know,
24:28
like I said, it was not a good existence.
24:30
So we, we just said, let's, let's kind of go and talk to
24:35
them. We had our attorneys call them.
24:38
They didn't know who we, they didn't know who I was.
24:42
They didn't say like we've we've been waiting for you, but they
24:46
said, sure, you can come in and then you know, you have to go in
24:50
and and you know that process. You know, as well as look, not
24:57
not so different than than today.
25:00
Even years after the fact, there's still a ripping the
25:04
Band-Aid off factor. That was obvious that when you
25:08
had to do it on day one, But even now the discussion is not
25:12
is not. It is a doable discussion, but
25:16
never one that is just like, I don't think I'm ever going to be
25:20
footloose and fancy free about about telling the the the bad
25:25
parts of my story. But doing it knowing that other
25:28
people can possibly hear it and either benefit from it, whether
25:33
it dissuades them from doing what they're doing or understand
25:36
more kind of makes it makes it makes it workable.
25:40
And that's, that's, that's why I, that's why I do it.
25:45
Sir, did when you went in and you talked to him and basically
25:49
said, hey, here I am. Was it something like did you
25:53
and your wife talk about this or was this something you were just
25:56
handling as it was happening and he had the attorney and you
25:59
just. Right at the end, you know,
26:02
right towards the end, I obviously I had, I had to go
26:04
tell my wife and, and you know about the specifics and you
26:11
know, that will never an easy conversation.
26:13
There's a lot of fear. Like I said, no one knows the
26:15
process. No one knows what goes on.
26:17
Fear of the unknown, right? No one knows if I was going to
26:19
get plucked, you know, off the earth for for five or ten years
26:23
that day, You know, you don't. Nobody really investigates as to
26:26
how this goes. If you would have told me, if
26:32
you would have told me that I would not have been sentenced
26:35
for 6 1/2 years between COVID and everything else, I would
26:41
have lost AI would have lost a bet.
26:43
I thought the day I went to them, I thought I probably
26:47
wasn't coming home that day. I, I didn't realize the whole,
26:51
the whole process and, and how it works.
26:54
But I do understand that the, the government in the Southern
26:57
District of New York, they, they don't necessarily do things
27:02
quickly, but I use a hockey analogy and say like a Zamboni
27:07
on the ice. They get there.
27:08
They get there, actually, and that's kind of what happened in.
27:13
How long did it take, Mark? Well, from the time from the
27:16
time you went down there with your attorney to the time that
27:19
you were doing your plea bargain and the judge sentenced you to
27:22
the time like what was your time span?
27:24
So I I played, I played a month later.
27:27
I played in January of 2017 OK after going to them in December.
27:36
OK. 2016 but there were some people in my case that didn't
27:41
want to that change their mind and didn't want to admit guilt
27:45
and didn't want to have to. So they were going to be not
27:50
guilty and they're going to ride or die with that.
27:53
So I had you know, things were always delayed regarding that.
27:56
But eventually, again, that Zamboni caught up with, with,
28:00
with everybody, even though it may have been, you know, you
28:04
know, a couple of years later and you know, like I said, that
28:08
waiting game in between COVID and them saying, you know, let's
28:12
move your it's called a control date, right?
28:14
A control date is a date that the judge when you leave them
28:17
says, Hey, we're not going to let you slip through the cracks.
28:21
You know, Mr. Varachi, we're going to put a date in for this
28:24
same day next year that if we don't come speak to you, it'll
28:28
give us a reminder that you exist.
28:30
And then we'll decide that day when we're going to do something
28:33
right. They'll, they'll let you go, but
28:35
there's always a reminder. So they kept moving those
28:38
control dates out. And like I said, COVID, I think
28:41
had a lot to do with it. And, you know, dealing with this
28:45
process and having other people having to deal with their, with,
28:48
with their cases also had a lot to do with it.
28:51
And then eventually I was. I was sentenced in late 2022.
28:58
Well, you did have to wait a long time.
29:00
Yeah, that limbo. I mean, it's like living in
29:02
purgatory really for that those amount.
