A New Yorker Leading a New Generation on Social Media

By Sam E. Antar, Forensic Accountant, Former Felon, One of the Most Dangerous People in Financial Media (“dangerous in a good way”).

This is often the Twitter vibe of a well-known and much-loved New Yorker whose life story is often surprisingly unknown to those too young, or not local enough, to count the Crazy Eddie brand, and subsequent, downfall as part of one’s generational lore.

For those unfamiliar with Crazy Eddie’s hysterically unhinged advertisements or the wide-sweeping fraud conducted via its retail chain, the story is almost unbelievable from beginning to end. And former Crazy Eddie CFO (and cousin to the founder) Sam E. Antar is happy to tell the tale…

A Life of Crime

Owner Eddie Antar began engaging in fraudulent business practices almost from the start: from under-reporting income and skimming sales taxes to encouraging cash-only purchases and paying employees off the books. The chain was never not a criminal enterprise, and only grew bolder and more complex with its popularity.

Unfortunately, Eddie’s cousin Sam was one of those brought into the mix. Sam was a skilled accountant and used this skill to mastermind the money laundering that kept the Crazy Eddie business growing (or appearing to be growing). Sam ultimately pleaded guilty to three felonies, was sentenced to six months of house arrest. He later began a career smoking out like-minded criminals as a forensic accountant. Sam’s blog, White-Collar Fraud, is a fascinating repository of tales of white-collar lawlessness.

Hero for a New Generation

Today Sam E. Antar (not to be confused with others in his family that share the same first name punctuated by unique middle name letters) spends some of his time leading a pack of Tweeters in calling out hypocrisy, nonsense and, increasingly, the super-progressive commentary on Twitter that many feel is destroying our city.

He is also willing to share more personal details, such as the loss of his son to a drug overdose, in cautioning others to not look away from bad, even dangerous, policies.

Between beautiful shots of sunsets on the Hudson and the family of geese we often see hanging about; Sam casts aspersions toward politicians for their virtue-signally, denial, deflection and gaslighting. All in that order and then rinse, repeat.

With Our Eyes We See

The fact is, many New Yorkers have seen a change in the city. An objective increase in crime has accompanied a feeling of lawlessness, anarchy, and unease. Especially at a time when many conversations are online and the media and politicians pander only to their tribe, it’s easy to be told to deny what you see. It’s actually astonishing how much time is dedicated to gaslighting New Yorkers (and you’ll find that some of the most ardent gas lighters are those with suburban upbringing and Ivy League educations, like the Westchester-Harvard-Yale-Pundit Errol Louis)

We run down the list of current politicians, and almost none have earned Sam’s respect. Representative Ritchie Torres is a rare exception, as he is “willing to speak out against both the left and the right,” says Sam. But the rest are so invested in a politically comfortable narrative that they abandon everyday New Yorkers.

What’s Next

“I did fraud for a living… I know how to lie,” Sam says. And so he knows how important it is to keep the pressure on and politicians honest. “There is nothing they can say to hurt me,” he says. A benefit, we agree, of having been around the block.

Sam is particularly incensed about NYC leaders’ nonplussed approach to crime and making excuses for criminals. As he says: “If a door opens, as a criminal, you walk through it” and that “there are very bad people out there” and we are letting them off the hook.

While Sam has a sense of humor and a good-natured approach to getting his point across, he also acknowledges that crime is not a joke.

In fact, decades ago, Sam found himself on Christmas Eve in a restaurant with a criminal’s gun in his mouth. But thanks to a quick-thinking bystander with a gun and steady aim, he was saved. But in telling the story, he reminds us of this: New York’s dark days of decades past are no joke. And, in fact, few (if any) of the “crime apologists” today were, in fact, alive, out of diapers, or even living in New York City in the 70s and 80s.

So when Sam speaks, we should listen. He knows exactly what he is talking about, and we are grateful that he cares enough to straighten us all out.