Welcome!

My name is Jason Napodano, but most people call me JNap. I'm an analyst, investor, consultant, convicted felon, and all-around good guy. I love my kids, I love to drink beer, play golf, and invest in biopharma stocks. I've been investing in biopharma stocks for the past 24 years. That's almost as long as I've been drinking beer, and I'm arguably an expert on both.

I've generally lived a pretty good life. I was successful, wealthy, respected, and in the prime of my career when I turned 41 in April 2015. 

In July 2015, I was fired from my job for allegedly trading on inside information. In September 2017, after over two years of an excruciating investigation by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Department of Justice (DOJ), I was charged with one count of securities fraud. I was never arrested, never handcuffed, and never posted any bail. I pleaded guilty to the charges in October 2017 and was sentenced to serve four months in federal prison.

This blog is the story of my roller-coaster ride over the past four years. Most of what you read about me online is amateur reporting or straight from the government's side of the story. I pleaded guilty to the charge, but what the government said about me wasn't all true. This is my side. It's a little bit of background on me and my crime, what prison is like, and how I'm committed to getting my life back in order. 198% is as far as one individual can travel in the hierarchy of social status. I've come away from this experience with humility, perspective, appreciation, and newfound drive. I hope you enjoy reading my thoughts.

Please reach out to me if you have comments or need advice - on anything.

Proceed to Chapter 1 >>

Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,

And stoop and build ’em up with worn-out tools

- RUDYARD KIPLING

Chapter 1 - Helter Skelter

My name is Jason Napodano. In 2014, I made $559,000, and life was good. I moved into a new house in arguably one of the most prestigious communities in south Charlotte, NC. My neighbors were CEOs, surgeons, real estate developers, and professional athletes from the NFL, NBA, and MLB. In fact, I lived right next door to a professional baseball player for the Colorado Rockies. He made $2.5 million, but I didn't feel inadequate. My income still put me in the 99.6 percentile.

I was comfortably the 1%. I drove luxury cars and took all-inclusive vacations. My wife wore the latest fashion and I was reasonably sure my kids would never want for anything. Although it never really helped my game, I bought various golf clubs on a monthly basis. The ad said this new technology would add 10 yards to my drive; side note, it didn't. Nevertheless, there was little financial that concerned me.

2015 and 2016 were also good years. Cumulatively, between 2014 and 2016, I made $1.45 million. Again, comfortably the 1%. I was proud of myself; but, I was also bored. Being bored and immensely successful is a dangerous combination. Money consumes you. It tricks you into thinking you are invincible and seduces you into taking unnecessary risks.

I had a down year in 2017. For reasons I will get into shortly, I only made $273,000. But the bottom was far from in. The bottom came when I reported to federal prison. My crime - insider trading. My sentence - four months. I got lucky. The judge went easy on me because it was a first-time offense and I led, "An otherwise exemplary life." Thank God he said that. The government prosecutor threatened 18 months.

There are 185,000 Americans serving time in U.S. federal prisons. That's 0.06% of the population. In four short years, I went from the 99.6 percentile to the 0.06 percentile. How was I going to survive? Would my family be okay while I am gone? What would my kids do without their dad around on a daily basis? The fall was hard - over 99% to be exact.

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Chapter 2 - I'm No Angel

In late June 2018, I received my designation letter from the U.S. Marshal Service. I was to report to FCI McKean, Lewis Run, PA by 12:00 noon on August 7, 2018. This was not a surprise; it was my second choice, but I had heard that my first choice, FCI Otisville, NY, was tough to get into thanks to its close proximity to New York City (and high quality, all kosher food). FCI McKean, based on Google Maps, is not close proximity to anything.

I spent a few days before August 7th researching "life in federal prisons" to try to better understand what I faced during my four-month stay at McKean. FCI McKean is a medium-security prison. Medium security prisons house inmates with a history of violence. Inmates are housed in cells and the facility is surrounded by spools of razor wire and multiple fences, along with an armed perimeter vehicle that circles the prison night and day. Medium security prisons are one step below maximum security penitentiaries and one step above low-security prisons. Violence can be prevalent and severe in medium-security prisons like FCI McKean. From the outside, the facility looks menacing.

Luckily, I was at the satellite minimum-security camp right next door to FCI McKean. Camps are known as FPCs - federal prison camps. They are also colloquially called "Club Fed". In FPCs, inmates are housed in dormitory-style housing units. There were no fences at the camp. The dorm I stayed in was never locked. We were surrounded by trees with a clear view of the highway and side roads. You could hear music through the trees at the trailer park next door. The campus looked like a poorly funded community college.

To qualify for a camp, one must have less than 10 years left on the sentence and violent or sex offenders are illegible. Most inmates I was with at the camp were drug offenders, or white-collar idiots like myself in there for fraud or tax evasion. Wesley Snipes spent almost 3 years at FPC McKean for tax evasion starting in 2011. I was there for four months. Four months of my life sitting in a dorm, reading books, lifting weights, and walking around the track.