29:04
You know what the funniest thing is?
29:06
We everybody jokes around. I know it's not prison, but it
29:10
is a different aspect. Of punishment.
29:12
It's like living in prison in your own mind.
29:14
And it doesn't get taken into any consideration this time
29:17
served right, they just. Oh, it doesn't.
29:18
That way, but when you have a gap in front of you, that could
29:23
happen and it could be, you know, you don't know what your
29:26
sentence is going to be and you want to go out and try to
29:31
there's something now it becomes very tough to have a
29:33
conversation. Hey, Brent, by the way, I want
29:36
to do something with you. I really obviously I want to use
29:39
all my experiences. But by the way, if we get
29:42
successful in the next 12 months, I may have to take a two
29:46
year sabbatical, right? And obviously it's obviously
29:50
it's not a I'm not telling them it's a sabbatical.
29:53
They know exactly what's going on.
29:54
Anybody I deal with is, is, but I don't, you know, so I mean,
29:59
look, I, you know, I did various things.
30:01
I, you know, for a while I was selling things, you know,
30:04
sometimes I wasn't even using my correct last name, like, and I
30:09
had to go ask them. I'm like, look, if I'm just
30:11
selling, they're like, are you paying taxes as you and are you
30:16
not doing any? And I was like, yes.
30:17
And they were like, you know what?
30:18
We're not going to say you can't.
30:20
If you're on a phone and you're selling for a company, you do
30:23
what you got to do, pay your taxes, don't do anything wrong
30:27
and don't break the law. So it was weird, you know, and
30:31
look, you know, my dad means the world to me.
30:36
And for a lot of years I was, I was ashamed to say my last name.
30:45
It's not Smith. It's very easy to know of
30:48
Varachi. There's only so many, right?
30:50
And Google is Google. So it was, it was interesting
30:54
that when I came out, the first thing I wanted to do was get my
30:59
name back and make sure that I was out there as me, good or bad
31:05
and I. Like that?
31:07
That's kind of what I do now. And I always, I, I use an
31:11
analogy and I think it, it, it, it, it didn't originate, but I
31:14
think it was also used in, in, in, in, in Game of Thrones at
31:18
one point. And what it is, is like you
31:20
take, you know, you take what you, you take this, this
31:23
weakness or this thing that you have and you wear like a suit of
31:26
armor so that nobody can hurt you with it.
31:29
And I lead with it and it's. I love and I I think that by
31:33
doing that, you, you own it. They don't own it, but I want to
31:37
talk about your world stepping into prison.
31:39
And before I deal, I'm going to recognize the White collar
31:41
support group show sponsor. I'm our Success podcast is
31:45
sponsored by the White Collar Support Group, the world's first
31:48
support group devoted to people navigating the white collar
31:51
criminal justice system. I'm a member of the White Collar
31:53
Support Group and I can tell you that this is a bunch of people
31:56
who help each other through the criminal justice journey for
31:59
free. Whether you're just starting
32:00
your journey or you've made it through to the other side, this
32:03
is a great space for you. You can join us on Zoom Monday,
32:06
7:00 PM Eastern Time, 4:00 PM. Specific for information, go to
32:10
prisonist.org. That's prisonist.org.
32:12
Start here. So Mark, tell me what?
32:16
So you get through all this and you wait forever, I mean years,
32:21
and then finally the day comes that they tell you, hey, you got
32:25
a report where you go? What do you do?
32:29
So I go to Otisville, Otisville, New York, and again, didn't know
32:35
what I was going to expect. And the, the, the, The funny
32:38
thing about it is, you know, you get like kind of a piece of
32:41
paper and it says what your report date is.
32:43
And yeah, that's what you do, right?
32:46
There is no like, hey, can I? But what I got to, you know, I
32:50
got to, I'm getting my hair cut that day, right.
