In 1997, he became pastor of Community Bible Church in San Diego. Soon after his arrival, a church member asked him to look into a money management firm in nearby Orange County. Suspecting something was amiss, Minkow alerted federal authorities, who discovered the firm was a $300 million pyramid scheme. This was the beginning of the Fraud Discovery Institute, a for-profit investigative firm (which was eventually exposed to be a fraud itself). His original targets were penny stock companies, which are often havens for fraud. However, he soon attracted the attention of "The Wall Street Journal" and Bloomberg News. He also began appearing on "Your World with Neil Cavuto" as a fraud expert. Minkow first gained national attention when "60 Minutes" aired a profile of him in August 2006. Several Wall Street investors liked what they saw, and sent him enough money to go after bigger targets. Minkow claimed to have uncovered $1 billion worth of fraud over the years.