I got sentenced the four months because the government alleged that I made $144,000 in illegal profits from trading on inside information.

There are three reasons why people are sentenced to prison: 1) As punishment for their crime, 2) To protect society from future crimes, and 3) To demonstrate a general deterrence for others considering committing similar crimes. During my sentencing, the U.S. Attorney argued that 12 months was appropriate based on these parameters. The judge did not agree. The judge felt as though I presented no danger to society and that the SEC fine and loss of my job and reputation seemed adequate punishment. He gave me four months to act as general deterrence.

Martha Stewart did five months, I figured I can do four.

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Chapter 3 - C.R.E.A.M

As far back as I can remember, I always wanted to be a gangster. Wait, sorry; as far back as I can remember, I always wanted to be a biotechnology stock analyst. I seriously first considered the career my senior year at Virginia Tech. I took a class called Applications in Biotechnology. Back in 1996, biotechnology was a buzzword. No one really even knew what it meant. As an undergraduate major in biochemistry, I had a better sense than most. But it was not until I took a class on the practical applications of the field that I grasped the concept that biotechnology was a business, like any other business.

My first investment in the stock market was a biotechnology company called MedImmune. I started researching MedImmune while in college because I was looking for a job upon graduation. I sent my resume to MedImmune in 1995. I didn't get the job, but I did buy the stock for around $5 per share. I bought 1,000 shares. The $5,000 investment was the single biggest purchase of my life. My previous largest purchase, a used 1987 Buick Somerset, only cost me $4,100.

By the middle of 1998, MedImmune stock was over $50. I sold the shares and used the proceeds to pay for graduate school at Wake Forest University where I earned my MBA. It was a beautiful parlay of my undergraduate degree in biochemistry and the knowledge I gained from understanding applications in biotechnology that allowed me to make such a handsome return. Now I was using those profits to further advance my skills by learning business and finance.

In 2010, my career really took off. The year before I was put in charge of building and managing a newly created sponsored research product at Zacks called Zacks Small-Cap Research (SCR). SCR was my baby. Under my management, and with the help of some fine team members, SCR went from concept to over $2.5 million in revenues in 2014. The $559,000 I made in 2014 was the result of nearly $360,000 in salary and bonuses from Zacks thanks to the success of SCR. The other roughly $200,000 was in profits from trading in the stock market.

Between 2013 and 2015 I made nearly $400,000 from trading in the stock market. I traded mostly biotech stocks because these were the names I knew best. I had a competitive advantage since I knew the science, I knew the players, and I understood how the market worked. Making money in the stock market is never easy, but over time, investing in biotech stocks became natural. I did it so often that it became a normal part of my day. Perhaps it became a little too normal, and that's when things started to fall apart.

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Chapter 4 - Pretty Noose

In June 2015, the head compliance officer at Zacks called to tell me FINRA would like to interview me in their offices in Washington, DC. This was one of the very few times I interacted with compliance during my 12+ years at the firm. Zacks has had some well-documented issues with the SEC in the past. The SEC fined LBMZ Securities, Inc. (formerly Zacks & Co.) $240,000 in September 2017 for "willfully violating Section 15(g) of the Exchange Act." That's the section that talks about having policies and procedures in place to prevent... shenanigans. Since 2015, the year I left Zacks, the company has paid $425,000 in fines to the SEC for various violations.

I suspected FINRA was interested in talking to me about a healthcare "meet and greet" I organized in September 2014. The event was held at a bar in NYC. I organized the event parallel to the Rodman & Renshaw Healthcare conference, figuring I could piggy-backing off that event and throw a few extra dollars in the bank for Zacks. It was primarily a networking event, but also a way to introduce Zacks' new investment banking team to clients.

I invited 20+ CEOs from small-cap biopharma companies and around 75 retail investors. It was a good turnout, but I was pretty sure we screwed up some sort of regulation. There are rules on how you can market your services to companies. My goal was to go to FINRA, answer the questions, claim ignorance, and ask for forgiveness. The truth is, I was ignorant. I had no idea what the rules and regulations were. I winged the whole thing.

When I got to FINRA, things went south quickly. The conversation briefly touched on the networking event, but then turned to my personal trading. For the previous decade, I'd been trading stocks in my personal account. I traded mostly biopharma stocks but steered clear of anything I covered for Zack, especially when I was FINRA licensed between 2008 and 2010.

In 2010, my FINRA licenses (series 7, 86/87) expired when Zacks declined to renew them. "Not necessary," said compliance. Also not necessary was sending in my monthly brokerage statements anymore. "There are no trading implications to our universe," said our Director of Research in an email to me in June 2013. With no one watching, or seemingly caring, I started trading stocks I covered for Zacks. These were the names I knew best; I figured, why not trade them?

