Let me tell you about a call I got recently. It came from a man who had worked with our team more than a decade ago. Back then, he made a choice a lot of people make: he decided not to talk about his federal conviction because the DOJ hadn’t issued a press release. He figured, “No one’s going to find out. I’ll just move on.”
That silence just cost him his business.
Why No Press Release Doesn’t Mean No Risk
A lot of people think if their case wasn’t splashed across the Department of Justice website, they’re in the clear. No mugshot on Google, no scandal headline, no reason to disclose.
That logic feels safe—until it isn’t.
In this man’s case, a competitor recently dug up his criminal history and decided to use it as a weapon. The competitor didn’t just whisper about it—he started posting about it, reaching out to the man’s current clients with one goal: to sow doubt.
“Did he ever tell you he went to prison?”
“What else didn’t he tell you?”
“Want me to go through his invoices to make sure he hasn’t been billing you the same way he did before he was charged with fraud?”
That’s all it took.
A $500,000 Business, Built on Silence
This man’s business brought in half a million a year, but it wasn’t a large company. Just two or three contracts. Two or three clients. And when they got wind of his past—not from him—they pulled back.
One even said, “I think we’d have been fine with it… but I didn’t want to find out from someone else.”
This is the trap: when you don’t own your story, someone else will. And they’ll tell it in the worst possible way.
Disclosure Isn’t About Shame. It’s About Control.
This client told me, “You said ten years ago I should disclose it. But since there was no press release, I thought I could get away with it.”
That phrase—“get away with it”—is the same mindset that leads people into trouble in the first place. Avoiding discomfort. Hiding the truth. Hoping no one notices.
But here’s the truth: he’s been out of prison for years, but emotionally, mentally, and professionally, he’s still trapped in it. Every time he signed a new client, he wondered: Will they find out? Every time his phone rang, he asked: Is this the call where it all comes crashing down?
That’s not freedom. That’s a sentence he gave himself.
What You Can Learn From His Mistake
If you’ve got a federal conviction—whether or not the DOJ blasted it out online—don’t assume silence is a strategy.
Instead:
- Build a clean record on top of your past, intentionally
- Share your story on your terms, with lessons learned
- Talk about what you’ve done since, and how you’ve changed
- Get help to prepare that message professionally
That’s how you create trust. That’s how you take away the leverage from people who want to use your past against you.
I’ve seen people lose jobs, clients, and even families because they thought hiding their conviction was safer. It’s not. It just delays the fallout.
Want to Stay Out of That Trap?
If you’re dealing with a conviction and trying to figure out how (or whether) to talk about it, don’t go it alone. There’s a smart way to do this that doesn’t involve shame, but also doesn’t involve pretending nothing happened.
Justin Paperny
If this resonates, join our team this Tuesday at 11 a.m. Pacific, 2 p.m. Eastern. We host a free webinar to answer questions, share lessons from real cases, and help you avoid the most costly mistakes people make during a government investigation. Bring questions. Come ready to learn.
