New Haven Register (New Haven, CT)
After prison, former club owner finds new path as a podcaster
DANBURY — Ian Bick says fear of letting people down played a large role in the life-changing decisions that landed him in federal prison several years ago, but the former nightclub owner convicted of fraud says he’s now on a path to redemption.
“I was a cocky kid who thought it was me against the world, but you can’t judge someone on their actions from 10 years ago when they’re not the same person,” Bick said. “I could understand if I got out of prison and was doing the same thing as before, but that’s not the case.”
It has been five years since he completed a nearly threeyear federal prison sentence. And Bick, now 28, has found a new passion — one he’s not only turned into a full-time job, but through which he says he also finds fulfillment and a sense of purpose: podcasting.
Inspired by his own experience behind bars, Bick launched “Locked In with Ian Bick” in January 2023. Since then, he said the podcast has evolved into a platform from which people of various backgrounds and experiences can share their stories.
“The whole arc of the podcast is overcoming challenges. They’re able to tell their stories from beginning to end, no interruptions. It’s like a therapy session,” said Bick, whose guests have included former inmates, people recovering from addiction, law enforcement officers and criminal justice system professionals, as well as celebrities including comedian Chevy Chase and motivational speaker and former professional skateboarder Brandon Novak.
Bick said he chimes in, but the guests — some of whom have felt shunned due to their past — are the main focus of his podcast. Like them, Bick said he knows what it’s like to be rejected and judged because of previous wrongdoings.
Over seven years ago, he was sentenced to 36 months in federal prison for defrauding investors out of nearly $500,000 — money that was supposed to be used to purchase electronics for online resale, as well as organize and promote concerts. Instead, federal prosecutors said Bick diverted the money “for his own personal use and benefit,” including to fund hotel stays, purchase jet skis and pay other victim-investors.
He was indicted and arrested in January 2015 on 11 counts of wire fraud, three counts of money laundering and one count of making a false statement. Ten months later, Bick was found guilty on six of the wire fraud and one of the money laundering counts in a jury trial at U.S. District Court in New Haven.
Bick — who became owner of the Tuxedo Junction music venue and nightclub on Ives Street in Danbury when he was about 19 — said he didn’t know that what he was doing was illegal.
“I didn’t know what a Ponzi scheme was, Bernie Madoff or any of that,” Bick said. “Everything happened so fast. One day I’m one of the top 10 most (fascinating) people of Connecticut and then the next minute I’m the arrested nightclub owner.”
The 2015 grand jury indictment against Bick claimed that he “induc(ed) numerous victim-investors to provide him funds for investments based on the false and fraudulent pretenses, representation and premises.”
“The investigation started in January 2014, but I didn’t reopen Tuxedos until June 2014,” he said, adding that Skyy Bar and Lounge — an 18-and-over nightclub he opened at the Ives Street location in October 2013, which closed in early 2014 — “was the only thing that was a part of it.”
Federal prosecutors accused Bick of using entities he “controlled and was a principal and/or managing member” to solicit investment funds from friends, former classmates, acquaintances and their parents “by promising high investment returns over relatively short periods of time.” They also claimed he did so to “enrich himself, his various entities and certain associates.”
According to Bick, social acceptance — not personal indulgence — contributed to his money-making ambitions, which he said predated his involvement in the concert or electronics businesses.
“In high school, I made money and took care of my friends,” he said. “We went out to dinners and did all this stuff no one else in high school could.”
‘One defining moment’
Bick said his lies started in 2013, after a concert he organized at the University of Rhode Island and that he thought made money had actually tanked. He refers to it as “the one defining moment.”
“I was telling my friends and family it made money, only to find out that it didn’t,” he said. “I realized at that moment that I had two options — either tell them it didn’t make money and have them think I’m lying because I’d been telling them they’d been making money, or actually lie and say it made money and keep those friendships and relationships.”
Bick said he chose the latter.
“That was the moment that triggered everything, and if I could take that lie back, I would,” he said.
He didn’t know then, Bick said, but he knows now, that what he did with investors’ money was wrong and he regrets it.
“People seem to forget that I was young when I made all these decisions that ultimately landed me in prison,” said Bick, a 2013 Danbury High graduate who believes immaturity and misguided passion were at the root of many of his past actions.
His attorney, Jonathan J. Einhorn, agreed that Bick is a different person today.
“He was an immature kid at the time in an adult world,” said Einhorn, who has served as Bick’s attorney since his January 2015 arrest. “Now, he’s grown up and he’s responsible and understands the nature of what he was involved in before.”
Twenty-two days after getting his $250,000 post-conviction bond revoked for violating the conditions of his release by taking several unauthorized trips to a New York casino, Bick was sentenced in October 2016 to three years incarceration — which he served at various federal correctional institutions and detention centers, starting at a low-security prison at Fort Dix in New Jersey.
Bick, who was 21 at the time of his sentencing, was eventually transferred to the Federal Correctional Institution in Danbury, where he said he spent several months in solitary confinement. The remainder of his approximately three-year sentence included serving time at facilities in New York, Philadelphia, Oklahoma City and Chicago. He said his last year was at a prison camp in Wisconsin.
After getting out in January 2019, Bick said he went to a halfway house in Waterbury and was on home confinement until May 2019, which was followed by three years of supervised release. Aside from one or two traffic tickets, Bick — who is no longer on probation — said he has stayed out of trouble.
When asked to pick a few words to describe himself eight or nine years ago, Bick said ambitious “would probably be the only positive word.”
According to a spreadsheet Bick uses to track his payments — which his attorney confirmed to be accurate — he had paid nearly $33,000 of the $480,000 restitution he owes as of Jan. 24, and he told Hearst he has no plans of stopping until he reaches a zero balance owed.
Working hard and second chances
Some of the misconceptions about him are that he’s spoiled, avaricious and doesn’t work hard for things, Bick said.
“When I wanted the new XBox, Nintendo Wii, my first car — my parents didn’t get me that. I was spoiled in the sense that they let me throw these big crazy parties at the house — but I worked hard for everything else that I got,” he said.
For as long as he can remember, Bick said he has been a hard worker.
“I was doing lemonade stands as a kid, selling candy out of my backpack in middle school and I worked at the Matrix Corporate Center when I was 16, and did that for a couple of years,” he said.
After prison, Bick said he got a job at Whole Foods and worked his way up from a hotbar cook to manager of prepared foods. Bick said he was working there when the episode of the HBO Max documentary series “Generation Hustle” about his story came out in April 2021, and also worked as an Uber driver for a few months last year.
Since prison, Bick has become involved in justice reform and serves as a member of the board of directors for the National Association for Re-Entry Professionals — a nonprofit that provides education, training and professional services for individuals getting out of prison.
“I’m trying to make changes in the world (in terms of ) reform, and reentry is a big aspect,” he said, noting that helping others is a goal of both his podcast and his recently established studio business.
With the success of “Locked In with Ian Bick,” he founded Creative Evolution Studios — a business offering podcast production and consulting, social media management and content production services — in September 2023.
Bick said his work in podcasting may “ruffle some feathers,” but it’s something he is “extremely passionate about.”
“I love seeing something built from the ground up and grow,” he said. “It’s fulfilling, and we’re trying to make good, positive change in the process.”