32:52
You got to you got to go. My date was April first two,
32:57
April, April 1st, 2023, and I didn't, you know, I wasn't
33:03
really thinking about it much. I figure if I'm getting a report
33:07
date, that's the report date. So I get there bright and early,
33:11
you know, want to want to the way I did look at it and the way
33:16
I prepared for it is the only way to get to where we are right
33:22
now. And me talking to you was to get
33:25
through that. But that was my ninth inning,
33:27
right? So I needed to get, I needed to
33:30
get to that and I looked forward to it, believe it or not,
33:33
especially after, you know, six years and change in in in a non
33:38
punishment, but punishment limbo to not be able to get the next
33:43
step started. So when I got there, they looked
33:46
at me and they said, Hey, how you doing?
33:47
I said, good. I said, I'm, you know, I'm, I'm
33:50
self reporting. And they said, why are you
33:53
coming on a Saturday? And I said, well, because it
33:57
says report Saturday, April first.
34:00
They said, OK, interesting. Come on in.
34:02
They check me in. They, they, they go through all
34:04
the gamut and someone comes over at me and they're like, well,
34:08
just so you know, we can't, we don't just throw you in
34:10
somewhere without going through all the medical checks.
34:13
They're not coming until Monday morning.
34:16
We're going to put you in the shoe here in the medium until
34:18
Monday. And I said, oh, OK, you know,
34:23
understood. And, you know, not realizing
34:26
obviously you're in the medium, right?
34:28
You're not, you're not, you're not somewhere you've, I haven't
34:31
seen where I'm might end up. Nor was IA 100% positive once I
34:36
got there that everybody there knew I was actually going not in
34:42
the medium. So at some point I thought like
34:44
a movie, they were going to say, OK, you're going upstairs,
34:47
right? And, and, and I was going to
34:49
have to kind of, you know, you know, argue my argue my case at
34:53
that point. And you don't understand a lot
34:55
of different things. When you go to the shoe, the
34:58
shoe is, is not a place you want to be.
35:00
Although I do think if everybody started in the shoe for about 24
35:04
hours, there'd probably be a lot less people going in the shoe
35:08
after those 24. Hours.
35:10
'Cause it's, it's, it's not a, it's not a great place.
35:13
And there's no instruction form my, my readers were were handed
35:20
to them when I came in. So I couldn't even read what was
35:23
on some of the packets I was getting handed with the food.
35:27
I didn't know whether it was fruit punch or coffee.
35:31
So it was and, and I couldn't read anything.
35:33
So you don't get to really see the light.
35:37
And you know, you're not sure if it's, you know, if, if you fall
35:41
asleep when you wake up, you're not really sure if it's day or
35:43
it's night. But there's always one light
35:45
that goes on, that stays on the whole time.
35:49
And you know, you feel like, you know, you're going to get
35:52
interrogated. No one ever came over here to
35:55
ask me any questions. And it wasn't until almost 36
35:59
hours later on that Sunday when the chaplain came to give me
36:04
communion. What an entry.
36:07
And he knew my name, which meant I knew someone knew who I was,
36:11
which was great. And he said, we'll see you over
36:16
at the camp tomorrow. And him and I had a nice chat,
36:19
which made me kind of, you know, you know, realize.
36:22
Your reassurance put your unknown out of there.
36:25
You know, your mind can can can tend to wander and the food was
36:30
only better from from the two days in the shoe.
36:34
You know, it's like, but it went from there.
36:37
I went to I went to the camp and I have to, you know, I have to
36:43
say the community at the camp and and the guys there were very
36:48
welcoming. They were, you know, everybody's
36:51
in kind of a wary kind of get to know, you know, nobody's.
36:55
But there were people who were kind of designated to be the
36:59
what I would have called back in Garden City when I grew up.
37:03
The welcome wagon, you know, shows up in the basket.
37:05
You're welcome. Yeah, right.
37:06
And, you know, they're like, here's some, you know, you're
37:08
not going to be able to buy anything on commissary for a
37:11
couple of days. It was Monday, so commissary was
37:13
Sunday night. And he's like, you know, here's
37:15
some toothpaste and you want to, you know, you want some shower
37:18
shoes. And here's a couple of things.
