Long before the Enron scandal broke, there was Crazy Eddie Inc., a bygone consumer electronics retail chain that was engaged in one of the largest security frauds in the 1980s.

Antar

Employees were paid off the books, and for every $5 Crazy Eddie reported as income, the company skimmed $1. The company was also involved in inventory fraud. This securities fraud cost investors hundreds of millions of dollars and cost many people their life savings.

Sam Antar, former chief financial officer of Crazy Eddie and a convicted felon, delivered his presentation at Friday’s Richard M. Orin Ethics Symposium on white-collar crime.

Antar gave his speech at the University of Missouri-Columbia College of Business. According to materials from MU, Antar gives free presentations on white-collar crime "to assist in paying for what he feels is his personal debt to society."

He is frank about his bad acts: "It’s not because I found God. … It’s not because I wrap myself with the American flag. … The only reason why I’m speaking to you today - maybe as a non-criminal - is because I got caught. Had I not gotten caught, I’d still be a criminal today."

Focusing on the case study of Crazy Eddie’s securities fraud, he said fraud is detected because it becomes unsustainable and/or the co-conspirators start fighting each other. Crazy Eddie was started in 1971 in Brooklyn, N.Y. At its peak, Crazy Eddie had 43 stores in four states and earned more than $300 million in sales.

The lack of fraud courses in business and accounting schools is a worrying trend, he said.

"Eighty percent of business and accountancy students go to colleges that do not have courses on fraud," Antar said. "They will never learn about the biggest detriment to their livelihood and profession. They will never learn about criminals like me.

"I committed crimes just because I could. I took advantage of the lack of cynicism, I took advantage of the lack of skepticism. To us, committing a crime is simply another goal, a cold-hearted goal. To us, it’s just another project. If we can succeed in it, fine. If not, we’ll just find another way to succeed in our crime."

For his crime, Antar was let off with what he described as "an extremely light sentence" of six months of house arrest and a $20,000 fine under a civil law charge. The business’s co-founder and Antar’s cousin, Eddie Antar, was imprisoned for eight years.

Antar complained that even if colleges do offer fraud classes, it is a suggestion - not a requirement - so most people do not take it. People tend to focus on how to handle the clients and bring in the money, he said. This puts them at a disadvantage to spot corporate crimes because they are not trained to ask the right questions, Antar said.

MU offers courses on fraud examination and forensic accounting at the graduate level. Although both courses are offered as electives, about two-thirds of the graduate students take one or both of them, said Thomas Howard, director of the School of Accountancy. Howard agreed that such classes provide "exposure that every student should have." But he added that not all colleges are able to offer them because of the scope of topics that need to be covered in a limited time.

Antar stressed the need to verify and ask questions. He noted that 92 to 95 percent of white-collar criminals have no previous criminal record. This includes Enron founder Ken Lay and Antar himself.

A former Columbian, Lay was convicted of one of the most sprawling business frauds in U.S. history. The founder of Enron Corp. died before he could be sentenced to prison. Lay donated $1.1 million in stocks to MU in 1999 to establish an endowed chair of economics in his name. A spokeswoman from MU said the chair has not yet been filled.

Antar also observed that before he delivered his speech, the audience applauded for him. He pointed out that had he been a serial criminal or a child molester, the audience would have been throwing eggs at him instead.

"Too many people today think of white-collar crime in the abstract. The problem is, people don’t realize that white-collar crime can be just as brutal as violent crimes," Antar said.

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