Charles Ponzi
As we prepare to enter a new year, it’s natural to take a hard look back at where we’ve been. There are some dark patches in the last decade – events and people we’d like to leave behind. Included in that discard pile: the scores of greedy crooks who recently slithered out into the sunlight. In a moment when so many Americans are struggling to get by with so little, we’d love to see 2010 unmarked by fraud, deception and financial ruin. But the tide hasn’t washed up all the scumbags. Nor will it ever, which is why this website could exist for eternity…
It goes without saying that the fraudster and the con artist are enduring characters; our infamous pack of 36 goes all the way back to the 18th century with John Law and the South Sea Bubble. It’s also clear that these crimes happen in waves when the market is booming and investors feel that anything is possible. When the cash dries up, the game is over.
We knew that 2009 was significant in the world of con artistry – it’s the year the Hall of Infamy launched. It’s also the year that both Madoff, and Ponzi, became household names. For (probably) unrelated reasons, this was a terrible year to be a con artist. An Associated Press analysis of scams in all 50 states revealed that nearly four times as many investment scams were uncovered this year as in 2008; about 150 Ponzi schemes fell apart in 2009, leaving investors with holes in their pockets totaling $16.5 billion.
The AP article notes that stepped up efforts to investigate fraud have helped to both uncover these crimes, and have resulted in greater caution and awareness amongst investors. We’re interested in exploring the enforcement side of the fraud story; in 2010, you can expect to see more about that on Con Watch. We’re also planning to nominate a new batch of inductees to the Hall of Infamy. Starting next week, you’ll have an opportunity to vote for the creeps you think are most deserving of a spot here. We’ll be drawing from the names submitted by Con Watch readers; if you have a crook in mind, there’s still time to nominate.
In the meantime, we wish you a happy new year. May you only experience deceit and ruin on the pages of this website!
Last Sunday, I sent an email to one of our inductees. Fifteen minutes later, the phone rang. I spent the next hour talking with the former chief financial officer of the Crazy Eddie fraud about immorality and “walls of false integrity.”
Sam Antar says he hasn’t changed. “I’m the same person that I was in 1985,” he told me. “The only thing that’s changed is that I’ve made a choice not to commit crime.” Back then, Sam helped build the crooked foundation of the Antar family’s business. Today, he runs a website devoted to white collar fraud and travels around the country giving lectures with “chilling straight talk about the mind, motivations, manipulations, and techniques of a fraudster.”
As for the chilling straight talk of our conversation, Sam said that he, his cousin, Eddie, and the rest of the Antar clan never gave a second thought to the victims of their crime. Their conversations were “cold-blooded,” focused solely on how to increase their profits and hold the fraud together.
It’s hard for me to understand such cruel self-interest, but I may not be alone in this. According to Sam, it’s a mistake to “humanize a crook” by trying to understand his actions. “We’re inhuman,” he tells me. “We have no humanity as it relates to morality.” Every single move that a con artist makes is designed to conceal his true intentions behind a “wall of false integrity” and bolster his victim’s comfort level.
So what about those of us who struggle to fathom how a person could set aside morals for a buck? What does Sam Antar make of us? “Enablers.”
And white collar criminals are very good at picking up enablers. They love moral people.
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Stay tuned – there’s more to come from Sam Antar in the coming weeks. It turns out he’s not only an inductee to the Con Artist Hall of Infamy….he’s a fan!
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