I never felt as though I was doing anything so wrong. I never stole money from anyone. I never lied in my reports or purposefully mislead investors. Even the U.S. Attorney admitted in court that, "There's no indication the reports were inaccurate." They weren't. I always wrote what I believed. From the day I walked into Federal Prison until this day, I stand by everything I ever wrote. If you've followed my work in the past, the names I made money in were all the names I publicly recommended: CYNA, NBIX, TSRX, DEPO, ACAD, ASPX, TNXP, ASTM. I also lost money on NVIV, ICOS, IMNP, and DRIO.

I never really viewed this as criminal activity. The government said I was stealing information and trading on it. I thought the information was mine, but they argued as an employee the information was Zacks'. This seemed silly to me, but it's the angle they took. A lot of people take pens or Post-It Notes from their office. I rationalized by thinking, "It's like stealing Post-It Notes."

If you stole $144,000 worth.

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Chapter 5 - Everybody Knows

I left FINRA offices in July 2015 completely devastated. I didn't know what was to come, but I was pretty sure my life would never be the same. I didn't sleep or eat for the next three days. I told my wife and she did her best to comfort me. I told my family and friends. I told my colleagues at Zacks. The response was universal disbelief; Why on earth would you do such a thing? I didn't know what to say. I didn't really have a good answer. I was in a daze.

Reasonably sure the SEC was going to come after me, I hired a lawyer. The first step was the determine just how much "insider" trading I committed. I went back over all my brokerage statements starting in 2012 up until the day I got fired. I placed over 400 trades between late 2012 and the middle of 2015. I had made around $350,000 in profits during that time. Oh, shit, I thought; I'm going to prison.

It took me a week to match up each trade with a Zacks report or article. When I was done with the analysis, I felt immensely better about my situation. Yes, there were around 80 times out of 400 that I traded around a report from Zacks, but the net profit from all this activity was only around $65,000. There was a time a CEO copied me on an email to an investment banker talking about a pending in-licensing transaction. I made around $6,000 on that trade. That was stupid and I wasn't thinking when I made that trade, but surely this wouldn't warrant a prison sentence! I would give the money back and pay a fine. Life will go on.

Feeling better about life, I started BioNap, Inc., BioNap is a strategic consulting business designed to help small biopharma companies navigate the world of investor relations and social media. It also provides advice on business development transactions without having to hire traditional NYC investment banking (IB) or investor relations (IR) firms that charged an arm and a leg. I was smart, connected, and super motivated. I could do for clients what an IB or IR firm could do for about 1/10th of the cost. I wrote research, reviewed presentations, did financial modeling and conducted market research, I gave advice, and I connected CEOs and CFOs with investors on a daily basis. It was hugely successful.

In July 2015, I was pretty sure my life was over. In 2016, BioNap made $438,000. I had not only survived, but I had also thrived. The SEC fine loomed over my head, but I went into 2017 optimistic about my future.

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Chapter 6 - Everybody Wants Some

In February 2017, things went downhill again. The SEC had wrapped up their investigation into my trading and concluded that I made around $144,000 in profits from illegally trading in biopharma stocks during my tenure at Zacks. I was baffled. They had clearly made a mistake in their analysis, I thought. My lawyer contacted the SEC and asked for them to send us the list of trades. When we got the list, I remember thinking, "WTF are they doing?!?"

It turns out, the SEC does math in a funny way. When you buy a stock - illegally - the SEC applies strange logic to calculate your gains. They look at the price you purchased the stock and then they look at the closing price the day the (inside) information came out. That's the implied illicit gain. It doesn't matter if you held the stock another day, week, or even year; unless of course, you made more. Then they use the larger of the two figures. It also doesn't matter what else happened during your holding period. It's all your fault.

The vast majority of the time, my research report had absolutely nothing to do with the move in the stock. My trades were reactionary and my reports were consistent with my trading views. Sometimes I made money and sometimes I lost money. Sometimes I'd sell the stock and other times I'd hold it for weeks or even months. But, none of that matters when you are calculating the gain for insider trading. In the 80 instances where I bought a stock and later issued a report or article, the SEC calculated that 58 of those instances resulted in an implied again of $144,000. The other 22 instances, where I lost money, didn't count. The SEC ignores losses, even if you actually lost money on a name they calculated an implied gain!

Yep, there were a few of those 58 "wins" where I actually lost money. There were dozens where I didn't make nearly as much money as they implied. In real life, my brokerage account records show around 80 trades where I made $65,000 in net profits. In the eyes of the SEC, it was 58 trades where I made $144,000 in paper profits. There's no arguing with them either. If you argue, you are obstructing. Their idea of cooperation is 100% acceptance of their findings.

This meant the SEC fine was likely going to be 3X what I expected. At first, my lawyer guessed around $100,000. As it turns out, they fined me $305,000. That's 5X what I made in real life. But that wasn't the bad news. The bad news was that the SEC turned my case over to the U.S. Department of Justice. The U.S. Attorney's office in the Northern District of Illinois opened a criminal investigation into my trading. They wanted a shot at me too.

Prison time was back on the table.

