Why is Sam Antar the Crook Being Pimped by Fortune Magazine and the Rest of the New York Financial Media?
I will spend just a few moments recounting the sordid history of Sam Antar the Crook. Then, and only then, will the reader grasp the import of the question, “Whose interests are being served by the recent promotion of Sam Antar the Crook? Why him, why suddenly, and why now?”
1) In the 1980’s a New York electronics retailer named Eddie Antar, running a chain of discount electronics stores called, “Crazy Eddie,” perpetrated an enormous swindle. As a recent Fortune Magazine article put it, “The debacle cost investors roughly $145 million and involved just about every kind of accounting fraud then known to man, including receipt skimming, money laundering, and the counting of bogus inventory.” A key player in the swindle was the company’s CFO (and Eddie Antar’s cousin) Sam E. Antar.
2) When Sam was busted, he ratted out his two cousins, who each served several years in prison on the strength of Sam’s testimony (I guess Eddie was Crazy after all, to trust Cousin Sam). Sam Antar ratted out family members in return for a reduced sentence of six months’ house arrest and 1,200 hours community service.
3) Barry Minkow is a convicted stock cheat who, at the ripe age of 23, was sentenced to 25 years for his various stock fraud schemes (no small feat). He was released after 6 years. Recently he became entangled in a new stock manipulation case. Three months ago Minkow was subpoenaed and deposed, and in that deposition (pages 8-10), disclosed that Sam Antar the Crook had paid Minkow $250,000 (in two payments, one of $100,000 and one for $150,000) to turn his skills against a public company that he, Sam Antar the Crook, was shorting.
4) Within months of Sam Antar the Crook paying Minkow $250,000, the State of New York issued a $471 tax warrant against Sam Antar the Crook (it turns out that Sam has quite a history of these, so it cannot be put down to forgetting to put a stamp on an envelope). Is the fact that a fellow could not pay a $471 tax lien, but could wire a quarter-million dollars to an ex-con stock cheat, odd?
5) At the request of Sam Antar the Crook, Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff met with Sam on the condition that Sam not attempt to spin it as an endorsement of Sam’s views. Sam had his meeting then immediately welched on that promise. The Attorney General wrote a letter describing this chain of events, along with a disclaimer against believing Sam, that he twice attempted to post on Sam’s blog. Sam refused to let the Attorney General post it. At that point, Attorney General Shurtleff made public this letter scolding Sam for welching, and discouraging the public from listening to Sam about pretty much anything (”In light of Mr. Antar’s background as a convicted white collar criminal, we believe that the public should carefully scrutinize and objectively examine any public statements Mr. Antar makes.”)
6) Sam and Sam-cronies (Gary Weiss and Howard Sirota) regularly accuse those who disagree with them, or try to expose their shenanigans, as anti-Semites. Ed Manfredonia, one of the many whom they have repeatedly accused of anti-Semitism, asked the Anti-Defamation League to get involved. Displaying great class, the ADL got involved, and wrote this letter utterly rejecting those allegations. Notwithstanding the ADL’s statement, Sam continues to make endless allegations of anti-Semitism towards those who cross him.
7) These days Sam spends much time posting dozens of deposition-style posts directed at me and my colleagues, over-and-over, dozens if not hundreds per week (what an odd “hobby” for Sam to have). Generally they are inconsequential half-truths, quarter truths, or flat non sequiturs. Even people who formally tolerated him have begun pointing out his lunacy to him.
Sam attempted to intimidate one of my colleagues by posting on a public message board the names and address of my colleague’s wife and two little girls, ages 6 and 9:
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How would reputable journalists treat Sam? They would not touch him with a ten-foot pole. Which would explain why several figures within the New York financial media are anxiously and suddenly promoting him.
That’s right: notwithstanding the fact that Sam is not just a crook but a swindler, not just a rat but a guy who ratted out his own family, not just a $500 tax cheat but one capable of paying a convicted stock swindler $250,000, not just a message board clogger but one who threatens 6 and 9 year old girls, Sam Antar the Crook has recently received heavy, positive promotion by the New York financial media.
