Chip Skowron pleaded guilty to securities fraud, lost his freedom, and found religion. But, as it turns out, federal prison is more forgiving than Connecticut high society
before the indictment and the headlines, before he was abandoned by most of the people he knew, Joseph Skowron III and his wife, Cheryl, were living in a tidy three-bedroom ranch home in Greenwich, Connecticut. In the early 20th century, Greenwich attracted flocks of industrialists and their descendants—Rockefellers and Morgans, beneficiaries of Carnegie Steel—who built manor homes on generous acreages.
Among friends and family, Skowron was known to be generous, loyal, and fun-loving—a griller of burgers and sharer of beers. But he was emotionally exhausted, wrung out by the pressure of keeping up appearances and increasingly troubled by a sense of emptiness. “I wanted to be somebody that was important,” he recalls. “I wanted to accomplish, succeed, to be satisfied. It was all illusory.”In November 2010, the façade began to slip.
Skowron’s fall was jarring. But he quickly had reason to think that, in pleading guilty, he had made the right decision. On his first day in prison, at a medium-security facility in Pennsylvania, another inmate extended his hand.“Let’s be clear about this,” the man said. “I’m Chip 1, you’re Chip 2.” Noticing that Skowron was holding a Bible, Chip 1 quoted from Romans: “Just remember that all things work together for good.
But Greenwich was full of social trip wires. At Whole Foods or the park, Skowron was likely to encounter people he had caused to lose jobs or money. His neighbors were polite but distant. Not long after coming home, Skowron suggested to his wife that they have dinner at Mediterraneo, a favorite restaurant downtown. “I’m not going to that hedge-fund hangout!” she said.
The town’s nascent worldliness, much emphasized by residents, has been bolstered by the hedge funds, and increasingly the community has embraced them. “The chamber of commerce just asked me to join their board of directors,” says Bruce McGuire, the president of the Connecticut Hedge Fund Association. “It’s taken 15 years, but I think the town of Greenwich has finally decided that having hedge funds is probably a good thing.
About a year after his release, Skowron began visiting Bridgeport Correctional Center, a state prison roughly 30 miles from Greenwich, in the post-industrial city of Bridgeport. In partnership with the New Canaan Society, a Christian men’s group founded by a former Goldman Sachs partner, he recruited roughly a dozen volunteers to visit the facility every Thursday to commune with prisoners, in sessions modeled on those in his cell.
By then, Skowron had put the house on Doubling Road on the market. When he had dropped his asking price, to $10.7 million, he’d become a target for Christopher Fountain, a Greenwich real-estate agent whose popular blog, For What It’s Worth, makes biting sport of local kingpins laid low. “Greed will cause some people to do despicable things,” Fountain wrote, “and Skowron is an example of that.
United States Latest News, United States Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
'Entitled' son faces life in prison for killing his dad after reducing his allowanceA Manhattan jury took a little over two days to convict a Princeton graduate for killing his hedge fund manager dad after the father threatened to reduce his allowances and not pay his rent.
Read more »
US duty free magnates fund controversial Israeli settlementsHEBRON, West Bank (AP) — When travelers shop at dozens of duty free stores at airports worldwide, they may be paying for more than a bottle of vodka or a box of chocolates. The Falic family...
Read more »
Funeral scheduled for detective who fought for Sept. 11 fundA funeral will be held Wednesday for a former New York City police detective who was a leader in the fight for the Sept. 11 Victim Compensation Fund
Read more »
Fiona Apple Pledges Two Years of ‘Criminal’ Royalties to RefugeesFiona Apple is donating the 2019 and 2020 earnings from TV and movie placements of her song 'Criminal' to the While They Wait refugee fund
Read more »
Bradley Tusk, a former political strategist and now a prominent VC, explains why he invested in a $25 million fund for marijuana, sex tech, alcohol, and e-cigarettesVice Ventures, headed up by Catharine Dockery, announced last week that it raised its first $25M fund to invest in industries other VCs overlook.
Read more »
Gloria Vanderbilt told Anderson Cooper not to expect a trust fund. He got the estate insteadThe CNN anchor will inherit most of his late mother's massive estate, even though she previously told him not to expect it.
Read more »