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Chapter 7 - Lawyers, Guns and Money

I spent the next several months pleading my case with the U.S. Attorney's office trying to convince them there was no criminal intent in my actions. I needed a new lawyer for this. My previous lawyer only dealt with the SEC. My new lawyer would handle the criminal case. The legal bills were starting to pile up. To make things worse, I shut down BioNap mid-2017 to protect my clients from any potentially negative press. Enough damage would be done to my reputation. I didn't need to drag anyone else down with me. Nevertheless, I was once again unemployed.

I soon learned that arguing with the DOJ is as pointless as arguing with the SEC. I recall one conversation around a 33-page research report I wrote for Zacks in February 2014. It was an outstanding report. It was 17,600 words and the only thing wrong with the report was one line in the disclaimer on page 33 that ruined the whole thing. It said I did not own any shares in the subject company. That wasn't true; I did own shares. I did the research and I liked the name, so I bought the stock consistent with my Buy recommendation. It was 33 pages of honest, hard, quality work and the DOJ viewed as a scheme to fraud.

Back in October 2006, Former FDA Commissioner Lester Crawford pleaded guilty to conflict of interest and falsely reporting that he did not own stock in food, beverage, and medical device companies he was in charge of regulating. Crawford earned nearly $42,000 from illegally held shares while at FDA. Nearly $29,000 of that came from exercising stock options in Embrex Inc., where he had served as a director, while the company was under FDA regulation. He and his wife also owned shares in Pepsico Inc., Sysco Corp., Kimberly-Clark Corp. and Wal-Mart Stores Inc., all of which the government deemed "significantly regulated" by the FDA. Crawford received three years of supervised probation and a fine of about $90,000. It was barely a slap on the wrist for Crawford. A few months later, he joined the Board of Bexion Pharmaceuticals.

Earlier this year, the SEC fined Elon Musk $20 million, less than 0.1% of his net worth, as a punishment for his "false and misleading" Tweet claiming he had the funding to take Telsa public at significantly higher prices than the current market price at the time. The fine settled securities fraud charges by the SEC, which is exactly what they charged me with, only Musk, despite paying a fine 67X the amount I paid, was never charged by the DOJ. Musk later stated publicly that he, "Doesn't respect the SEC... but respects the justice system."

Significantly bigger fish than I paid fines and moved on with their lives. That's despite the fact that I was clearly not a big fish. I had a modest portfolio and my average profit on a trade was around $1,000. The DOJ noted in their sentencing memo that I purposefully traded small amounts, "to avoid detection," as this was, "less likely to draw attention" of regulators. That was not true. I traded small because my portfolio was small (less than half-a-million). It's amazing to me the sketchy things I see through my job on a daily basis. The "Guy" manipulating penny-stocks in the Bahamas, or the publicly traded biopharma company that also runs an investment bank.

Recently, a group of well-known biotech executives, including John O’Rourke, Phillip Frost, Robert Ladd, and Barry Honig settled with the SEC  after making $27 million on an elaborate penny-stock scheme. Phillip Frost paid a $5.5 million fine for his involvement in the fraud. No criminal charges were filed despite the clear facts of the case that this was an obvious pump-and-dump scam. Then there was the curious case of Gregory Lemelson, a Massachusetts-based Hedge Fund manager / Greek Orthodox priest (yeah, an odd combination) charged with running fraudulent scheme by publicly disseminating a series of false statements about Ligand Pharmaceuticals through research reports and interviews, netting profits of $1.3 million. Again, no criminal charges despite the fact that Lemelsen made nearly 10x what I made and willingly mislead investors to get it done. This is the kind of stuff that happens on a daily basis. There is a constant leakage of information around financings and investment banks manipulate bid-ask spreads on penny-stocks seemingly at will. These seem bigger fish, but the government wants easy.

I'm far from an expert on every biopharma stock, but I can generally read articles on websites like Seeking Alpha and distinguish between quality work and total garbage. Most of the work on Seeking Alpha is garbage. It's designed to pump up a stock so the author could sell into the hype the article created. It's called a "Pump and Dump", and it's illegal. But these scams are exceedingly hard for the SEC to prosecute if the author discloses his/her position. Being overly optimistic or writing hyperbole is not illegal. It's not illegal to slap a $200 price target on a $5 stock. It's stupid and misleading, but not illegal.

Accordingly, it is not illegal to write 2,000 words of complete and utter sensationalized garbage as long as the disclosure is correct. I see it all the time. That's the majority of the content on Seeking Alpha. I loath authors that write pump and dump or hit-piece articles. It ends up hurting the average investor. I didn't do that. I wrote 2,000 words (or oftentimes, far more) of fair, honest, high-quality work, and then failed to disclose my position at the end. I rationalized, I justified, I was blind. It was all so stupid.

It took eight months, but eventually, the DOJ charged the case. There's a saying that, "The wheels of justice turn slowly, but grind exceedingly fine." It's true; but, the one thing you have to understand about our justice system is that the wheel turns slowly on purpose. The SEC and DOJ have enormous budgets to investigate and prosecute. They know people eventually exhaust their will and/or ability to fight. Over 98% of the cases federal prosecutors charge end up in a guilty plea. No trial, just a defendant scummed to the will of the criminal justice system and the weight of the consequences that ensue if you fight. They were threatening me with 18 months in prison!