For example, Sam Antar has recently appeared on CNBC, Herb Greenberg has salivated over him at lunch, and Forbes columnist Gary Weiss cannot stop fondling Sam in print (more on them anon). Most significantly, Fortune Magazine recently published a 2,738 word profile of Sam Antar (”Takes One to Know One”) in the style known among journalists as, “a lotion job.” What was doubly remarkable about Fortune’s profile of the reformed Sam was that they published the piece even though, as they got around to mentioning over 4/5 of the way through:
“As a would-be fraudbuster, Sam E. has yet to notch his first kill. (Although in fairness he doesn’t hold himself out to be a full-time 10-Q detective. ‘I don’t have 40 people working for me like the SEC,’ he says.) He hasn’t brought any companies down or caused any regulators to open any investigations.”
That is, Fortune wrote a lotion-job profile of an ex-convict swindler whose discernible contributions to humanity consist of nothing noteworthy beyond taking part in an infamous and massive scheme of fraud and embezzlement then saving his own skin by ratting out two family members in return for a reduced sentence, and whose recent “reform” has amounted to being a paymeister to a ex-con stock manipulator and threatening two little girls, but nothing beyond this that Fortune can name.
Does that seem odd? Because it seems a little odd to me.
Is the sudden, major promotion Sam Antar the Crook is receiving from the New York financial media due to some inexplicable lapse in their research or understanding, or is there a motive behind it? If there is a motive, whose motive is it? What interests are being served?
Cui bono?
Which question brings us one step closer to the heart of the problem: Gary Weiss, The New York Post, Herb Greenberg & CNBC, and Fortune Magazine.
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Sam E. Antar, the Crook
Posted in 2) Journalists Tried to Be Players But Became Pawns |
February 9th, 2008 at 5:20 pm
The arguments at this late stage are so ridiculously ludicrous. For example. Cramer is on TV BEGGING that DOJ not indict Bear Stearns (any indictment of a financial firm is death.) . He begs, “….take some of the top guys. But don’t indict the firm.” But in OSTK, they all say Patrick is crazy, and crush the firm and the stock. If the same standard were applied to MER, BSC, C, UBS as OSTK, the shorts, and Sam the Shill would be all over O’Neal, Cayne, Mack and the bunch. A greater example of mismanagement hasn’t existed since Mussollini. They prove your point.
Now, my question is, what do they expect to get from this garbage? OSTK has discovery. They know what you will find. Why keep up this nonsense? Cramer has avoided you and the stock like the plague, but not Floyd, or Herb, or Roddy. What could they possibly be thinking? Sam’s nonsense in no way can stop the inevitable. So, who DOES benefit???
February 9th, 2008 at 5:28 pm
these crooks remind me of an experience i had while working on the long beach naval station.
i worked the maintenance department, on base.
my associates were stone cold thieves.
these guys had the base wired man. free gas free food free tools free anything they wanted
ya know what?
eventually their own stupidity busted them.
one by one they were caught in some diabolical scheme to steal
mr antar?? you seem like one of these guys,
stupid foolish and numbered days before you see the inside of a prison along with your so called pals.
oh and to those who think sam is your friend?
you dont think he wouldnt rat you out in a new york minute?
you better think again.
it will be comical to see who rats out who first…lol
February 9th, 2008 at 6:13 pm
It’s best not to get your background data from Wikipedia. For a more thorough and accurate account, go here:
http://whitecollarfraud.com/947660.html
February 9th, 2008 at 7:55 pm
Scipio,
I would never use Wikipedia for anything, I promise. I got some of the biographical stuff from Fortune’s piece on Sam, and the rest, from good, solid investigative journalism of Judd Bagley.
Patrick
February 9th, 2008 at 8:50 pm
Can anyone post one criminal who has been soccessful to the point that their lives have changed for the better of their future is looking better further down the path of life. All these stories and the people responsible for making them history ALWAYS wind up with the same ending, yet the beat goes on. Smart people usually use the odds to better their score in anything. Why is it that criminals and scum can not figure out that formula. Karma is a bitch.
February 10th, 2008 at 11:04 am
Well I assumed since your story had the same obvious error as the Wikipedia entry, that it must be the source. Sam has posted many times he is the cousin of Eddie Antar, not his nephew. Quite an ironic coincidence.
February 10th, 2008 at 3:44 pm
Scipio,
“Nephew” fixed to “cousin” on your say so.