37:20
And if you need anything. Shower shoes.
37:22
Yeah, they were really, really, really great to me.
37:25
And, you know, you kind of get through that day and and you're
37:29
just kind of like, you know, I was, you know, I lost 65 lbs on
37:35
their dime. But I was a somehow I was a top
37:39
bunk. I don't know how I got
37:40
designated as like a Spider man, but yeah, I was AII was a top
37:46
bunk, which made it kind of interesting.
37:48
There was a crowd of about eight guys waiting to see if I was
37:51
going to get up there the first time.
37:53
How many guys were in that camp? There's there was, so it would
37:57
vary. I think when I got there, there
37:59
was probably in the low 80s. I think 100 and low change is
38:03
about full capacity unless they kind of have to open up a, you
38:09
know, the medical facility. I heard during COVID they kind
38:12
of did end up, you know, a little bit Max, but it's kind of
38:16
50 guys on each side with chow down the middle.
38:20
And like I said, I made some, you know, some good, good
38:24
relationships there. You know, it was a diverse camp.
38:27
They were financial. You know, you do have guys that
38:31
move down from the medium because they end up lowering
38:34
their risk points over time and they're understanding their
38:37
sentence. So we did have guys where it
38:39
seems like they were trying to see what it would be like
38:43
bringing guys down from the medium and allowing that.
38:46
And I do think some of that did backfire on them, you know what
38:49
I mean? Like it's a different existence
38:52
when you're in the medium then when you're in the then when
38:55
you're in a lower the camp. But it was, it was something
38:59
that, you know, the one thing that resonated to me was that
39:03
everybody was stressed about what they didn't know.
39:08
And there was a lot of legislation in place that no one
39:11
had ever told them about before they got there.
39:13
And that's something that you and I have discussed a little
39:16
bit in the first step back in the Second Chance Act.
39:19
And in my first couple of weeks, I had, you know, four or five
39:24
friends that all fired whoever they had paid an awful lot of
39:28
money to consult for them and get them ready and help them
39:33
while they were in prison. They all fired them.
39:36
And I said there's something, there's something wrong.
39:41
And, you know, for my own edification, I started to kind
39:44
of get into trying to learn the insurance and outs of, you know,
39:49
these aspects and navigating to be VOP.
39:52
And I was, you know, one of the people who started to help
39:55
people as soon as they felt that they were comfortable.
39:57
Because you don't want to. You don't want to help people
39:59
and then screw it up, by the way, you know, Oh what right
40:01
not. No the information.
40:03
The information. You're helping to be the guy
40:05
that gets it right. No, you don't want to be the
40:07
jail, the jailhouse lawyer that screws up, right?
40:10
You know, so you want to make sure all your expectations are
40:14
realistic expectations. Good point.
40:16
And you know, there are a lot of people who even for fat finger
40:21
mistakes on the Bo PS end were not being allowed to have
40:24
certain things like first step back credits that should have
40:28
been based on the rules, but they had no idea the recourse to
40:31
go make it happen. And I think I helped a decent
40:35
amount of guys get time off the back of their sentence and get
40:38
home sooner simply by pointing out the things that needed to be
40:41
corrected, of which, you know, administrative remedy is like a,
40:46
it's like a, it's like a slow boat, right.
40:48
Oh. Gosh, you got to go through like
40:50
it in the BOP. You got to go through, it's like
40:52
the, you know, it's like Dante's Inferno.
40:55
You got to go through like ABP8ABP9ABP10AB and then you can
41:00
go to the judge. But none of them take exactly 30
41:03
days each. They all take much longer.
41:06
So a lot of people, especially short timers, were finding out
41:09
that they were actually going home before they could get their
41:13
recourse. So they were going home late
41:16
even though they knew they were right and no one wanted to blame
41:20
the person before them that said the numbers that the date is
41:24
correct or no one. Everybody just said I'm going to
41:27
refer to the case manager. And then the warden would say,
41:31
I'm going to refer to the case manager.
