Mastermind in ‘Crazy Eddie’ securities fraud joins summit on how to avoid investment scams

PUBLIC SAFETY: Former “Crazy Eddie” CFO Sam Antar will participate in a summit Thursday at the Rutgers University Piscataway campus aimed at schooling investors on how to protect their hard-earned money against frauds like the one he once pulled.

Photo Credit: *Cliffview Pilot File Photo*

Jerry DeMarco

11/12/2014 6:26 p.m.

Some will remember Antar as masterminding one of the largest securities frauds of its time with “Crazy Eddie” founders Eddie (his cousin) and Sam (his uncle) in the 1980s. It cost several people their life savings, others their jobs and creditors millions of dollars.

Once dubbed “the Darth Vader of Capitalism,” Sam Antar was the government’s key witness in the case against his relatives in both the criminal and civil cases. He has since taken to a blog and speaking engagements dedicated to undermining similar schemes.

“I believe that acceptance of personal responsibility for past actions must be accompanied by corrective action and not include exploitation for personal gain,” Antar says in his blog.

“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,” he wrote. “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.”

So he’ll be participating in the New Jersey Bureau of Securities “Safe Investing” summit along with prosecutors and investigators from the “Wolf of Wall Street,” Bernie Madoff and First Jersey Securities fraud cases.

The free event runs from 5 to 8 p.m. this Thursday, NOv. 13, at Rutgers University’s Busch Student Center in Piscataway.

Representatives of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission, AARP, and Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA), and New Jersey Bureau of Securities also will serve as panelists or moderators.

The Safe Investing Summit is funded in part by a grant from the Investor Protection Trust (IPT), a nonprofit devoted to investor education (SEE: www.investorprotection.org).

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