Sam E. Antar is a former Certified Public Accountant whose career trajectory took a remarkable turn from perpetrator to investigator of financial fraud. He was the former Chief Financial Officer of Crazy Eddie, a major consumer electronics chain in the 1980s. Sam was one of the key figures in the decades-long "Crazy Eddie" security fraud schemes. After his criminal conviction, he redirected his expertise towards forensic accounting, leveraging his firsthand knowledge of financial crime to help combat white-collar fraud.
00:00:44.960He's a former certified public accountant whose career trajectory took a remarkable turn from perpetrator to investigator of financial fraud.
00:00:55.720You see, Sam was the former chief financial officer of Crazy Eddie.
00:01:01.480A major consumer electronics chain in the northeastern United States during the 1980s.
00:01:07.220Sam was one of the key figures in the decades, one of the decades, largest security fraud schemes.
00:01:14.180But Sam E. Antar paid his debt to society.
00:01:19.340And following his criminal conviction after paying the price, he redirected his expertise towards forensic accounting,
00:01:27.440leveraging his firsthand knowledge of financial fraud to help combat white-collar fraud.
00:01:34.460His unique perspective and technical expertise have made him an expert advisor to various clients, including law firms, government agencies, law enforcement departments, independent investment research firms, hedge funds, and others.
00:01:52.240His website, whitecollarfraud.com, is a must-see.
00:01:58.540Joining me now in the Stone Zone, none other than Sam E. Antar.
00:02:09.140I'm delighted to have you because, well, you always break big news and you have new big news.
00:02:16.600A story you have just broken on your website essentially outlines the fact that Governor Kathy Hochul's husband's law firm,
00:02:28.540Davis Polk, had a $325,000 dormant contract with the Attorney General's office.
00:02:37.660It had been dormant for 14 months, $0 paid, nothing moved.
00:02:44.680Then suddenly, in January, after Hochul's husband joined the firm, even after the contract had expired or, should I say, 401 days after it began and 37 days after it was expired,
00:03:09.160Now, coincidentally, this appears to have happened contiguous with the Guardian reporting that a federal grand jury is now investigating Attorney General Letitia James for serial mortgage fraud.
00:03:26.840So, the same day, the Hochul budget passed, including a $10 million taxpayer-funded legal shield for state officials under federal investigation.
00:03:41.300Like with all your reports, Sam, this isn't speculation.
00:03:45.320It's all documented right there at whitecollarfraud.com.
00:04:11.020Davis Polk signed the contract for $325,000 with the New York Attorney General's Office.
00:04:22.740Now, they've been doing business with other agencies, and in fact, from 2001 to 2024, they received $7 million from other New York City government agencies.
00:04:33.460But what makes this interesting is that this contract that they signed just lay dormant.
00:04:39.640And not only that, it was filed and approved over 400 days after the contract began, so it didn't exist on paper, at least on our paper.
00:05:39.980Then, on March 8th, the expired contract is filed and approved 37 days after it expired, which is about 400 days after the contract was initiated.
00:06:45.520March 8th, 2025, the Guardian reports there's a grand jury and panels in Virginia.
00:06:58.140Other outlets report that there's an FBI investigation out of New York.
00:07:06.080And on that same day, Hochul goes and provides her with a $10 million defense fund.
00:07:11.140Now, $425,000 or $400,000, $483,000 was paid to Hochul's law firm from the New York Attorney General's office, Tish James' office, before that happened, okay?
00:07:29.860And it only happened after Hochul's husband joined the firm.
00:07:33.860So what you have here is a financial quid pro quo, a protection network, a triangle protection network between Hochul, Tish James, and the husband's law firm.
00:07:47.880So, Sam, let me ask what I think, guess, should be an obvious question.
00:07:53.240The allegations against Attorney General Letitia James, which today are just the allegations, serious allegations, documented allegations,
00:08:02.640but the allegations all involve her private conduct as a citizen.
00:08:07.460They involve her personal mortgages and what appears to me to be a 22-year record of serial mortgage fraud.