41:33
And then the BOP would say the case manager is really what
41:36
goes. And then the judge would say,
41:38
well, no, that's not what the first step back says, You're all
41:42
wrong. But by the time you get there,
41:44
sometimes it's 8-9 months later. So I do, I, I, I should say
41:51
this, I do feel in what I've seen in the last three or four
41:54
weeks with the BOP and their transparency and Miss Collette
42:00
Peters being a lot more visible and a lot.
42:05
Yeah, there's something going on different here.
42:08
Yeah, I, I, I. Feel the hearing and everything
42:10
that's been happening, yeah. I feel, I feel hope there.
42:13
I I, I wish they would focus on a couple of other things like
42:16
elderly offenders and stuff like that.
42:18
Yeah. But I do think that they're
42:20
going in the right direction, which is which is which is great
42:23
for me. But until they all go by the
42:25
same script, they need advocates and people to help them when
42:31
they make mistakes because it seems like no one likes to admit
42:34
they they've made the mistake. So being able to articulate that
42:38
on behalf of someone that may not be as articulate in putting
42:42
a, a, a, a motion or a or an application together, it makes a
42:47
difference. They had to make you feel good,
42:49
Mark. I mean, you know, being in
42:52
prison, you, it's, you know, it's emasculating.
42:54
You feel like you don't have any control.
42:56
You don't have this. You don't, you know, you don't
42:58
have to have your freedom, but to be able to help people in
43:02
prison and make a difference in their time that they're spending
43:08
in prison, I had to, I had to be a pretty good feeling.
43:14
It was, it was, I mean, look, you know, based on what I've
43:18
done, I also have a lot of guilt.
43:19
I don't know if what I the good that I do is ever going to
43:23
eclipse what what I didn't do. I can only worry about as I said
43:29
today, and I try to help somebody in this space on, on,
43:36
on, on on a daily basis. But yeah, it made me, it made me
43:39
feel good to be able to, to use, you know, to use my brain and
43:44
use my powers and, and, and do good things for people who,
43:48
again, we weren't finding loopholes to get people out of
43:52
prison, right? We were, we were taking the
43:54
rules that are given and being misinterpreted and giving them
43:57
exactly what they deserve, not more than they deserve, but
44:00
exactly what they deserve. And that's what they're being
44:03
deprived of. And what I feel is when you're
44:05
away from your family, that's your sentence.
44:08
The. Absolutely it.
44:09
Doesn't need to be any additional.
44:12
No, and it should be over when when you're done with your
44:15
sentence, but it's obviously not.
44:17
You carry that on forever. But when you were doing all this
44:22
and then you also know that you're getting close to getting
44:24
out, was your brain kicking in? You know what, I think I could
44:28
do this and help people all the way through this journey in a
44:33
unique way of how I do it. Is that was that something you
44:36
were thinking as you were getting close to getting out or
44:38
did this kick in like I'm getting out, I'm not sure what
44:42
I'm going to do and then you kicked into it afterwards.
44:45
It, it kicked in, it kicked in afterwards.
44:48
I always let my guys and my friends that I was leaving, who
44:53
may be there for years in the future, that I wanted to be able
44:56
to help them in any way possible, you know, through
44:59
their family when I got out. But that was all there.
45:03
There was no like there was no business model or money involved
45:06
in that offer and that and that thought, right?
45:08
The idea was is, you know, get your family to call me and I
45:12
know how to translate between their language and someone who's
45:15
never been in there's language. Let me help you contact them
45:19
and, and, and let me see what I can do.
45:21
And then I, I, I decided when I got out that I wanted to thank
45:25
some people that were bright spots during my journey.
45:28
And believe it or not, there were bright spots on both sides
45:32
of the table that, look, there's a difference between someone who
45:35
is sitting across from you and because you broke the law.
45:40
And then there's how they conduct themselves during that
45:42
process. And my, the, the, the prosecutor
45:47
and, and people on my case were unbelievably fair and always
45:54
gave me the opportunity to speak and, you know, you know, move
46:01
forward, whatever it was that I felt was an issue.
