But Wait, There’s More! Whatever Happened to... ?

We catch up on ex-felons, happy orcs, and missing money in Afghanistan.

I write about unusual and outrageous business behavior here, but also follow me on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn.

The story doesn’t end after I hit “publish” on my Bulletin page.

So what’s happening with some of the people and issues I’ve covered for Wells $treet?

Following the money in Afghanistan

As I wrote in August, America spent more than $145 billion over 20 years rebuilding Afghanistan, without a lot to show for it.

This made many of you — and me — quite angry. We expect some fraud in these situations, but the level of fraud perpetuated in Afghanistan over two decades makes Bernie Madoff look like an amateur.

We’ve left Afghanistan, but the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR) has a new report suggesting that while our troops are gone, our tax dollars may still be “in country,” as they say.

“The United States is not providing any assistance to the Taliban or any part of the government of Afghanistan,” writes Inspector General John Sopko, the guy in charge of following the money. However, he says the State Department “did not provide SIGAR with an update on the status of their programs, which had included efforts to support the rule of law and corrections.”

No update, because, well, who the hell knows anymore?

Parts of the U.S. government were definitely still spending money in Afghanistan through last week (and maybe still); specifically the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). While the agency has suspended funding of its own activities in Afghanistan, “USAID continued to disburse funds to those partners (emphasis mine) who needed to maintain staff and sustain operational capacity.”

How much and to whom? Again, who the hell knows?

We’re also spending U.S. money on humanitarian efforts, because Afghans are starving, and allegedly we’re cutting out the Taliban, but, you know, who the hell knows...

Then there's all the military equipment we left behind, though U.S. forces destroyed everything at the airport. SIGAR reports that before the Afghan military fell apart, some of its pilots “reportedly flew about 25% of the total available aircraft inventory to Uzbekistan and Tajikistan to avoid Taliban capture.”

Awesome. Good job, guys.

Finally, we spent about $89 billion over several years to train Afghan defense forces, but obviously that program is over. “The potential recoupable funds from the terminated contracts is about $141 million,” writes the SIGAR team, “but final termination costs and disposition of training equipment and supplies have yet to be determined.”

Because (say it with me), who the hell knows?

John Sopko says his work is not done, even though his staff has been evacuated out of Afghanistan. “SIGAR will continue its work to get to the bottom of why reconstruction efforts failed the way they did and to ensure that the U.S. government is offered a comprehensive and documented array of the lessons to be learned from the collapse.”

The good news: Of the $145.6 billion we spent rebuilding Afghanistan, we still have $3.6 billion left over. Somewhere.

Happy Orcs

On to a happier topic.

Tom Boyd is a character. A rich one.

The millionaire Tennessee entrepreneur makes money testing dog poop DNA to catch scofflaws who don’t pick up after their pets (a story in itself). Earlier this year he decided to open Ancient Lore Village, a Knoxville resort that looks like it jumped out from the pages of The Lord of the Rings.

The Village is a $13 million venture Tom created because he was tired of the political divide in this country and wanted to create “a place of no evil.” Guests can sleep over in cottages with magical themes based on leprechauns, orcs (who are nice!) and faeries.

I visited in September and since then, Tom says, business is humming along. “The ax and archery are a big hit,” he tells me. He hosted an event for Halloween that sold out. “It was really fun.”

Meantime, Tom is talking to a publisher about writing a series of books where children from “the World of Man” come to Ancient Lore Village. He wants to “weave a story that transforms these kids into better ones.”

Tom is nothing if not earnest about trying to help us get along better. “It may be far-fetched, but I believe [the books] could be a teaching platform, as well as entertaining.”

Did that ex-con keep his job?

I introduced you to three white-collar ex-felons who talked about how difficult it is after prison to ever be trusted again with a job. They explained different strategies for handling interviews, and they also provided some tips for surviving prison (like, keep you mouth shut).

One of the three, Mike Neubig, decided to be very public about his record after he served his time and very open about his journey to find work. When I published the story, he had just landed a marketing job with an employer who knew about his past.

“The job is going so well,” Mike tells me this week. He says he’s using his expertise as the former CEO of an education tech company to raise funding and improve sales in his new position. “For so long I wanted a second chance to use my experience in my failed venture to impact an initiative I believe in.”

Mike hopes his experience can bring hope to others. “I wake up excited, renewed and energized,” he says. “It feels like the first time since my conviction that I have any purpose or self-esteem.”

And what about the ladies?

I received an interesting email in response to the felons story. It was from a person in the support group I mentioned, Progressive Prison Ministries.

The person who wrote me is a woman.

“Currently, women are being sentenced for white-collar crime at a higher rate than men,” wrote Jacqueline Polverari. She was a successful businesswoman who owned a title company that went under during the housing collapse of 2008. She ended up committing mortgage fraud and spent over six months in prison.

Polverari started Evolution Reentry to specifically help women coming out of the correctional system.

“All ex-felons have such a difficult time rebuilding their lives, especially in their 50s; however women have extra challenges,” she told me. “We are already behind men with hiring in normal situations. Add in a white-collar felony, and it’s nearly impossible.”

Jacqueline started a podcast called “Criminal Justice Cafe” to try to help people better understand the struggles of those who’ve served time and now want to start over. “I only wish more reporters and writers would recognize the women who are a part of this ‘felon’ community.”

Thank you for bringing it to my attention, Jacqueline.

How’s my arbitrator application going?

I applied to be an arbitrator for FINRA because I thought it might be interesting. I wrote about FINRA arbitration after learning that basically, arbitrators can decide pretty much whatever they want, and their decisions are pretty much final (I’m exaggerating… but only a little).

This week I learned that I PASSED the background check. I just received my “Welcome Packet,” and now I have to sign up for some online training.

Good Lord, what have I gotten myself into. Should I continue? Of course I should. It’s $600 a day. Besides, what could go wrong?

Cover photo by Anadolu Agency/Getty Images.

Share your thoughts and ideas in the comments section or email jane@janewells.com. I’m always looking for crazy business ventures to write about.