Like myself, defendants all-to-often end up resigning to the fact that it is just easier to give up, knowing after they do the government will move on to some other poor shmuck. It's a problem that John Oliver covers beautifully in this Last Week Tonight video.

In September 2017, I was formally charged with securities fraud. Being labeled as a fraud is something that really stings. A month later, I stood in front of a federal judge in Chicago and plead guilty. There was never any doubt I would plead guilty. I was guilty. Mens rea aside, I did what they said I did. I had been called a number of things in my life: student, Research Scientist, Vice President, Managing Director, Chartered Financial Analyst, Cub Scout Chairman, Lion, coach, mentor, quarterback, captain, junior Olympian, husband, and father, to name a few. In October 2017, I added convicted felon to that list.

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Chapter 8 - I Fought The Law

The judge was actually lenient to only give me four months. As I noted earlier, my punishment could have been a lot worse, potentially as high as 18 months had I fought. The probation officer recommended an additional $20,000 fine. But the judge saw that I had been significantly punished already. The SEC fine of $305,000 and an exorbitant amount of legal fees hit hard. I did significant damage to my career and reputation. I lost my CFA designation.

Actually, the last one I really don't care about. I used to be proud to include CFA after my name. I passed all three exams in a row. In 2000, that was a rare feat. Only around 10% of all candidates pass the exams in three consecutive years, so doing so was a special accomplishment. But like most organizations, the CFA Institute is greedy and now seemingly only cares about money. They have overly diluted the brand and aggressively pursued more and more members in India and China. I remember reading an article in 2015 on the Huffington Post suggesting that the CFA was a scam. I was angry about that article. How dare they! Now I think it may be spot on.

Notwithstanding the CFA designation, the rest of the punishment for my crime has been pretty severe. The SEC barred me from, "Participating in an offering of penny stock, including engaging in activities with a broker, dealer, or issuer for the purpose of issuing, trading, or inducing or attempting to induce the purchase or sale of any penny stock." That means working for an investor relations firm or sponsored research firm like Zacks or Edison is also off the table. Investment banks are likely not going to hire me either.

The SEC and DOJ investigations also put a heavy toll on my physical and mental state. At first, I lost weight; then I gained weight. I was angry, I was depressed, even borderline suicidal at times. At my sentencing, the judge mandated that I participated in counseling while in prison because he was concerned about my mental health. I was depressed, bitter, and not much fun to be around.

The weight of the federal government crashing down on you is excruciating. No one wants this to happen. Outside of Martin Shkreli, who oddly seems to enjoy his infamy, it's a nightmare. Take for example former Chesapeake Energy CEO, Aubrey McClendon. He was indicted on federal anti-trust conspiracy charges on March 1, 2016. On March 2, 2016, he drove his car 89 mph into a concrete bridge embankment, killing himself instantly. No alcohol or drugs were involved. He was not wearing his seatbelt.

So consider this a public service announcement: Don't commit insider trading. It's not worth it. Plus, they will catch you. I learned a lot about federal investigations throughout this process. They find everything. They get your brokerage statements. They see your bank account. They read your emails and check your phone records. Oh, and don't for a second think your Twitter DMs are safe. They see those too. It's just not worth it.

Yet after all this loss, what pisses me off the most is that I made plenty of money without having to break the law. I made $559,000 in 2014. I made almost $1.45 million between 2014 and 2016, and only roughly $65,000 net of that was due to my illegal activity. I made over $400,000 in 2016, a year after I got fired from Zacks. I'm a good stock analyst and investor without having to front-run research reports. My successes at Bio5C proves that. I could have had it all. I had every reason to stay straight. I think that's what hurts the most.

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Chapter 9 - Righteous & The Wicked

The hardest thing about going to prison is knowing you're going to prison. That sounds silly, but if you think about it, the mental aspect of prison, at least the camp I went to, is harder than the physical aspect of actually being in prison. A prison is a physical place, but it's also a state of mind. My mental prison started in July 2015. Physical prison started in August 2018 and lasted only 119 days, but my mental prison has been nearly three years and counting.

Despite my short sentence, I think the DOJ went overboard on me. I think they piled onto an SEC investigation and made an example out of me simply because they could. I recall watching CNBC in May 2017 and Leon Cooperman was on talking about the active SEC investigation into his trading at Omega. They were coming after him for insider trading, alleging he made $4.9 million in illicit profits. Cooperman called the aggressiveness of the SEC, "Way out of proportion to what was reasonable. The process was totally abusive. It's a problem that the government should address," he said. But Cooperman was never prosecuted by the DOJ.

The SEC can be rather aggressive at times. The key is, Cooperman had the money to fight them. He eventually settled, like most do, but not without aggressively defending himself in public. Not many have fought the SEC and won. I admire the hell out of Linda Tilton. She fought the SEC against bogus fraud charges totaling $200 million for eight years, refusing to be bullied into settling like so many others. She fought back and won. God bless her!

