Once a Fraudster Always a Fraudster

David Alan Smith represented himself a reformed criminal and was able to speak out to prison officials and politicians on alternatives to traditional prison in Texas. You know those "socially correct" programs like home detention and spending the taxpayer's money educating our criminal population.

Before becoming a poster boy for rehabilitation, Smith had been convicted of mail fraud, wire fraud and filing false claims.

Apparently, he was conning us with his rehabilitation crusade!

On Thursday "Smith plead guilty to mail fraud, making a false claim against the United States, unlawful use of a means of identification, interstate transportation of stolen property and money laundering." He did this by advertising for jobs and using the information from resumes in several fraud schemes, all related to identity theft.

I wrote a post on Internet Resume Posting and Fraud sometime ago.

According to Steven Kreystak's article, "It is unclear how much time he has served in prison, but before the Austin conference in 2000 he told the Austin American-Statesman that he had served 18 years once for bank fraud. Another ex-con who helped Smith with the conference, Barry Keenan, told the American-Statesman in 2001 that Smith twice escaped the Terminal Island federal prison near San Pedro, Calif."

"We're working diligently to get more programs in prisons," Smith told the American-Statesman in 2000. "The mentality now is that programs don't work, inmates won't change, and the only solution is to lock 'em up and throw away the key. None of those things are true."

As a mere spectator in this, I must surmise that since Smith was obviously making a false statement (above), the logical conclusion is to lock him up and throw the key away.

For the full article by the American Statesman, click on the title of this post.