46:04
So I, I, I called the prosecutor on my case and I said, I want to
46:08
say thank you because like I said, it was 6 1/2 years of a
46:12
very dark time and you were an incredibly bright spot.
46:18
I said that and you know that and $2.69 doesn't get you on the
46:22
subway. But what I, what I want to let
46:25
you know is, is that my preparation and, and Brent, I
46:28
should say, I didn't realize I was preparing well to go inside,
46:33
but I prepared everything systematically to make sure that
46:37
anything that I did was covered by someone that was still here.
46:41
Every password, every phone number, every bill, every task,
46:46
you know, how to reset the Wi-Fi, whatever it was.
46:49
And because I knew that anything that they went to that they
46:53
received and had an unknown was going to cause angst for that.
46:57
So that's also something I realized after hearing
47:00
everybody's story inside that I was going to be that, that I had
47:04
done really, really, really well and maybe different than most
47:08
guys in there, even ones that had consultants.
47:11
So what I said is when I got out, I said, look, if you have a
47:14
client, because that prosecutor had now gone to the private
47:18
side, so they were now defending clients.
47:21
I said, if you have a client that you think could benefit
47:25
from me, I would like to speak to them.
47:30
And there is no charge. Like this is not what I want to
47:33
do as a business, but I think I can help somebody.
47:37
And he said, you know what, Mark, you're going to do great.
47:39
You know, I know you're going to be successful, no problem.
47:42
You know, if I if anything comes up and I got off the phone
47:45
saying, you know what, I'm glad I made that call.
47:47
I wanted to let him know that he made a difference.
47:49
But I'm probably not getting a phone call, you know, and no
47:52
one's going to give me their client that they're livelihood
48:00
is, is based on, right? It's not like doing a favor.
48:02
It's now giving me someone that's paying you money to do
48:05
great. And about two weeks later, I got
48:08
a phone call. Hey, Mark, I just had someone
48:10
sentenced in in in the West Coast and you want to get on a
48:16
call with him. And I was like 100% and I had a,
48:20
a good call And I, I answered a lot of questions.
48:23
I think I gave a bunch of answers that I knew he wanted,
48:26
but he he, he didn't want to ask.
48:30
And I realized when he got off the call, I know he felt better,
48:34
which was the world to me. But I'll be honest with you, I
48:39
got off the call and I looked at my wife and I said, honey, I
48:43
feel amazing. I said there's something here.
48:47
I said, I don't know what I can, what I'm going to or what I can
48:50
do with it, but doing something for this gentleman means
48:56
something. And it's probably something that
48:59
I I want to and need to continue.
49:01
And then when his defense attorney called me and said,
49:05
hey, that was great. He loved the call.
49:07
It was amazing, but I can't do this with you again.
49:11
And then I got, I was like, what do you mean you can't do this
49:13
with me again? He goes unless we pay you.
49:16
And I said great. I said I can never take a dollar
49:19
from you unless I actually have a business and a curriculum
49:24
behind it and of which I know I have one here.
49:28
I have never put it down on paper.
49:30
I'll call you in a month. And that started me, you know,
49:34
building the federal prison consultancy and, and, and
49:37
putting it together. And now I have kind, I have
49:40
clients, you know, all over the nation.
49:42
I actually have someone being sentenced tomorrow of which
49:46
starts kind of that you know two-month, you know prep which
49:50
is I would say the the biggest part of it is the two months
49:53
before you go in as far as that preparation in the family.
49:56
Yeah, I so agree. And then Ioffer my and I will
49:58
tell you when I deal with any, I deal with defense attorneys now
50:01
all over the nation. And my first deal is if you take
50:09
on a case pro bono, I will be pro bono next to you.
50:13
So my opportunity in my deal is, is I want to help people first.
50:21
And even if they don't want to engage me, get me on the phone
50:25
with them. Let me take care of a couple of
50:29
those unknowns. And if they decide that there's
50:31
a different Ave. or a different person they want to deal with,
50:36
all good. But I'm not charging to to have
50:40
somebody get on the phone with me and I want to make them feel
50:45
better before we engage and then go from there because it does
50:50
only get better from there, you know, as.