I didn't have the money nor the will to fight them like Leon or Linda. I was guilty and assumed it would all be handled in the civil case. No need to file criminal charges, mens rea I figured. Instead, I got made an example of. I was pretty bitter. I've always been a good, honest, law-abiding citizen. A decent person. A people person.

Except now I've been to prison. Prison! With drug dealers and violent criminals! With credit card thieves, gun-runners, tax evaders, fraudsters, and money launderers. It's surreal.

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Chapter 10 - A Day In The Life

My first day in federal prison was mindnumbing. I reported on August 7th at 11AM. I sat in a holding cell for an hour or so at the Medium while they processed my entry. FCI McKean is not a place you want to spend any time. It's a very dangerous place.

They eventually got me over to the camp and I was shown to my bunk. My bunk can be seen below; I was on the top. There were no doors to the bunk. It's just an open cube on a floor with 20 other bunks. There were 40 of us on our floor - D-Range. D-Range had 3 showers, 4 sinks, 2 urinals, and 2 toilets (with privacy doors). The range was really only quiet between 1AM and 7AM. Other than those times, it was frat house with music blasting, people dancing, singing, gambling, sleeping, reading, and making food. We had a microwave and "190" hot water tap.

My first bunkie was a 6'5", 340 lbs black man that went by the nickname, Big-E. Big-E, like 95% of the inmates at the camp, was incarcerated for drugs. We never got into his exact crime, but I quickly learned that Big-E was, despite his menacing size, dreads, and gold front-tooth, a prince of a man. Big-E helped me immensely adapt to prison life. I think he got a kick out of me, an average white dude doing a 4-month stint for insider trading, tossed among the lunacy of the camp's range. Big-E and I talked about everything. He was quite gregarious and our talks were highly entertaining.

Nevertheless, after two weeks, I moved bunks to a quieter area of the range. My new bunkie, Lee, also doing time for drugs, became one of my closest friends at the camp. Lee also helped show me the ropes, which included procuring and securing any necessary items that one might require while in prison. In camp, nothing was unobtainable.

In terms of the food, I think Woody Allen describes it beautifully in the opening line to Annie Hall. He describes a joke where two elderly women are sitting in a restaurant and the first woman says to the second, "Boy, the food here is terrible," to which the second replies, "Yeah, and such small portions too!" That's prison food. It's edible, but that's about all you can say. At times, I laughed that I was eating the same thing that my eight-year-old son was probably eating in elementary school - hamburgers, pizza, hot-dogs, tacos, and lots of white rice and beans! Fruit and vegetables are few and far between. The only thing to drink is water. Most inmates supplemented the chow-hall with items they purchased at Commissary.

Commissary is essentially a mini-General's store. Think a CVS, Walgreens, or mini WalMart at super low prices. At commissary, I purchased some "leisure" clothes (all inmates wear green pants and dress shirts while at work) and snacks. Mostly, I snacked on protein bars and other junk food. There was also an extensive "hand-me-down" system. I left prison with nothing. Custom says you gift all your items to new inmates or those who cannot afford upgrades at Commissary.   

Everyone is supposed to work in prison. My job in prison was to tutor fellow inmates attempting to earn their GED. I reported to work at 8AM and taught math and science until 10AM. I reported back to work at 1PM and taught basic reading and writing until 3PM. I made around $30 a month. It was surprisingly rewarding work and those few students I helped appreciated my effort. It was humbling, but it definitely helped pass the time; plus, it was far better than cleaning toilets or sweeping floors. I also taught a few classes on the stock market and how to invest; they were well received.

Most jobs were orderly jobs. Food service was another big employer, along with maintenance and landscaping. If you didn't want to work, you paid someone to do your job. If you didn't have money, you "hustled" by doing someone else's job. The camp offered plenty of opportunities to earn. For example, I paid someone to do my laundry. It cost me $1.50 each week to have my laundry washed, dried, and folded. A bargain!

When I wasn't working, I spent most of my time reading and working out. The camp actually has a decent yard that includes a softball field, a soccer field, 1/5-mile track, two bocce courts, two full basketball courts, two handball courts, and two horseshoe pits. I got crazy good at bocce ball. Inside there were two pool tables, 10 TVs, a full gym, along with a library, art studio, classrooms, and computer lab. I checked my "email" several times a day. It felt like a poorly funded community college or military academy.

You have a ton of free time at camp. It's kind of like a really bad all-inclusive resort. You can do nothing or you can keep yourself busy. Guards pretty much left you alone, mostly because they didn't care and hated doing paperwork. My typical "weekday" schedule can be seen below. The weekend was similar, only without the GED work. 

6:00AM - Clear

7:45AM - Wake up, make coffee!

