You'll never believe who's dropping dimes to the feds!

Sam Antar, formerly the CFO of Crazy Eddie, known in the New York area for over-the-top commercials that scared the hell out of kids (well, me at least), knows his way around a questionable balance sheet. For 15 years, he was the executive chef of book-cooking, ultimately taking a guilty plea to conspiracy and obstruction of justice charges. He stayed out of the clink by taking the stand on the government's side at a 1993 trial, ultimately sending his cousin, Eddie Antar to prison for seven years or so.

Crooks make the best cops, so to speak, and Antar is putting his skills to work. He's out hunting for accounting fraud and sending his analyses off to the SEC. On his blog, the former CFO laid out what he called a "bulletproof case" against Overstock.com (NASDAQ: OSTK) - a company that the SEC had been investigating since 2006. The inquiry has been reopened.

Continue reading Crazy Eddie's crazy ex-CFO investigates Overstock

Crazy Eddie's crazy ex-CFO investigates Overstock originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Wed, 07 Oct 2009 09:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Crazy Eddie movie not cool with fraud's former CFO originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Tue, 26 May 2009 15:20:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Crazy Eddie looks to make a comeback originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Tue, 03 Mar 2009 13:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

If you're interested in learning about the psychology and methodology of fraud -- and every investor should be -- there are two excellent videos now available on YouTube. I don't know the date on them, or what they were made for, but they're definitely worth watching.

The first is an interview with Barry Minkow, who was in federal prison at the time for the Zzzz Best fraud. The second features former Crazy Eddie CFO, Sam E. Antar.

When I listen to these former crooks explain what they did, it all sounds so easy. While their crimes occurred back in the 1980s, I wonder how much has changed.

Continue reading Ex-cons explain the basics of committing fraud

Ex-cons explain the basics of committing fraud originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Sat, 13 Sep 2008 15:10:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

The always-insightful Herb Greenberg raises an interesting point in his latest Weekend Investor column for the Wall Street Journal: "Face it: Nobody cares much about accounting scandals anymore."

He uses the situation at International Rectifier (NYSE: IRF) as an example. After the company reported that it had fired its chief financial officer, the stock went up. The shares are currently trading at about the same price they were at before the company reported "accounting irregularities" on April 9.

Investors may have be correctly predicting that the accounting issues aren't huge -- any restatement of earnings may not be material enough to effect the value of the company.

But that's not really the point. As Greenberg writes, "Still, the market's indifference to possible fraud, no matter the size, is astounding -- especially since, at times, aggressive behavior reflects a company's culture."

Now that is precisely the point. I'm with Jim Cramer on this one: When a company's CEO or CFO resigns unexpectedly, sell the stock. If a company announces "accounting irregularities" and the stock doesn't tank on the news, take it as an opportunity to get out: Shooting first and asking questions later would have saved investors a lot of pain at companies like Enron, WorldCom, and, for you history buffs out there, Zzzz Best and Crazy Eddie.

The market appears to have developed an indifference to early warning signs of fraud, and that inefficiency could provide savvy investors with a chance to hop off the bus before it heads into a ditch.

Has Wall Street forgotten the lessons of Enron? originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Sun, 08 Jul 2007 11:10:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

This Wednesday at 10 PM EDT, CNBC will feature an exclusive interview with Eddie Antar, the CEO of the infamous Crazy Eddie fraud of the 1980s. Herb Greenberg will also interview Sam E. Antar, the former CFO of the company turned white-collar crime expert and blogger. The interview will take place on Business Nation, and will include a conversation with Sam and Eddie together for the first time in years. This should be particularly interesting because Sam became a witness against his cousin in the case and, when I asked him about the interview, Sam told me "It nearly came to blows."

In this weekend's Wall Street Journal [subscription required], Herb Greenberg wrote about the interview and offered some advice from Eddie Antar for former Comverse Technology (OTC: CMVT) Chief Executive Jacob "Kobi" Alexander: "All the money in the world is not worth a day in prison -- ain't worth one day." If he hadn't broken the law, he says, "I'd be a Best Buy today, or I would have been sought to be bought out by many companies. I'd be a billionaire today. I had around $100 million that [the government] took from me. That was cash in the bank. It was everything I had. Can you imagine what that would be worth today? I blew it big time."

Be sure to tune in to CNBC's Business Nation on Wednesday. It should be interesting.

Former Crazy Eddie fraud CEO and CFO to square off on CNBC originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Sun, 24 Jun 2007 18:10:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Every day, or at least whenever I find a really awesome web page in my trek across the Internet, I will post it here. Today, I'm featuring White Collar Fraud, the official web page of Sam E. Antar, who was the CFO Of Crazy Eddie, a chain of electronic stores that was one of the most flagrant accounting frauds of the 1980s.

According to the website: "I believe that former criminals like me must do more than just express regret for our crimes and pay whatever punishment society imposes upon us. I believe that it is our obligation and responsibility to educate society, so that society can avoid future perils caused by new generations of criminals. I also believe that any person's true test of character comes from overcoming past misdeeds and wrongdoing and trying to do something positive out of it without any personal gain or recognition."

It's a really fascinating website to browse if you're interested in corporate history and crime as much as I am. You can read about the techniques they used in the Crazy Eddie fraud, the psychology of fraud, and other frauds/SEC news.

This is a really amazing website.

Website of the Day: WhiteCollarFraud.com originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Fri, 29 Dec 2006 12:21:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.