Conviction At Any Cost: Prosecutorial Misconduct and the Pursuit of Michael Segal

by Maurice Possley

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 There was no loss or victimsThe federal case was based on an administrative state insurance statute providing no penalty if no lossThe prosecution engaged in misconduct that was ignored by the courtsCybercrimes were protected and covered upA 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.

400 pages, Hardcover

Published April 14, 2020

Reviews

[Thomas A. · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you know the man you will understand. The most competent and well-placed among us cannot overcome the power of the federal government. And when that power goes terribly awry it can be
fruitless--or worse--to fight back aggressively. Possely's book is intricately researched and carefully written--about a man who did fight. Segal spent 40 years building an insurance business and the government tore it down and punished him for the next 15. This is no puffery or heart upon the sleeve--instead it is a white collar version of "Unbroken". Thankfully Segal's intellect and his competitiveness allowed him to keep his sanity through a terrifying ordeal where all the cards were stacked against him. The system is seldom forgiving, but hardly as brutal as this. Hardly such a synergy of adverse forces, working in concert in the interest of jealousy, greed, deception, self-promotion, and lawyering in the absence of advocacy properly channeled. No matter the politics, no matter the reader's view of the system of criminal justice in America this is a must read.

[Tom Farrell · Rating 4 out of 5]

One has to take into account that this is a biased view of the case from the defendant's perspective but it gives you insight into the criminal process.

[Sally Dunn · Rating 1 out of 5]

Do not buy this book unless you're in law school and HAVE to read this. It is practically word for word about emails, lawyers, corporate big wigs and their unlawful daily ways of operating. It's awful. So many names and dates, too much to understand. Zero stars if possible.