Where are we without trust?
I ‘m glad we had this little time together.
Patrick
February 10th, 2008 at 7:42 pm
Mr. Byrne,
You wrote “5) Sam regularly accuses those who disagree with him, or try to expose his shenanigans, as an anti-Semite. One person whom he accused endlessly of anti-Semitism asked the Anti-Demation League to get involved. The ADL got involved, and wrote this letter rejecting Sam’s vacuous allegations.”
Please help me understand — I just read the letter that you linked to in there and I gotta tell you: I can’t find anything in the ADL’s letter “rejecting Sam’s vacuous allegations.”
It’s a letter to someone who asked the ADL to get involved — The letter literally doesn’t mention Sam Antar!
And I gotta ask: Don’t you have a company to run?
Zac
February 10th, 2008 at 11:42 pm
Hey Zac,
Let me help you out:
Yahoo Finance Message Boards
Sam along with two of his cronies made those allegations, Ed asked the ADL to get involved, and the ADL rejected precisely those allegations that Sam continues to make.
“And I gotta ask: Don’t you have a company to run?”
I don’t remember signing away my first amendment rights, Zac. Judging from this weekend’s postings it sure seems to be bugging you guys to have lost control of the narrative over here, eh? The best part about this is that I can tweak the Establishment press, by name, and thereby stick them with a dilemma: do they ignore this, and thereby let thousands of people per day (yes, we hit 6,000 the other day, and I am expecting I can easily build it to 20,000 - 50,000) read these exposures without reply (thereby proving my point), or does the Nocera-Bethany-Herb-Roddy rat pack start attacking Deep Capture, thereby driving more traffic to it to see their paradigm deconstructed? My guess is that they would much prefer the former, but at some point, their silence is going to look pretty damning.
Patrick
February 11th, 2008 at 10:28 am
If silence is “damning” why can’t I get an answer to my very reasonable and modest request?
http://www.deepcapture.com/69/#comment-214
February 11th, 2008 at 3:58 pm
Zac,
Who could forget (and as a Jew I can’t)
Sirota and Sam’s evil attempt to orchestrate
a Jewish boycott of Overstock:
http://garyweiss.blogspot.com/2007/06/boycott-overstockcom.html
The Klu Klux Klan imagery is courtesy of Gary
Weiss:
http://garyweiss.blogspot.com/2007/06/should-message-boards-stomp-out-anti.html
Interyenta
March 7th, 2008 at 9:34 am
In the American media, if you are the victim of a crime and the perpetrator is a Jew, any complaint labels you an Anti-Semite….
PRAGMATIST - I HAVE EDITED THE REST OF YOUR COMMENT. I RESPECTFULLY WOULD PREFER IF THIS WEBSITE DID NOT BECOME A FORUM FOR SUCH CLAIMS, ANYMORE THAN I THINK IT IS MEANINGFUL TO DISCUSS THE ITALIAN MAFIA IN TERMS OF CATHOLICISM. YOU MAY SAY THAT I AM JUST BUYING INTO THE PC STANDARDS BY SO CENSORING YOUR THOUGHTS, I KNOW. I DID LEAVE THE OPENING LINE SO THAT PEOPLE COULD KNOW WHAT YOUR POINT WAS.
SINCERELY,
PATRICK
March 9th, 2008 at 5:21 pm
Fair enough.
March 10th, 2008 at 2:16 pm
i’m confused as to what you (patrick byrne) think sam’s motive is here. you can slam him all you want, but at the end of the day, what exactly do you suspect him of?
March 15th, 2008 at 5:53 pm
[…] what extent Antar himself can be trusted. His desire to uncover fraud is probably sincere, but as Byrne points out on his blog, Antar may also have a financial motive: Antar gave in excess of $300,000 to Barry Minkow, a fellow […]
March 16th, 2008 at 3:14 pm
am i seeing it all correctly? i cannot believe the articles about sam antar. even the bios and reports that aim to praise him are embarrasingly clear about the guy’s morals (absence thereof). and he is not ashamed to boast his weak character either. and he hasnt got a single company convicted, which makes him notorious for exactly… calling himself an ex convict? very odd.
May 1st, 2008 at 10:16 pm
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