8:00AM - Report to morning GED class as a tutor (math/science)

10:30AM - Report to lunch

11:00AM - Head to the gym to lift weights (no skipping leg-day)

12:30PM - Census count (report back to my bunk to check-in)

1:00PM - Report to afternoon GED class as a tutor (reading/writing)

3:00PM - Walk / Run around the track

4:15PM - Count Time (standing up in your bunk)
 4:45PM - Report to dinner

5:00PM - More track time, maybe some bocce or softball

6:30PM - Head to the library to read / shoot-the-shit with fellow inmates

9:30PM - Count Time (standing up in your bunk)
10:00PM - Lockdown

Mostly everyone I met was friendly, polite, and generally looking to make their time at the camp productive and non-confrontational. It was completely safe. One day, we heard that a guard at the Medium got knocked out. Another day, an inmate at the Medium got shanked. Stuff like that never happened at the camp. Everyone at a camp is close to home, so almost no one wants to get into a situation where they potentially jeopardize their "good time" or risk getting sent to a higher-security facility. If you screwed up, you got a "shot" and went to the SHU. My time at the camp was not unlikely what you see on "Orange Is The New Black", only with significantly less guard (CO) interaction and no lesbian sex. Like in the show, contraband was everywhere.

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Chapter 11 - The Wheels On The Bus Go Round and Round

I was in camp a total of 119 nights. During that time, I read 76 books. You have a decent amount of free time, so finding things to do to keep yourself fit, mentally and physically, is imperative. You read and workout - I increased my bench press around 50 lbs while ending up losing 15 lbs. Reading and working out keep your mind and body healthy. Many sat around and watched TV all day. I found that to be both depressing and unproductive. I tried to better myself while I was there. I lost fat, gained muscle, and educated myself by reading and talking with other inmates. One of my favorite conversation partners was former U.S. Congressman, Chaka Fattah (PA-D). We might not have agreed on much politically, but Chaka is a thoughtful and eloquent individual, so it was pleasantly surprising to find someone like him at the camp to engage with in intelligent conversation.

Below is the full list of the books I read, in order, as I read them. See any you like? Please comment below!

