at just 16 years old barry minkow started a business in his parents' basement, and ended up bilking investors out of hundreds of millions of dollars before he was caught. >> reporter: back in the 1980s, teenager barry minkow seemingly had it all. a ferrari, a mansion, and a carpet cleaning business valued at nearly $300 million. >> i'm barry minkow president of z best carpet cleaning. >> he made it easy for people to believe in him. he had that unique ability of getting people focused. and it was audacious. >> reporter: audacious because by his own admission, nearly 90% of z best was a fraud. >> i spent 87 months in prison. i didn't get away with anything. i paid a heavy price for my crime. >> reporter: but when the jail time was over, this con mann story was just beginning. watch what happened next. that's tomorrow night on "360" in our "con men" series. >>> still ahead,, why conrad

minkow is at it again. >> reporter: in march, minkow agreed to plead guilty to a single count of conspiracy to commit securities fraud to avoid what could have been a 30-year federal prison sentence. thursday a federal judge sentenced him to five years and recommended drug rehabilitation for his oxycontin addiction. he must cooperate with authorities still investigating his business dealings. >> he has been providing and will continue to provide cooperation to both lenar and to the united states government. >> reporter: he must also pay lenar more than half a billion dollars in restitution, which his attorney concedes is not likely to happen. so why did so many people over such a long period of time believe in barry minkow? >> he was able to take people whatever their background and interest, whether it was large law firms, accounting firms, even people who are on the periphery of organized crime, and make them believe that he cared about them and that he would do what was in their best interests. >> reporter: minkow autographed one of his books for the judge who first sent him to prison. >

at just 16 years old barry minkow started a business in his parents basement and bilked investors out he was caught. >> reporter: back in the 1980s, teenager barry minkow seemingly had it all. a ferrari, a mansion, and a carpet cleaning business valued at nearly $300 million. >> i'm barry minkow president of z best carpet cleaning. >> he made it easy for people to believe in him. he had that unique ability of getting people focused. and it was audacious. >> reporter: audacious because by his own admission, nearly 90% of z best was a fraud. >> i spent 87 months in prison. i didn't get away with anything. i paid a heavy price for my crime. >> reporter: but when the jail time was over, this con mann story was just beginning. watch what happened next. that's tomorrow night on 360. in our conmen series >>> still ahead, a revealing interview with sarah palin's daughter bristol. what the young woman now says about her former fiancee and the night that changed her life forever. in here, the planned combination of at&t and t-mobile would deliver our next generation mobile broadband experience