There’s no more telling sign of the times than the fact Wall Street’s newest guru is an ex-con finagler of U.S. prison-system loopholes who looks like Jesse Ventura’s tougher baby brother. Larry Levine, the 47-year-old founder of Wall Street Prison Consultants, offers the instructive program “Fedtime 101,” whose curriculum includes “Your first day what to bring with,” “Why staff lie & dislike inmates” and “How to survive a prison riot.” For oenophiles, he even provides a recipe for hooch. It begins: “Steal fruit from the dining hall . . .”

Levine has been offering advice on surviving prison life, navigating early-release programs and getting time shaved off sentences since his own release in 2007. The former private investigator served a 10-year sentence for narcotics trafficking, securities fraud, racketeering, obstruction of justice and running machine guns. “I was an entrepreneur,” he explains. Six months ago, observing the uptick in the white-collar convict pool, he decided to “rebrand” his company, American Prisons Consultants, which is based in his Los Angeles apartment, and set up a separate shingle. It was a shrewd move: white-collar fraudsters, both male and female, now comprise 40 per cent of his clientele.

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