Twenty-two years ago, in 1989, I made a mistake that taught me one of the most valuable lessons of my life.

In 1988, at the age of 23 and freshly graduated from college, I moved with my fledgling investment fund I had started in school to New York City. Within a few months my naiveté led me to open an account with an unscrupulous brokerage firm who committed fraud upon my fund's account, took all the cash into their own pocket and disappeared. In a frenzy of desperate stock trading trying to recoup these losses I made some risky choices which I knew could result in my not being able to pay for the trades if the stocks went down. Many stocks did indeed go down and all the capital was lost for the fund, and some brokers absorbed losses from the trading as well. Because of the losses and also being unable to pay for certain stock trades within the prescribed times, I violated securities law.

I had lost everything, and worked for several years paying over 80 percent of my income to repay everyone who lost money. I repaid them all fully as well as paid them a substantial amount of interest.

I did not file bankruptcy. I did not walk away from my debts. I repaid every one.

Five years later, and after all repayments had been made, realizing and admitting that what I had done was wrong, I pled guilty to the violation related to the charges brought against me. The court assigned a penalty of two years' probation and community service.

I was not fined, nor suspended from the securities business.

My good faith efforts to remedy the situation were noted by the court. In the words of the judge:

"In short, the extraordinary aspects of Mr. Worden's restitution are,

• first, the amount, that is, he is repaying amounts much greater than the losses sustained by the brokerage houses in connection with the offense of the conviction;
• two, his good faith and determined efforts to make his very substantial payments over a period of years. Payments which represented far greater proportion of his disposable income than I suspect anyone has ever seen; and,
• three, the fact he was making payments before he had any inkling of a criminal investigation.

(United States District Court, Southern District of New York, The Honorable Loretta Preska, Minutes of Sentencing Proceeding, August 14 1995, p. 31, lines 6 – 15)".

I have had no issues with the government since those events 23 years ago.

In the 23 years since those events I have deepened my belief in ethical business practices which have culminated in my passion for cleantech investing, solar energy, and philanthropy which is where I focus today.

Barron Partners has become a leading cleantech fund and invested over $450,000,000 since 2002, doing business with many of the major investment firms and professionals internationally, and Soltas Energy is on its way to become a meaningful solar company in the United States, helping broaden clean, renewable power generation.