Panel 6: Ethics- Good people who did good/bad things
Team 6- Peter Chuang, Sung Kim, Nadiya Sydor, Kelvin Ng, Kimberly Liang, Robert Raczkowski, Israt Itu, Kiy Howard and Kuang Chen
Panelist Contact Info:
Sam E. Antar
Former CFO of Crazie Eddie
Email: [email protected]
Phone: 646-549-0997
Panelist Bio:
Sam E. Antar was the former Chief Financial Officer of the now defunct discount electronics chain, Crazy Eddie. Antar is an alumnus of Baruch College and majored in Accounting. His company, Crazy Eddie, was in the middle of one of the biggest scandals of its time. Securities fraud, cash skimming, cheating auditors and shareholders alike were just some of the things they were convicted of.
The tightly knit “Antar Clan,” the term many experts coined, were often compared to a mafia family except that instead of guns, they used a pen to hurt their victims. Their undoing came at the hands of inner familial conflicts. At the height of the scandal, his cousin Eddie Antar, CEO of Crazy Eddie, fled the country and left Sam E. to take the fall. However, Sam chose to cooperate with authorities and avoided prosecution by turning against his family and sending them to jail. In turn, he received six months house arrest, 1,200 hours of community service, three years probation and approximately $10,000 in fines and fees.
Now Sam Antar spends his time cooperating with authorities, such as the FBI and the SEC, teaching them how to catch white-collar criminals. He also devotes his time to speaking and lecturing in various venues about the darker side of business.
Education
-High School: Lafayette High School, Brooklyn, New York (graduated 1975)
-Team Sports: Varsity Track
-Other High School Activities: News Editor – Lafayette News
-College/University: Bernard M. Baruch College (City University of New York)
-Degree: Bachelor of Business Administration
-Graduated: September 1980
-Grade Point Index Overall: 3.67
-Grade Point Index Accounting: 4.0
Honors: Magna Cum Laude, Beta Gamma Sigma, Beta Alpha Psi, Beta Alpha Psi Service Award, Deans List
-Passed CPA Exam 3 Parts (November 1980: Problems 95%, Theory 88%, Law 90%)
-Passed CPA Exam 1 Part (May 1981: Auditing 87%)
-Passed all parts of CPA exam on first try
-Obtained CPA License 02/14/85 NY License # 050872
-Surrendered CPA License in April 2008
Other Information
-Born: 1957
-Began Employment at Crazy Eddie: January 1971
-Employment at Penn & Horowitz (Crazy Eddie’s First Audit Firm) – 1981 to 1984
-Employment Ended at Crazy Eddie: November 6, 1987
-Began Cooperation with Government in Investigation: March 8, 1989
-Crazy Eddie Criminal Trial: June and July 1993
-Crazy Eddie Civil Trial: 1998
Questions:
- Tell us a little bit about your background and what happened to the company.
- Explain how you cheated auditors
- What exactly is cash skimming and how did you do it?
- Tell us bout the “panama pump” and how you executed it.
- How did you guys ultimately get caught?
- Was the whole family in on it and encouraging this behavior?
- When you got caught, why did you decide to turn in your own family who you’ve claimed to be loyal to till the end?
- From the time you got caught, a lot of people had called you pretty harsh things, even comparing your family to a mafia. Do you think you guys are good people who did bad things or just plain bad people?
- I know that you respected Eddie and looked up to him in the past. Was seeking his approval one of the integral reasons for the unethical choices you made? Do you hold him at fault for making you turn out like this?
- Why did you want to request that meeting with him on CNBC after 20 years of not talking to each other?
- After making so many unethical choices and hurting so many people, in your opinion will there ever be redemption? Do people ever change their ways?
- If someone were to give you enough money to open up a profitable and legit business, do you think you would stay within the boundaries of legality, or would you revert back to your old ways?
No responses yet