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It was the perfect storm, a group of executives with the support of a Fortune 500 rival company plotting corporate espionage to destroy a leading insurance brokerage firm. A new U.S. Attorney out to cement his professional status. An FBI team needing a collar. A prosecutor trying to fix his tarnished reputation. Michael Segal CEO didn't see it coming-until the tsunami hit and he was drowned in a flood of greed, avarice, deception, self-interest, and an unbridled climb to power.
Conviction at Any Cost is a true story that reads like a Grisham novel and is a riveting account of how the federal government, frustrated and angry when Michael Segal refused to wear a wire to entrap people he didn't know or have dealings with, brought its full force against him to strip him of his company Near North National Group valued at $250M, his livelihood and the jobs of 1,000 employees. When Segal threatened to expose prosecutorial misconduct, the government doubled down and indicted him and his company on racketeering charges. Ultimately, when the misconduct was presented to the U.S. Attorney's Office and the Department of Justice, nothing was done, and no one was punished.
The evidence which resulted in an eight-year prison sentence was remarkable because:
There was no loss or victims
The federal case was based on an administrative state insurance statute providing no penalty if no loss
The prosecution engaged in misconduct that was ignored by the courts
Cybercrimes were protected and covered up
A defense lawyer for Segal was secretly tape-recorded
Conviction at Any Cost tells in detail how the prosecution, through the use of threats and other tactics took revenge upon Michael Segal because he had the courage to refuse to falsely implicate or entrap others. Meanwhile, the employees who had been nurtured and rewarded by Segal, after succumbing to greed and attempting to take over Segal's life's work, decided when they were thwarted, that only the destruction of the company would satisfy them. And waiting to help crush the company were Segal's long-time business rivals.
Researched and written by Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Maurice Possley based on court records and hours of interviews with Michael Segal, Conviction at Any Cost is a compelling account of how justice can be perverted and abused in the absence of checks and balances. Segal is the subject, but anyone can be caught in a justice system gone awry.