00:08:18.240Why should the New York taxpayers pick up the tab for her legal defense?
00:08:23.300These are not investigations into her official actions as Attorney General, but investigations into her personal conduct.
00:08:34.340Why should taxpayers be picking up the tab?
00:08:37.660I agree with you. That's exactly right.
00:08:40.100I could understand if she's sued as part of her job, as part of her duties as the Attorney General.
00:08:46.360But this mortgage fraud predates her duties as an Attorney General and still has nothing to do with it as it occurred when she was Attorney General.
00:08:56.500Not only that, but this mortgage fraud predates when Trump became a Republican.
00:09:43.900Now, Sam, the thing that's interesting here, of course, is that Letitia James' defense on all these matters is that this is retribution or revenge by Donald Trump.
00:09:55.520As I recall, you are not only not a Republican, you're not a Trump supporter.
00:10:06.020So this idea that you are somehow an agent for the revenge of Donald Trump is pretty laughable.
00:10:14.740Interestingly enough, the Federal Housing Finance Administration, which has specific authority to regulate mortgages and to search for mortgage fraud,
00:10:27.360reviewed all of the allegations that you first raised publicly.
00:10:31.780And after their lawyers reviewed them, sent a formal letter over to the Department of Justice,
00:10:42.960which is essentially a referral for criminal action.
00:10:47.940Now, some have argued that although it is undisputed that the Attorney General, Letitia James, lied on these sworn forms,
00:11:02.720signing 12 different places, by the way, so saying it was a typo is not going to fly,
00:11:07.980saying when she applied for a mortgage in Virginia, that she and her daughter would inhabit the home in which they were borrowing to get a mortgage,
00:11:25.160when obviously she cannot be a resident of Virginia and still legally serve as the Attorney General of the State of New York.
00:11:35.820But some people have said, well, she may have lied, but since there was no advantage to her, there is no crime.
00:13:29.360Well, plus, in many cases, she borrows substantially more in mortgages than the value of the property.
00:13:36.720So, is she not inflating the value of her assets, exactly what, ironically, she accused Donald Trump of doing in a bogus case in New York under a law in which no one has ever been prosecuted?
00:14:21.600Let's leave out the question of why she omitted it from her financial disclosures.
00:14:25.400Then, there are two other mortgages that are in her financial disclosures, but are not in the property record.
00:14:32.420You want to call them phantom mortgages, unrecorded mortgages, exception.
00:14:36.240When you add up the two phantom mortgages and the mortgages that she didn't show in the financial disclosures, it comes out to roughly $500,000 on the property that she claims was worth between $100,000 to $150,000.
00:14:51.280That, in and of itself, is a lie, mail fraud, with her filings with New York State.
00:14:59.720Secondary, did she file, when she applied for the mortgage, did she have an appraisal that differed from the amount that she told New York State?
00:15:08.520Then, you've got another possible crime being committed.
00:15:11.460So, what's going on is that the feds have to gather all of this evidence, piece it together, and present the case.
00:15:18.640Now, I believe they have a case already.
00:15:21.280I believe that they should have indicted already, but I understand that white-collar cases take time.
00:15:26.860But I'm telling you now, and I'm telling the feds if they're listening, I'm watching.
00:15:30.900And if you F up this case, you're going to be held accountable.
00:15:34.060Well, there is no question that other people have been prosecuted for the exact same thing.
00:15:40.360And I think it was Letitia James who said, no one is above the law.
00:15:46.840Another story broke two days ago, an Art Voice, an upstate newspaper, that claims that a woman named Angel Du Bois claims that Letitia James covered up a sexual harassment,
00:16:03.000and in fact, a sexual assault against her, by James' chief of staff, Abraham Codd.
00:16:10.840There's already another lawsuit by another woman who worked in that office claiming the same thing.
00:16:19.420So, I think you're going to hear a lot more about both of those stories.
00:16:24.660If you're just tuning in, this is The Stone Zone.