what was zzzz best 
zzzz best was a carpet cleaning and restoration company founded by barry minkow that served as a front for a famous ponzi scheme the company went public in december 1986 and was quickly valued at over 300 million within just seven months of the initial public offering ipo however zzzz best was bankrupt and its assets were auctioned for approximately 64 000 1understanding zzzz bestbarry minkow formed zzzz best in his parents garage the business performed poorly and 15 year old minkow was often inundated with customer complaints and supplier collection requests to create an illusion of a profitable business minkow began committing criminal acts such as check kiting theft insurance scams and fraud to fund operations and pay suppliers 2within a few years of zzzz best s inception minkow launched fictitious insurance restoration and appraisal businesses while active zzzz best was at the center of a credit card scheme involving over 70 000 in fraudulent charges although minkow assigned blame to contractors and employees he repaid all of the victims except for one a homemaker swindled out of a few hundred dollars 3the scheme and the downfallminkow and business associate tom padgett created a fictitious company interstate appraisal service to defraud banks and other lending institutions out of millions of dollars tom padgett an insurance claims adjuster conspired with minkow to forge documents crediting zzzz best for restoration work and use interstate appraisal services as the source to verify the claims increasingly investors and bankers developed an interest in zzzz best based on fraudulent financial statements produced by minkow s firm 2barry minkow claimed his fraudulent actions were driven by a need to repay organized crime as the ponzi scheme continued zzzz best experienced significant cash flow problems as a solution minkow planned to acquire keyserv sears authorized carpet cleaner for 25 million according to minkow the revenues from keyserv would provide enough cash flow to end the ponzi scheme before the deal was closed the jilted homemaker sparked a campaign against zzzz best that would expose more than the fraud committed against her 4the l a times featured her story which caused zzzz best s stock price to decline sharply lenders began to call their loans and more investigations commenced unraveling minkow s dark web of deceit and fraud eventually the truth behind the fictitious companies was revealed and the ponzi scheme was exposed 