50:53
You well, I think it's so impressive too, Mark.
50:56
I mean, you haven't been out that long.
50:58
You've built a business and it's something that you feel
51:01
passionate about, which I think is such a big deal because I
51:03
think that's one of the things, especially in the white collar
51:06
world is will I ever find anything that I'm passionate
51:08
about again? And you know, that's some of us
51:12
are just wired that we want to make a difference.
51:15
And, and I think what you're doing is you're using every tool
51:18
that you have to be able to help somebody through what your
51:23
journey was, knowing what that was.
51:26
And then and then like you said, you were even even able to
51:29
answer questions that he was maybe too unsure of or
51:34
embarrassed to ask. And those are the type of things
51:36
that really help people. Look, I, I, you know, even
51:41
during that 6 1/2 years, I didn't, you know, you couldn't
51:45
start something permanent during when you're on pretrial, right?
51:50
You can't, you can't because, you know, you might go away as
51:52
we discussed. But I did do a lot of things in
51:57
order to kind of enhance my skills and, and do things in
52:00
other places. So even now on the in the re
52:03
entry space, something as something that maybe is easy for
52:09
me as a resume or, or, or things like that, that I'm good at
52:13
totally make a difference for someone where it hasn't been
52:17
anywhere close to their core competency in what they were
52:20
doing previously. And that could be many different
52:22
industries. So I, I, I, I feel that across
52:27
the board, when someone either wants to start a business or
52:29
they want to get a head start or they want to represent
52:32
themselves or, you know, they want to try to cut, you know,
52:36
cut probation in half. Just being able to kind of
52:40
articulate it in a way where it will resonate better makes,
52:45
makes it makes a difference for people.
52:48
Absolutely. That all makes a.
52:49
Difference. So Mark, after all this that
52:54
you've gone through and here we are sitting, what do you think's
52:58
your biggest take away from this whole experience?
53:03
What I can say is I know. And again, I I didn't know then,
53:10
I always used to feel that working hard and being
53:16
successful was what your family needs, wants and deserves.
53:25
And what I realized is that if I had made much, much, much, much
53:32
less money and conducted myself in a more ethical manner that
53:41
that relationship in that time was all they were looking for.
53:46
Everything else was something that wasn't on the wasn't on the
53:50
need sheet. I thought by doing what I was
53:53
doing. And again, it's a
53:54
rationalization to do sometimes things that you shouldn't do,
54:00
that I'm doing it for them. But I could have done.
54:03
I could have not done less. I could have been less
54:06
successful, done something more meaningful like I'm doing now
54:11
and been there, and that's the person that they all either fell
54:17
in love with or love now. I'd love that because I, I just
54:22
saw a thing that was on, I think it was on Twitter, I'll call it
54:27
X now, but the, the guy, he was on the beach and he was
54:30
interviewing people that were 75 years plus, so anywhere from
54:35
7595 years old. It was so interesting because
54:39
all of the human interviewed 10 different people.
54:42
And what you just said, Mark, was how they ranked.
54:45
The most important thing was relationships.
54:48
Second thing was experiences and money and, and material things
54:54
were way down the list because they were at a point in their
54:59
lives where they realized what they really looked back on and
55:03
what they maybe regretted or what they enjoyed the most.
55:06
But it was relationship and experiences and the money and
55:11
the material things were ranked on the list.
55:13
And it was just interesting. The two things that were
55:15
consistent at the top for the 10 people were were experiences and
55:19
relationships. And you know, I guess that's,
55:22
you know, you get to be like 85 years old rocking in your
55:25
rocking chair thinking what do you want around you?
55:28
You want family, you want relationships, you want
55:30
experiences. So it, it is interesting how you
55:33
experience that going through what you went through and
55:35
realizing those are things that those are the moments and times
55:40
and places and things you can't get back is whatever that that
55:44
is. And that's a meaningful thing
55:48
because material things, you know, there's a thing out on
55:51
Tiktok right now, like 100 years from now, we'll all be gone and
55:54
all of our possessions will be gone.
