Sam E Antar Is Mad As Hell About Overstock.com

If you thought that Gary Weiss was on a tirade about the Solengo Capital vs Dealbreaker.com Imbroglio, that was a tempest in a teapot compared to Sam E Antar's crusade against Overstock.com

I really have only paid tangential attention to this whole bizarre and sordid tale of corporate malfeasance. And frankly, I don't have the stamina to bring you all up to speed. However, Sam "The Human Pitbull" Antar has sunk his jaws into this story, and like any good crusader/pitbull cross, he won't let go.

White Collar Fraud Blog: The Deceptions of Patrick Byrne (CEO of Overstock.com) and Judd Bagley (Director of Social Media at Overstock.com)

The whole article is as long and involved as the saga itself, so read it if you like sordid tales of woe.

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Feedback on the Livent accounting scandal

In case you missed it, I blogged about the censure handed down from the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Ontario to three of their members relating to their mishandling of Livent Inc's audits.

Sam E Antar, reformed white collar felon, and outspoken advocate against corporate fraud has used the Livent case as grist for his mill, and has some pointed things to say on the subject.

The accounting profession is still not adequately prepared to do battle with white collar criminals. Today, less than 20% of accounting students ever take a single specific college level course devoted to fraud or criminology before graduation. The American Institute of Certified Public Accountants only “suggests” rather than “requires” that CPAs take a mere 10% of their continuing education credits in fraud subjects.
Audits are too often used as training grounds for relatively inexperienced staff members. I doubt even today from seeing the mistakes of Crazy Eddie’s auditors and other audit melt downs being repeated by other auditors time and time again that the accounting profession really understands their main enemy – the white collar criminal. The unfortunate result of this lack of understanding has resulted in billions of dollars in unnecessary litigation costs and payouts for many accounting firms and even countless billions in shareholder and creditor losses.

I think that between them, Sam E Antar and forensic accountant Al Rosen could probably develop an effective curriculum for accounting students.

Many thanks to Mr Antar for lending his expertise to the topic!

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