Book World: All the wrongs of all the right people in D.C. Ron Charles, The Washington Post May 25, 2021 FacebookTwitterEmail By Christina McDowell - - - Christina McDowell was used to getting extraordinary gifts from her father, Washington lawyer Thomas Prousalis Jr. To celebrate her graduation from high school, she got a BMW. One Christmas morning, he gave her a Hermés Birkin bag. And then there was that time McDowell discovered Dad had given her $100,000 in credit card debt. McDowell wanted to ask him about that little problem, but she didn't know exactly where her father was, only that he would soon be assigned to a federal prison to serve a 57-month sentence for securities fraud. He was a convicted associate of Jordan Belfort, whom Leonardo DiCaprio portrayed in "The Wolf of Wall Street."