55:56
And, you know, maybe stories will exist of us, but it's what
55:59
we do in this time, you know, that matters.
56:03
Look, I, I, I always feel a little disingenuous when I say
56:07
the words in the context of myself that everything happens
56:11
for a reason. Because at the end of the day, I
56:13
shouldn't have done what I did and we shouldn't have done what
56:17
we did. End of story, that.
56:19
But once it happened, I can also tell you that that's 6 1/2 years
56:26
where I got to spend more time with my boys.
56:30
Yeah, my family and all that. Like I said it all, I may have
56:35
had a lot of money and had a worse relationship across the
56:38
board with everybody in my life if 2017 had never happened.
56:44
It's interesting. That's pretty profound.
56:47
I can't trade, you know, I could never trade that for where I am
56:52
now. And there are always frustrating
56:54
days and frustrating, you know, weeks as.
56:58
Yeah, George, George. George Gables was a was a
57:02
comedian back in the day with Don Rickles and Frank Sinatra,
57:05
and he used to get on The Tonight Show.
57:07
And when I have a day like that, you know, sometimes he seems to
57:10
say sometimes life's a tuxedo and you're a pair of brown
57:13
loafers. I have those days.
57:18
But at the end of the day, with what I'm doing now, I find that
57:23
being able to do something for someone even on the littlest
57:28
piece and knowing that it means something for them helps my
57:33
happiness. And again, whether you want to
57:36
call it, is it dissuading guilt? Is it I don't know at somewhere
57:40
there's going to be, there's going to be, there's a, there's
57:42
a, there's a trade off. I'm not here to, I don't know
57:46
how, I don't know where the scales go.
57:49
I don't know if what I did is always going to kind of tip
57:52
them. All I know is that right now I
57:57
am as as happy and as fulfilled and, and is driven as, as, as
58:08
I've ever been, both for myself and, you know, and, and you
58:12
know, and what I'm trying to do for others.
58:14
I love that. Let's talk about that because
58:18
because you're driven and because you're doing great
58:20
things, I want to get people to the right space for you.
58:23
It's it's markvarachi.com. And that's the, the the way you
58:32
spell it is VARACCHI. But yeah, go there.
58:37
It's a great website. I checked it out yesterday.
58:40
Just scrolling through there. It's got a lot of information
58:42
and, and talks about a lot of the things that you do.
58:45
It's not just I'm going to help you.
58:46
These are the things I'm going to do to help you.
58:49
And I think, I think what you're doing Mark's great.
58:53
I hope you continue to do it because it's it's what's needed
58:56
out there. As far as helping, I've talked
59:00
about helping Homestead Financial lets me use this
59:02
podcast stream. I want to thank them.
59:04
If you're looking for home mortgage needs, Greg Aftiev is
59:08
your man. He knows it all.
59:10
If you want to know more about me, go to brentcassidy.com.
59:13
I spell it wrong. It's not with AD why it's with
59:16
ATY. And if you got time, please go
59:20
to Apple and leave a review. It's it's a great thing for the
59:24
show. And if you're looking for a book
59:27
out there, it's nightmare success.
59:29
You can get it at Amazon, Barnes and Noble.
59:32
Check it out. And Mark, I want to again, thank
59:37
you for being on the show. I love your story, love what
59:40
you're doing. Thanks very much.
59:42
I also want to say thanks very much for introducing me to
59:45
Charles. I'm going to see him tonight.
59:48
Oh yes, Charlie Grady. He's, he's a, he's a doer and
59:52
doing great things with the Hall of Change and, and I want to get
59:56
behind him as much as I can to, to make that a national
59:59
organization. I'll be at his hang time meeting
1:00:01
tonight in in Bridgeport. Tell him I'll.
1:00:04
Tell him you said hello. Tell him I said hello.
1:00:07
All right, folks, as I used to say to my people as I was
1:00:10
writing my emails back and forth from Leavenworth, stay strong.
1:00:14
I'll do the same. Nightmare success in and out.