1 - Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup - John Carreyrou

2 - The Lost Symbol - Dan Brown

3 - The End of Average - Todd Rose

4 - Stay Close - Harlan Coben

5 - The Sun Also Rises - Ernest Hemingway

6 - No One Here Gets Out Alive - Jerry Hopkins

7 - The Last Kingdom - Bernard Cornwell

8 - The Art of Strategy - Dixit & Nalebuff

9 - The Pale Horseman - Bernard Cornwell

10 - The Lords of Discipline - Pat Conroy

11 - The Lords of the North - Bernard Cornwell

12 - Dope Sick - Beth Macy

13 - The Snake in the Sandtrap - Lee Trevino

14 - Sword Song - Bernard Cornwell

15 - The Family - Mario Puzo

16 - The Burning Land - Bernard Cornwell

17 - Charting and Technical Analysis - Fred McAllen

18 - The Odyssey - Homer

19 - The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini

20 - Death of Kings - Bernard Cornwell

21 - No Easy Day - Mark Owen

22 - The Pagan Lord - Bernard Cornwell

23 - The 5 Love Languages - Gary Chapman

24 - Gone Girl - Gillian Flynn

25 - The Fault In Our Stars - John Green

26 - The Empty Throne - Bernard Cornwell

27 - How to Build Wealth Like Warren Buffett - Miles & Miles

28 - The Andromeda Strain - Michael Crichton

29 - Sphere - Michael Crichton

30 - The Appeal - John Grisham

31 - War Dogs - Guy Lawson

32 - The Litigators - John Grisham

33 - The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold

34 - Filthy Rich - James Patterson

35 - The Outsiders - S.E. Hinton

36 - The Martian - Andy Weir

37 - Wool - Hugh Howey

38 - Tales of Mystery and Imagination - Edgar Allan Poe

39 - One Second After - William R. Forstchen

40 - Warriors of the Storm - Bernard Cornwell

41 - The Runaway Jury - John Grisham

42 - Dead to the World - Charlaine Harris

43 - Killers of the Flower Moon - David Grann

44 - Killing Kennedy - Bill O'Reilly & Martin Dugard

45 - Million Dollar Consulting - Alan Weiss

46 - The Testament - John Grisham

47 - Killing Lincoln - Bill O'Reilly & Martin Dugard

48 - The Big Short - Michael Lewis

49 - Coraline - Neil Gaiman

50 - Killing Patton - Bill O'Reilly & Martin Dugard

51 - The Last Oracle - James Rollins

52 - Plain Talk About Drinking Water - James M. Symons

53 - What They Don't Teach You at Harvard Business School - Mark H. McCormack

54 - Into The Wild - Jon Krakauer

55 - One For The Money - Janet Evanovich

56 - War of the Worlds - H.G. Wells

57 - Purple Cow - Seth Godin

58 - Footprints of God - Greg Iles

59 - The Seventh Sense - Joshua Ramo

60 - Start With Why - Simon Sinek

61 - The Alchemist - Paulo Coelho

62 - Cell Memory - S.M.J. Alt

63 - Killing Jesus - Bill O'Reilly & Martin Dugard

64 - In the Sanctuary of Outcasts - Neil White

65 - The Gospel According to St. John - St. John

66 - Altar of Eden - James Rollins

67 - One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest - Ken Kesey

68 - Abundance - Diamandis & Kotler

69 - Jesus Didn't Have Blue Eyes - Derek Leman

70 - Prey - Michael Crichton

71 - Unbroken - Laura Hillenbrand

72 - Proof of Heaven - Eben Alexander

73 - Fire and Fury: Inside The Trump Whitehouse - Michael Wolff

74 - Fear: Trump In The Whitehouse - Bob Woodward

75 - Stoicism - Tai Snow

Special thanks to Nancy Ehlert at JustHopeBooks.org for sending me a slew of books during my four-month stay at the camp! Nancy has a great service and I encourage all of you to visit her site and donate! It truly did help me during my sentence.

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Chapter 13 - Home Sweet Home

Now that it's over, I can say going to prison sucks. Being away from your kids sucks. Have little to no access to the outside world sucks. Losing your job and ruining your reputation sucks. Sucks, sucks, sucks, etc... That said, actually being in prison (a federal camp) is no big deal. It's safe, there's enough to do to keep you from going crazy, and you can work to improve your mind and body. The saying, "Do not serve your time, let the time serve you" is totally true. Like I said, I lost weight and read a ton. I also made great friends with some truly fantastic people.

Nick, Hollywood, Lee, Big-E, Bill B., Flex, Monty, Tim, Boardman, Chaka, Mark, Jim, Hunter, Shack, Smoke, Schnabs, E, Dino, Goldberg, Mike, KJ, Choche, and Bear - thank you! Best of luck to all of you and I hope we meet again someday under better circumstances.

I believe that prison made me a better person, physically and mentally. Obviously, I wish I never went. I wish I had stayed working and living at home with my family. But, I made use of my time and persevered the best I could while there. I got healthy by working out and running, learned a ton, and I tutored many looking to improve their lives by earning their GED. I can truly say that I have just endured an experience that not many can say they've experienced. Granted, you don't want to experience what I've experienced, but for someone that was comfortably in the 1%, consumed by money and greed, to go through what I've just gone through, I've gained an incredible new perspective.

I'm now out and looking to get back to work. I've restarted doing research at Bio5C. I need to climb from the bottom 99% up to get back. The round-trip will be 198%, and I expect it to be an extraordinary journey.

Thank you for reading my blog!

Jason Napodano
Analyst, Investor, Consultant, Blogger, and Convicted Felon.

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Chapter 12 - Long Gone Day

You have a lot of time to think when you're in prison. An exercise I explored during my long days at McKean was, "Why?" Why did I do what I did? I already noted how I justified my actions because I felt that Zacks provided no defined perk of working for the firm. That all seems pretty silly now. I had a work-at-home job with no direct supervision on a daily basis. I worked in shorts and t-shirts all day. I never commuted anywhere so I never had to deal with traffic or pay for gas. I worked the hours I set for myself. I ate lunch every day at home with my wife. During the summer months, I ate with my children. I went to the gym, I played golf, and I took vacations. In hindsight, the perks were abundant.

I also noted how I rationalized my actions by thinking it was analogous to stealing Post-It Notes or some other superfluous office supply. Again, totally blind to the reality that was my life. I had it all and I still wanted more. I was just an employee. I worked for Zacks, a private firm owned by one man named Zacks. I had no stock options, no 401k benefit, no long-term upside beyond my current role. I recall reading stories about how the original secretaries at Microsoft back in the early 80's where all millionaires simply because they had been given stock in the company. I viewed trading as a way to supplement my income and create long-term wealth outside of my non-owner, basic employee status. As if making $350,000 per year wasn't enough.

This is my mea culpa. What I did was stupid, irresponsible, ignorant, arrogant, and criminal. The seven deadly sins are Pride, Greed, Lust, Envy, Gluttony, Wrath, and Sloth. By the middle of 2015, I personified most of them.

Prison is full of those having fell victim to the seven deadly sins. Prison teaches you humility and patience, and it forces chastity. But it also, surprisingly, encourages kindness and diligence against sloth. Prison is tough, and inmates lean on each other for support on a daily basis. I never felt lost or alone while in prison. Many fellow inmates were there ready to support me. It's truly amazing when you think about it. Everyone there is a convicted felon, some with violent pasts, but we were all in this thing together and at no time did I ever feel desperation or despair.

Almost everyone I met in prison truly wanted to improve their lives once they got out. That's not to say many of my fellow inmates, myself included, didn't feel anger. The anger in prison is infectious and it often infected me. But my desire for liberty was stronger than my wrath. I still have pride, but today my pride is not driven by lust, envy, or greed. No human being is immune to the seven deadly sins. I think the key to true growth in life is knowing you are subject to these emotions and working to lead a more virtuous life.

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